Why Hospital Home Lottery winners keep selling their homes at fire-sale prices

So you've won a lavish $900,000 house in the Hospital Home Lottery. Now what?

For a typical New Brunswick winner, the next step has become surprisingly routine — sell quickly at a deep discount.

The latest winner, 80-year-old Shirley Barton, who was awarded a $900,000 home in Rothesay in December, resold it in March for $565,000, nowhere near its advertised value.

Barton was the ninth winner in a row to unload the prize rather than live in it. Although that might surprise those who snapped up 30,000 tickets trying to win the home last fall, it doesn't shock Karen Swagerman.

"Most people, they want to get clear of it," said Swagerman who sold her own dream lottery home, at a $140,000 discount, within weeks of winning it with her mom in 2013.

"Winning a prize like that is wonderful. It's a big thrill. [But] it's expensive. You've really got to think about that and I don't think people do when they buy these tickets."

People love to dream

The Hospital Home Lottery is the largest fundraiser of the year for the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation and will celebrate its 10th anniversary this fall.

Tickets are $100 each — slightly less for those who buy in bulk — and usually sell out, as they did last year.

The grand prize is a large newly built custom designed home that over the years has been advertised to ticket buyers to be worth anywhere between $675,000 and $900,000.

But although people love to dream of living in a high-end home, and buy tickets on that dream yearly, none of the first nine winners has kept it. Most unload the prize within weeks and at prices well below listed values.

Anita Cline is in that group.

She won the $775,000 grand prize home in 2012 on a ticket she bought with her sister, Suzanne Eldridge, and her sister's boss, Dwight Ough. They too sold quickly and for $125,000 less than the advertised prize amount, but Cline said the cost of owning the home made waiting for a better offer impractical.

"It does take money to float it until you do sell it," said Cline. "We were OK with it but there are certainly some people who would struggle."

Steep insurance, taxes and upkeep costs

The group bought home insurance on the first day at $800 per month, an elevated rate partly because no one was living in the home.

Municipal property taxes accumulated at $625 per month and provincial property taxes — because it was considered a second home for all three owners — added another $700 per month.

The group took possession in December, and Cline remembers heating costs for the large house running another $500 per month with snowplowing adding more to the burden.

"It would be considered a dream to have a home like that, but it's not necessarily realistic in terms of cost to maintain it," said Cline.

The hospital foundation used to provide winners $10,000 in cash to help with initial expenses, but cut that amount in half several years ago.

That's one of the reasons winners without a lot of resources feel under pressure to sell quickly, and realtor Jake Palmer says that's why the selling prices can be so low.

"If you've got a patient seller that's willing to wait for the right buyer, then you'll see them achieve really, really good value," said Palmer.

"What we're seeing is people selling some of these homes for $150,000 or $200,000 less than it would have sold for if you had a less motivated seller where they might wait a year for a perfect buyer."

Sarah Cleveland couldn't afford to be a patient seller.

At 24, she and her mother won a $750,000 home in 2011. She knew she could not afford to live in it, but also remembers worrying about what would happen once the home ate through the $5,000 cash prize that went with it.

"I was a student. I couldn't afford to live in a house like that," said Cleveland. "I can remember my mom worrying a little bit after seeing a month of the bills. If you don't have that cash to upkeep the house, or pay the insurance, or pay the taxes, or pay the heat and lights, that can be a major stressor."

Cleveland accepted an offer about a month after taking possession of the home for $210,000 below its prize value.

"I was very, very fortunate to find someone quickly. I don't really care what houses were selling for around."

No cash prizes

Cleveland said it would have been a lot easier for a winner if the lottery offered the option of a cash prize instead of the home — like it does for luxury cars and like the Moncton Hospital home lottery did last year. But the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation has rejected that idea in the past.

Foundation president Jeff McAloon says the lottery could not commission homes as unique and appealing as it does if it was unsure a winner would take the home as a prize.

"It's something we've definitely looked at," said McAloon. "We feel it's not right for our program. If we were to offer a cash option we'd need to look at a house that is a typical home — an off-the-shelf build, and we found that just doesn't hold the same cachet — it doesn't hold the the same excitement for folks who are buying tickets."

And people do buy the tickets. Karen Swagerman says she and her mother still get theirs every year to support the hospital.

"Mom and I, we still buy the tickets. I remember her saying last year, 'Oh good God I hope we don't win that house again.'"