If your phone rings and it’s a number you don’t recognise, you might want to answer – it could be the call of a lifetime that will completely change your real estate fortunes.
Marjory Carter was in the middle of colouring a client’s hair at her Brisbane salon when she received a phone call to inform her that she had won a $1.3 million luxury home on the Sunshine Coast.
“I didn’t recognise the number but the business ran on a mobile, so I picked up every call,” Marjory remembered.
“I quickly answered – it was the Endeavour Foundation. I was probably a bit rude and said ‘sorry I’m busy and I already buy tickets from you guys’. Then I was told I won but I still didn’t quite believe it!
“My poor client, who was half-way through her colour, was jumping up and down with me in the salon. Luckily her hair turned out alright and she was my last client of the day.”
Marjory’s winning Endeavour Foundation Lotteries ticket was for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a pool and incredible ocean and hinterland views at Little Mountain, a 10-minute drive from Kings Beach.
“The view is beautiful – I still feel like I’m staying at a resort sometimes. It’s taken me a while to believe it and that someone isn’t going to ring me and say, ‘we’ve made a mistake’,” Marjory said.
Receiving that life-changing phone call in October 2020 not only meant that Marjory and her husband Ted, who had been renting at Geebung, could finally have a home of their own. It also meant they could use the equity to purchase a home for their daughter, a single mum to four kids including three with special needs.
If you are in bed, you could be forgiven for not answering a phone call from a number you don’t know.
Government employee Craig Dennison was asleep after working night shift when he received a phone call from a number he didn’t recognise.
Fortunately, he answered as it was a call to inform him that he’d just won an incredible $1.2m home with a huge pool at Woombye.
It was news that woke him up but took a while to sink in.
“It changed everything completely. I relocated from Maryborough and now I’m working out of the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane. Financially it’s brought me back to where I should be for someone my age,” he said.
“It’s also meant that I can spend more time with my daughters. They had moved to the Sunshine Coast with their mum, which meant it was a two-hour drive every time I saw them.”
While Craig had been supporting Endeavour Foundation Lotteries for a year, it was a ticket he bought on impulse that won him the prize, much to his disbelief.
“Like most people, I never expected to win. It was more about the thrill of it and donating to a good cause,” he said.
Mr Dennison and Mrs Carter are sharing details about the incredible phone calls that changed their lives as the Endeavour Foundation Lotteries recently launched its 60th anniversary draw.
The not-for-profit offered its first prize home in 1962 – a property at Cecil Downs on the Darling Downs.
The prize for the anniversary draw is a $2.19 luxury Maleny home, which is the most expensive property in the Lotteries’ history.
The Maleny custom-built four-bedroom home is set on 3071 square metres and features an inground pool and outdoor lounge with a wood log fireplace.
Head of Lotteries Kirsty Moore will have the honour of calling the winner. She says breaking the life-changing news is her favourite part of the job.
“People scream, they cry, or they don’t believe me at first. It’s not an understatement to say that winning a prize home will change your life for better,” Ms Moore said.
Even if you don’t win, you will change the lives of others as the money raised from the draw will help fund Endeavour Foundation iniatitves that support people with a disability.
For a sneak peek of the $2.19m Maleny prize home, visit endeavourlotteries.com.au
