How a $10 raffle gamble sold a cottage and landed the owner $2m

Imelda Collins had always planned to sell her Irish country cottage, though the manner in which she did surprised even her husband.

It was May this year when Collins, from Cork in Ireland, sold “Butterfly Cottage”, in an online raffle where tickets cost just £5 ($10). 

She decided to raffle off the quaint property on the outskirts of the coastal town of Sligo after reading a newspaper article about a Dublin woman who did the same.

She hoped to use the sale proceeds to move to Italy to be with her husband. It was where the couple had met, and where she lived for more than a decade.

“Initially, my husband … thought I was crazy, to be quite honest,” she told CBC Radio in May.

“I assured him I’d done all the research. I wasn’t jumping into it.”

The move paid off. More than 150,000 people entered the raffle, with more than 200,000 tickets sold. This generated about £1,034,075 ($2,078,744.10).

To put this into context, she bought the cottage in 2022 for £133,000 ($234,000).

“This has been a life changing experience for me,” Collins told RTE earlier this month.

“It’s achieved success far greater than I would have ever expected. I’m so very, very grateful to everybody who bought a ticket. Unfortunately, there can only be one winner.”

That person was Kathleen Spangler, a mother and US Marine Corps officer.

Spangler bought three tickets after applying for her Irish citizenship. She has Irish roots on her father’s side. The tickets cost her US$12.67, or $19.52. Then she forgot about them.

Spangler was alerted to her possible new homeownership when a friend sent her a message. It asked her “by chance, did you win a cottage in Ireland?” 

Despite initial concerns that the raffle was a scam, Spangler had indeed won the cottage.

In Spangler’s inbox, was an email from Collins, the cottage owner. It wasn’t until she and Collins spoke on a WhatsApp call did Spangler fully believe what had happened.

Earlier this month, Spangler travelled to Ireland to meet with Collins and collect the keys to the cottage.

“This whole experience has been a dream. It just means so much to me to have won,” Spangler told RTE this month. 

“Honestly, being here, you couldn’t do this place justice. This is beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. I don’t think I’ll ever get over this view.”

This isn’t the first time a raffle win has led to a property windfall.

In 2023, Lucy, a grandmother and widow, won two luxury apartments – worth $6 million.

Lucy had paid just $5 for a ticket in the charitable lottery group, Dream Home Art Union.

“It took about an hour to be convinced [it was real],” Lucy told Domain.