Million-dollar online home raffle to benefit three charities

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For $100, you could fund a shopping spree at the 99 Cents Only store or host a feast catered by your favorite fast-food eatery’s dollar menu. Or you could buy a house -- maybe.

The Santa Clarita Valley Rotary club, a chapter of Rotary International, is hosting an online raffle of a house of the winner’s choice valued at up to $600,000, with an included reserve of $400,000 for closing costs and taxes on the sale, said Maureen Micklich, a spokeswoman for the Samuel Dixon Family Health Centers which is a beneficiary of the contest. Alternately, the winner could choose to receive a 20-year annuity valued at $1 million or $600,000 cash, she said.

If the winner chooses a house as the prize, he or she can pick any home for sale, within the cost limits, anywhere in the U.S. except Alaska or Hawaii, Micklich said.

Each raffle ticket costs $100, and contestants can buy as many tickets as they would like, she said.

The “House of Your Choice” raffle benefits three charities: Samuel Dixon Family Health Centers, Carousel Ranch and the Santa Clarita Valley Rotary club.

The raffle drawing will be held on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, and the organization hopes to sell about 40,000 tickets.

Tickets went on sale in April, and, so far, fewer than 1,000 have been sold, Micklich said.

If 15,000 tickets aren’t sold by Nov. 26 (or an extension date), all tickets sold become a contribution to Rotary International and contestants will be mailed a receipt for their tax deductible donation – but Micklich said the Rotary club hopes it won’t come to that.

Raffle tickets can be bought and contest rules can be read online at www.houseofyourchoice.org.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles