A Laois property that will be raffled off this October has sold over €20,000 worth of tickets in the past week alone.

A retired US lawyer living in Laois intends to raffle off his €800k home for €5 tickets.

Seventy year old Sean O'Brien has lived with his family outside Durrow for eight years, and with his children leaving home for university, he has decided to sell his house for a smaller one in Durrow village.

He was inspired to raffle off his property on British raffle website Raffall, and will include all furniture, and pay the legal costs and stamp duty involved in the sale.

One lucky winner will walk straight into the house with no hidden costs; just the €6 ticket to enter the raffle!

A recent Leinster Express / Laois Live article featuring a video of the property has blown up on social media, with a whopping €20,000 worth of raffle tickets sold in a matter of days.

See more here: WATCH: US Lawyer to raffle off €800k Laois property for €6!

Mr O'Brien has said that he cannot believe the reception the raffle has received, and that he is happy with the momentum gathered.

"I remember in my twenties, I couldn't afford a home like the one I live in now," Mr O'Brien recently told the Leinster Express / Laois Live.

"My daughter is 22 and my boys are younger. I don't know what they will do in terms of buying a home. Even now, I couldn't sell my home and move up to Dublin!" he said.

"My daughter just finished her work placement for university, and we had the hardest time finding a place for her to live within our budget. The rents were staggering, it's impossible to buy a home." Mr O'Brien explained.

Mr O'Brien had some advice to share with those who are thinking of entering the draw. 

"It's impossible to buy a home. What could be better than taking a chance?" he asked.

"You have a one in 100 million chance of winning in a normal raffle,  but for my raffle, the odds are lower and for the price of £5 or €6, you have the chance to change your life forever. That's what got me into this," he said.

"People seem to be migrating to this draw. It's so hard to buy a home, it's a tough thing to do."

Mr O'Brien has said that the housing crisis in the United States is equally dire.

"It's equally as bad. There's a shortage of homes being built. Because of inflation, the home is staggeringly expensive. People competing for a limited product means that prices can be driven up to become staggeringly expensive. We moved from California to Durrow, and we could not move back," Mr O'Brien explained.

"We couldn't even move to Dublin, housing prices have gone so high. When I was young, most families were one income households. Either the mother or the father worked, and one parent stayed at home. Now, even with two working parents with two incomes, you can still barely afford an entry level home," he argued.

Mr O'Brien explained that he will raffle off his home in the hopes that a young family will win.

"My kids have mixed feelings about it. They are happy that I'm doing it, but it's still our family home," he highlighted.

"They realise that they are getting older and moving out, and I would like to move into the village in walking distance of everything. They understand that I am not getting any younger," he said.

"It would be nice to have that support, as no one wants to sell their family home, it's where all of the memories are, so it's a mixed bag."

Mr O'Brien has said that he does see the tickets selling by October.

"I don't think I understood the power of social media, I didn't know what I was getting in to. It's going to be a challenge, but a lot of people are buying tickets in bundles. If I could reach 100,000 people, in theory it's not hard, but i don't know how I'm going to do that," he said.

"It's a much greater challenge than I thought. the first month we had 75k ticket sales, it's not bad but it will be hard to reach the goal. People are really interested. There was a woman in Sligo who raffled off her house, and three days before her raffle date, she was way behind where I am at now. The story was picked up by the New York Times, and when the raffle came around, she went from 50,000 sales to 1,000,000 sales in three days!" Mr O'Brien said.

Mr O'Brien will include the furniture in his home, and will pay the stamp duty and legal costs for both himself and the lucky raffle winner in receipt of the fabulous house.

"It's not for everybody, and it won't be some universal thing that will hurt estate agents. When I was in my twenties, thirties and forties, I couldn't afford a home like the one I live in now. It was out of reach," Mr O'Brien told the Leinster Express / Laois Live.

"In Dublin for example, home prices are staggering, and rent in some ways are worse. So I thought, what a great idea for a young family, for the cost of five pounds or six euros, could end up in their dream home," he said.

"I just loved the whole idea."

Mr O'Brien must sell 225,000 tickets to receive the value of this house. The homeowner will receive €1.3 million euro from raffle ticket sales, with Raffall receiving 10% of the earnings. He revealed that so far, just over £60k has been spent on tickets.

If all 225k tickets are not sold, the winner receives half of the money raised through ticket sales. Ten percent of the other half accrued will go to Raffall, and the rest to Mr O'Brien, who will keep his house.

Mr O'Brien explained that he had previously tried to sell the home through an estate agent, and his friends advised him that he was "completely undervaluing" the house, considering Dublin prices.

"I started to look into it, and thought, maybe they are right. The auctioneers valued the house for €800k, and when you think about it, I have Irish stone walls with electric gates, a beautiful tree lined driveway, four and a half acres of manicured lawns and I am on the back of a wildlife park. If this were in Dublin, it would easily be €5 million," Mr O'Brien said.

Mr O'Brien will include the furniture in this sale, in the hopes that "a young family" will be the one to win this home.

"It is a perfect family home, I remodelled it for myself and my kids. It's ready to move in to, with solar panels and EV chargers. I did the works on this house," he said.

Mr O'Brien is ready for change, and to welcome a young family into the property.

"I'm 70 years old and I would like to move into the village. I can walk to everything then," Mr O'Brien explained.

"This is my only property, I'm just a family guy with one home. People can enter as many times as they like, most people have been buying bundle packages of tickets. It's remarkable what people have spent so far," he finished.

The draw for Greystones Manor will either take place when all tickets are sold, or on October 15.

Those interested in buying a ticket to win Mr O'Brien's home can do so here.

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