After losing his job, father of two Shamus Fitzsimons was faced with the reality of not being able to keep up the mortgage payments for his seven-bedroom North Lanarkshire family home, Dullatur House — thought to be worth between £600,000 and £800,000.
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A father is raffling off his seven-bedroom Scottish mansion equipped with a gym, sauna, and billiards room for just £5 a ticket
Faced with the sad reality of not being able to keep up the mortgage on his £800,000 family home, Shamus Fitzsimons has taken matters into his own hands.
Dullatur House counts an outdoor pool, sauna, conservatory, billiards room, open fires, as well as enclosed gardens among its amenities.
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After trying without success to sell the 18th century home via the traditional route — an estate agent — Fitzsimons has taken things into his own hands and created the website Win Your Dream Home to dispose of the luxury family home using a raffle.
Tickets cost just £5 and can be purchased online here. Fitzsimons said he aims to sell 250,000 tickets to cover the costs involved with disposing of the house, such as land and buildings transaction tax, legal fees, among other things.
The family wrote on the website: "Instead of the banks flexing their muscles and repossessing this lovely home we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands."
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He added that if the family achieve their target of 250,000 tickets by December 9 2017, they will donate £25,000 to Macmillan Cancer Support.
"We found other people running a similar competition; it’s worked for them, so why not us? Offer someone the opportunity of a lifetime to own a fantastic Scottish Country Mansion House – Mortgage Free!"
Earlier this year, Duncan Low, who was also struggling to find a buyer for his £845,000 six-bedroom family home, also decided to sell it in a raffle for £2 a ticket.
The mansion is set on one acre of private gardens, and is a 15 minute drive to Glasgow, 35 minutes to Edinburgh, and just five minutes by car to the mainline railway station.
It counts an outdoor pool, a sauna, a conservatory, a billiards room, open fires, and enclosed gardens among its amenities.
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Dullatur House's outdoor pool is 20 feet long, and can be swam in all year around, according to the website.
There's also a gym onsite...
...As well as a sauna located in the west wing, which can accommodate six people.
The "west wing suite" also encompasses a full size snooker table complete with professional overhead lighting and a set of pool balls. The billiards rooms is located above the sauna.
The spacious master bedroom was originally a drawing room and has a number of Victorian features. It benefits from windows to both the front and rear of Dullatur House...
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...And looks out either to the Kelvin Valley Hills or the private front gardens.
Participants are required to answer a question about the house, and must buy their tickets by December 9 2017.
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