Limerick woman Dawn Cusack is raffling off her fully furnished three-bedroom home in a bid to start fresh after the banks refused to give her a mortgage.
The mum-of-two is giving her house away for just €11 a ticket, or the "price of a McDonald's'.
Ms Cusack, 34, told the Irish Mirror: “I want to move house, and the bank won't give me a mortgage because I'm a single mom with two children, and my children are considered as two dependents, which is two bills, basically.
“So even though I have my own house as it is, they won’t give me a mortgage to be able to move on.”
Ms Cusack said she got the idea when she saw a couple on the news who had decided a raffle was the best way to sell their house.
She said: “I saw this, and I thought that it would be a great opportunity to be able to get enough money for me to move on to a new chapter with my children while also giving somebody else an opportunity to get on the property ladder for €11.”
Ms Cusack will be donating five per cent of the total proceeds to Down Syndrome Ireland as it is close to her heart.
She said: “I'm a hairdresser by trade, and a lot of the clients that come in are from… one of the down syndrome places… that really kind of just caught me that I was going to donate to them.”
Having bought the house six years ago, Ms Cusack said she is looking forward to her future with her children in a new home.
She said: “We've had lovely memories here. It's a beautiful home, but it's time for a new chapter, I think.
“I'm ready to move on, new beginnings and all that.”
Ms Cusack said due to the prices of houses at the moment, she will move in with her parents while she plans her next move.
“The way things are at the moment with the housing situation, it will probably be a case of going back to my parent’s house for a couple of months to see, you know, what will happen after that. The prices of houses are outrageous at the moment.
“It's so hard… I mean, so many friends of mine that had mortgage approvals and then were put on the PUP payment and houses taken from under them like deposits paid on, houses and everything, and the bank pulling the mortgages because they weren't employed anymore.”
Ms Cusack wanted to give people the opportunity to win her home as she understands how difficult it has been for people to get a mortgage in the current climate.
She added: “It’s just terrible like you know, one particular girl I know, now that we're back in work and we're back employed again, she now has to wait six to eight months again to show her repayment capacity to the bank before they can go and reapply again for another mortgage.”
The raffle will see one lucky winner walk into a fully furnished new home for just 11 euro.
She said: “It's a life-changing opportunity for somebody to be able to win a house for 11 quid. It's the price of McDonald's when you think of it.”
She added: “I cover everything. So whoever wins my house wins the deeds of the house, no stamp duty, no solicitors fees, no mortgage, no finance, nothing they just literally walk into the house, and it's theirs.”
The three-bedroomed home located on St. Patrick's road, Co. Limerick is surrounded by several local amenities, such as the Parkway Shopping Centre, the Childers Road Parkway Retail Park, which facilitates numerous dining options, various electronic outlet stores and a vast selection of clothing and fashion stores.
It is within walking distance of Limerick City centre, local primary and secondary schools, the Limerick Institute of Technology, The University of Limerick college campus and Thomond Park Stadium.
Ms Cusack said she was inspired to raffle her home when she saw its impact on people's lives.
She said: “I followed a few raffles along the way, and there was one that went live there on the 5th of May it was in county Sligo… then this guy who was announced as the winner and they actually ring him live, and he was crying and all on the phone like a new family who they had just had a baby and they were after winning this house in county Sligo I mean, it was amazing.”
If you want to be in with a chance to win this beautiful Limerick home, enter here - https://raffall.com/208506/enter-raffle-to-win-contemporaryhomelimerick-hosted-by-dawn-cusack.
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