如果你足夠幸運，僅需2.5美元這座莊園就屬於你
2.5美元就能得到一座莊園？那豈不是和白送差不多？告訴你，你也有機會，只要你足夠幸運。如果你花2.5美元（17元人民幣）買了票，而且這座莊園未能在今年八月份前售出，你將有機會一夜變房主。
After falling on hard times and failing to find a buyer for his home, the owner of this six-bedroom manor house in Lancashire, UK, decided to hold a raffle, inviting people to purchase a £2 ticket for the chance to win it. He hopes to sell half a million tickets by August this year.
莊園位於英國的蘭開夏郡，內有6間臥室。房間主人在陷入困境、難尋買家之後，決定舉辦有獎義賣，任何花2英鎊（即17元人民幣）買票參加活動的人都有可能贏得這座莊園。莊園主人希望在今年八月份之前能賣出50萬張票。
37-year-old Dunstan Lowe purchased Melling Manor in 2011 for £435,000, after falling in love with it. He spent a lot of money renovating it, but soon started struggling with mortgage payments, and was forced to put it up for sale just three years later. The first asking price was £800,000, but no one was interested. Lowe chose to put off selling it until December of last year, when the mansion was once again offered up, this time for £845,000. Again, there were no takers, so the frustrated owner dropped the asking price to £650,000, but that didn’t seem to make it more appealing. The house has had just one viewing since, and after looking at his options, Dunstan decided it was time to try a different approach.
37歲的鄧斯坦•勞十分喜歡梅林莊園並在2011年的時候花43.5萬英鎊買下了它。之後他又花大價錢翻新重整，但很快就面臨償還房屋貸款的艱難處境，於是僅過了3年，鄧斯坦就別無他法只能將其出售。他最開始的售價是80萬英鎊，但無人問津。勞決定將其延後到去年12月再出售，要價84.5萬英鎊，可是依然沒有買家。於是，失望的鄧斯坦把要價降到65萬英鎊，然而這個價錢似乎也沒有什麼吸引力。莊園出售以來只有一個人前來看房，鄧斯坦在思考了自己的處境之後，決定是時候嘗試一種不同的出售方式了。
After consulting with his wife, Dunstan Lowe made the decision to hold a raffle, offering people the chance to win the house by buying one or multiple £2 tickets online, or sending an envelope or postcard via 1st class post. The winner will be selected on August 1st, 2017, and the owner hopes to sell at least 500,000 tickets until then. That may sound like a lot, but he’s actually off to a good start.
與妻子商量之後，鄧斯坦•勞決定舉辦有獎義賣，參與者只要通過網絡或明信片、信件郵遞的方式購買一張或多張價值2英鎊的票，就有可能贏取莊園。大獎得主將在2017年8月1號揭曉，莊園主人希望在此之前能賣出去至少50萬張票。這可能聽上去太多了，但鄧斯坦的售票活動還真開了個好頭。
In February, Lowe told the Evening Standard that he had already sold £120,000 worth of raffle tickets. Within days of setting up a website for the raffle, offers started coming in, and the ample media coverage he got a couple of months ago in the UK got a lot more people interested in his offer.
2月時，勞告訴《旗幟晚報》說，他已經賣出去了總價值12萬英鎊的票。開設義賣網站以來，參與者不斷增加。幾個月前英國媒體對鄧斯坦的大量報道也吸引來了很多感興趣的人。
Dunstan says people from all over the world, including USA and Australia have been buying £2 online, with some of them acquiring several thousand pounds worth of them. He and his family hope to sell enough tickets to cover the cost of the six-bedroom mansion as well as the legal fees and any last minute jobs to ensure the house is as perfect as possible for the next owner.
鄧斯坦說在網上花2英鎊買票的人來自世界各地，其中有來自美國和澳大利亞的，有些人還會一下買幾千英鎊的門票。鄧斯坦和他的家人希望能通過出售足夠多的門票來支付當時買房的錢、相關法律費用以及其他一些後期工作的錢，來保證這座莊園在轉手給新主人之前儘可能完美。
“It was really out of frustration. The whole process of viewings and offers, it felt antiquated and frustrating so I set up the website and it just took off,” Dunstan said.
“這真的是出於無奈。老掉牙的看房和賣房流程令人失望。於是我建立了一個網站，然後就火了。”鄧斯坦說道。
“I had been thinking about doing this on and off for a few years now but so far hadn’t acted,” he added. “I knew that people had done this before but had problems, and I needed to make sure everything was above board and legal.”
“我從開始思考這件事到現在，斷斷續續的，已經有幾年了，但一直都沒有付諸實現，”鄧斯坦補充道：“我知道之前有人這麼操作過而且遇到了很多困難。所以我需要確保所有事情都公開且符合法律要求。”
Melling Manor is still on the market for £650,000, but if it fails to sell by August 1st, 2017, the owner will pick a winner from the raffle participants. If it does sell, Lowe doesn’t plan on giving back the money to everyone. Instead, he plans on offering the whole pot as a cash prize to one lucky winner.
梅林莊園現在的市價仍然是65萬英鎊，但如果在2017年8月1日之前沒能成功售出，莊園的主人就要從義賣參與者中抽選贏家。然而如果莊園在此之前成功售出，勞並不打算歸還票款，而是計劃把所有票款作爲現金大獎提供給一位幸運兒。
Mr. Lowe told the Standard that he would like the house to go to a family that has been struggling to put up a down payment for a house. “That would be my perfect scenario. The house has stunning proportions and scale. It’s fantastic for a family. It’s in the middle of nature, with pheasants running through your garden,” he said.
勞告訴《旗艦晚報》說，他希望這座莊園最後能屬於一個付不起房子首付的家庭。“這是我的完美方案。莊園規模很大，對一個家庭來說非常適合。莊園周圍自然環境很好，花園裏還會有雉鳥經過。”
The Georgian manor house features six bedrooms, a kitchen, cinema room, ballroom, new family bathroom and parking for six cars.
這個喬治王時代的莊園有6間臥室，1間廚房，1間電影放映間，1間舞廳，新的家庭浴室和有6個車位的停車處。
To enter the raffle for Melling manor, just head over to , purchase one or more tickets with PayPal and answer the very simple question “What style of property is this house?”. It’s a multiple answer question, and in case you haven’t been paying attention, the right one is “Georgian”. Good luck!
想要參加梅林莊園義賣的話，請登陸網站，通過PayPal購買一張或多張門票，並回答一道十分簡單的問題——“這座莊園是什麼風格的？”。這道題目答案不唯一，但假使你沒有注意到的話，正確答案應該是“喬治王時代建築風格”。祝你好運！
