For some reason it's become some sort of trend to offer up your house in a competition.
From the outset it does look like a ridiculous thing, but often it's to offer it to someone who'll never be able to afford a place of their own in today's market.
This is the case for Helen Weller and her husband Gary, who held a competition, with the winner bagging their £3.5million house, the Mirror reports.
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They put the fate of their five-bedroom house in Caversham, Berkshire in the hands of a game of spot the ball, so that someone 'who would never be able to afford a house like this a chance to own it'.
Seems fair, and nice, to be quite honest, but some people didn't think so. After making the announcement two weeks ago they were bombarded by trolls, who just wanted a chance to wind them up via email and social media.
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Helen took her chance to address all the people berating her, penning an open letter, adamant that she wasn't upset.
She wrote: "Dear online and email trolls,
"Please explain why you do this?
"I have never experienced such hatred from people I don't know or have never met.
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"Whilst the hurtful poison you pour out doesn't have an effect on me apart from bewilderment, I can see how if i was young, impressionable or an insecure person it would be devastating.
"Perhaps you could explain to my 91-year-old mother who thinks a troll is a plastic doll and who is protective of her daughter and son-in-law, why you should say such things about someone you have never met.
Credit: Get Reading WS
Credit: Get Reading WS
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"My parents taught me if you can't say anything nice then simply don't say anything, why did yours not teach you the same?
"Ask yourself before you do this how would your parents feel reading such stuff about you.
"So next time you contemplate doing this from your faceless invisibility put your selves in the receivers shoes and remember that your venomous poison only belittles and diminishes you as a person, whilst it just makes me, your victim, grow stronger.
"Perhaps this is the lesson we need to teach our young."
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People seem to be under the impression that charging people £25 to enter their competition is just a money spinner and will result in a bigger profit than if they outright sold their house.
It seems a bit far-fetched, given that they'd need to sell 200,000 tickets to just break even, but not everyone's mind works like that.
She told Get Reading: "I can't believe that people would do this, I have not comprehension of why anyone would do it.
"They have been sending some really vicious and nasty stuff.
"We have also had people saying 'this is a scam', 'this is a con' and 'the house always floods'. I have even been told that I'm 'bringing down the housing market'.
"One thing I would really like to get across is it's not a scam, it's not a con and if it was, you wouldn't be able to pay by credit card.
"We are just giving people the chance to win and live in a really nice house for £25. It's like the lottery but the odds are much better.
"But I'm not upset. I don't know these people so their opinion doesn't matter.
"I have had nice messages too, it hasn't all been negative."
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If you fancy entering, you still can, and will be able to up until 14 March, 2018.
"We were fortunate that we could pay the mortgage on one salary and over the next 30 years moved up the housing ladder until building Reve House five years ago," Helen added.
"The gas, water, council tax and house insurance costs £500 a month, that's not bad.
"Most people could afford that, especially if they don't have a mortgage to pay, and it's probably less than the cost of renting a room in Reading."
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