According to the Washington Post, McHale won a $1.2 million home in Edgewater, Maryland in a January raffle. A week later, she lost her job as a chemical engineer, but she still wanted to stay in Colorado -- and if she didn't unload the place by year's end, she'd be stuck paying $300,000 in taxes.
What to do? Discount, discount, discount. But even that didn't work.
In March, the Post says, McHale listed the property for $799,000. No bites -- so she dropped the price to $749,000. Some looky-loos, but zero offers. And while a couple of buyers showed interest after McHale's husband did some touch-ups in June, neither of the possible deals happened.
Eventually, McHale found a way to get rid of her prize, selling it to an area church for $650,000 -- although the actual price was less than that, since she donated another $200,000 back to the buyer to reduce the taxes she'd owe.
McHale hopes to make about $200,000 from the house once all is said and done -- a nice chunk of change, to be sure, but a far cry from the $1.2 million she thought would be coming her way.
Moral: Be careful when you enter a raffle -- because you might just win.
