Raffle ticket could open doors to $1.3 million dream home in Woodland Park
WOODLAND PARK – For a mere $100 raffle ticket, Al Wilson’s million-dollar mountainside dream house could be yours.
Sound too good to be true?
It is, if you don’t have another $450,000 or so handy to pay the taxes on the place.
The Pikes Peak Rotary Club is gambling that ticket buyers will worry about that little detail later.
Wilson offered up his dream home to the Rotary to raffle off as the prize in a fundraiser. The club values the house at Wilson’s desired price-tag of $1.3 million. The drawing for the 6,300-square-foot custom home is July 9.
Wilson has to move because his wife has breathing issues and can’t live at an elevation of 9,500 feet anymore.
He is sad to leave his dream home, a spacious, sprawling place that resembles a Midwest farmhouse on a snaking road about five miles off U.S. Highway 24, southwest of Woodland Park.
The home, which Wilson built in 1999, has enough bedrooms and bathrooms so you can invite all your relatives for slumber parties without having to listen to them snore or shave.
It features a library, office, finished basement and three-car garage, including room for the much-needed snowplow.
The place sits on 20 forested acres with rock formations, a penthouse to watch the sunset over Wilkerson Pass and a whirlpool bathtub where you can let it all hang out.
The perks might make up for the white-knuckle drive in winter just to reach Highway 24, much less to a Starbucks. To live here, you might want to learn how to make your own lattes.
If you can afford the taxes on the $1.3 million prize, you can spring for a good coffee machine.
Consider: The winner must give the club 28 percent, or $364,000, in taxes to claim the house.
That’s just for openers. Next, Uncle Sam will demand upwards of $100,000 more at tax time.
Teller County Assessor’s Office values the home at $900,415, but the winner will have to pay taxes on the registered prize value of $1.3 million, said Rotary club treasurer Cathy Skiles, a CPA.
“The approximate tax costs for someone in the state of Colorado is $450,000 in federal and state taxes,” she said.
Property taxes are chump change, a mere $5,000 a year.
But, there’s an out: If the winner doesn’t want the house, the club will sell it and split the proceeds 50
50. In that scenario, if the home sells for $1 million, the winner might be able to pocket $332,000 after taxes on $500,000.
And if the Rotary doesn’t sell at least 18,000 tickets, a cash grand prize based on ticket sales will be awarded instead. Tickets can be bought only online at the Rotary’s Web sites: pprc raffle.com or PikesPeakRota ryRaffle.com.
Wilson, a former Rotarian, had the house on the market for about five months last year when a friend told him about a house raffle in another state. He liked the idea and pitched it to the Rotary, which agreed to pay him an undisclosed purchase price for the right to raffle it off. A maximum of 26,000 tickets will be sold. The club is marketing the house raffle nationwide.
Eight periodic drawings will give away $5,000 to $10,000 to ticket buyers. Those winners stay in the running for the house.
Club spokeswoman Judith “JJ” Jamison said the club hopes to raise $1 million for charities, such as the Teller County Regional Animal Shelter, Habitat for Humanity of Teller County, TESSA and Prospect Home Care & Hospice.
“It should be a win-win-win,” she said. “The Rotary Club will win. Al will win. And, along the way, people are winning money. We plan to do it again.”
Wilson is a real estate expert who specializes in assessing contaminated properties. He found his homesite, near North Catamount Reservoir, a dozen years ago after a long search.
“I climbed up a tree to get a look at the view,” he said. “It took 3,700 pounds of dynamite to blow the basement out, but I got what I wanted.”
It wasn’t the dream house of his wife at the time.
“She divorced me,” he said.
So, he moved in alone. It was his bachelor pad until he hooked up with his current wife in a match made by his barber and her hairdresser.
The house has neutral colors on walls, woods and tiles. Window seats are everywhere.
“I wanted to build a house that was very economical and very comfortable,” Wilson said.
The home has aluminum trim, concrete fiber siding, hot-water heat, and the decks have floor tubes that could be heated.
“There’s not much to this house as far as operating it,” he said. “It takes 20 minutes to mow the lawn.”
As for the farmhouse style, that was a no-brainer.
“Everybody else wants to build those log cabins in the mountains,” he said. “I like the Midwest and I also like the mountains. This is what I’m used to.”
Their only complaint might echo Wilson’s mom’s: “When my mother was here a few years ago, she used this bathroom and said, ‘There aren’t any blinds on the windows.’ I said, ‘No, there aren’t.’”
That’s because there are no neighbors close enough to 191 Elk Lane to sneak a peek. At least, not the biped variety.
“We had 94 elk out here last week. Summertime, they’ll come up to the base of the house,” he said.
Every floor has a walkout, except the top sanctuary that you won’t want to leave.
The upper-level view was too good to waste on attic space, so Wilson turned it into a sanctuary with gas fireplace, wet bar and panoramic views to the west.
He only has one regret about the house:
“I should have put in a double oven.”
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Call the writer at 636-0253.
DETAILS
Tickets can only be purchased online. For more information: www.pprcraffle.com or www.PikesPeakRotaryRaffle.com
Every raffle ticket is eligible for periodic cash drawings, drawn by a random number computer generator, with total cash prizes of $5,000 to $10,000. Upcoming drawings are:
March 26, April 9, April 23, May 7, May 21 and June 4.
The last day to buy tickets is June 30.
After a friend told homeowner Al Wilson about a house raffle in another state, he proposed it to Pikes Peak Rotary Club for a fundraiser and as a way to sell his house. Only 26,000 of the $100 chances will be sold to win the large home near Woodland Park for the drawing in July. Photo by ANDREA BROWN, THE GAZETTE
This sanctuary is behind a hidden door and up the stairs. The designers and builders of the custom home took full advantage of every view offered. Photo by JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE
The den features birch bookcases and wood floors with radiant heat. Photo by JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE