HOMEFRONT : The Real Real Estate Game

Pity poor Herschel Elkins. As state senior assistant attorney general, he’s got a lot of important stuff to worry about but he keeps having to investigate California homeowners who want to raffle off their homes like prizes at a pancake dinner.

Ever since a couple in Maine sold an inn by hawking tickets last year, dozens of Californians have tried to do the same. But there are countless problems with such schemes, says Elkins, including the fact that they’re usually illegal and they don’t work. So far, of the 50-plus contests Elkins knows about, not one has raised enough cash, so the contests are simply abandoned. “People foolish enough to buy tickets are often forced to wait many months to get back their money,” he says.

Lottery laws require “money-for-prizes” contests to be based on skill, not luck, so many of the contests involve essays or other subjective competitions judged by the seller. In addition, Elkins says, many sellers misrepresent their home’s value.

Elkins recently won stipulated judgments against two homeowners who ran illegal contests. Now he’s watching a contest run by Studio City entertainment lawyer Steven Roth, who is selling tickets for his home in the Hollywood Hills. The ticket-holder who correctly answers a series of trivia questions will win the house. However, he wants 7,000 ticket buyers at $75 a pop to raise $560,000, a tidy profit over the $389,000 he paid in 1989.

Roth says that if he can’t raise $560,000, he will award three-fourths of the cash to the contest winner, keeping one-fourth--and the house.

Roth says he is “an expert on contest law and the attorney general’s office has reviewed (my contest) and decided to take no action against it.”

That’s news to Elkins. “I won’t decide upon any action until after his contest is over. He’ll just have to take his chances.”