Comment: How far is too far when you’re struggling to sell?

How far would you go to sell your home?

I’m not talking about anything too madcap here – just raffling your property for a few quid a ticket.

The idea of picking up a £750,000 house for the price of a bottle of Cava is an appealing one, and even the most risk averse of us may be tempted to have a bash at it. It’s a fast track to free publicity, too, as yet another savvy vendor discovered last week.

Cheryl-Anne Jenkinson has opted to raffle her Grade II listed converted chapel in Staffordshire after an earlier, more conventional attempt at selling the property proved unsuccessful.

Ms Jenkinson is offering up 200,000 raffle tickets at £6 apiece, hoping doing so will clear her debts and provide her with enough cash to emigrate.

She’s not the first to try her hand at this novel sales gimmick – in the last couple of months alone there’s been a £1.25m mansion in Blackheath, London and a luxury £800,000 home near Glasgow offered to raffle fans at £5 a pop.

Like Ms Jenkinson, the vendors had failed to attract a buyer through traditional sales methods, and hope to seal the deal via a raffle.

As unlikely as it sounds, these stunts do sometimes pay off. Remember the Devon couple who raffled their £1m home for £25 a ticket back in 2009? An incredibly lucky German chap baggsied that one after snapping up just one ticket. Proof that dreams can come true and funny gimmicks can pay off on both sides.

Then there are the houses, usually up north, that go on the market for £1. Apart from actually they’re up for auction and that’s just the starting price. Gotta love a good headline, but the reality often isn’t half as juicy.

I do love a quirky conversion mind, so might take a punt on the Staffs dream home…