The road to riches in foreign countries cost $2.5 to get a manor

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.

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.  

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.

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.

 “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.

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.

To enter the raffle for Melling manor, just head over to WinACountryHouse.com, 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! 

上海翻譯公司-上海譯語(yǔ)翻譯分公司譯文如下：外國(guó)的財(cái)富之路 花2.5美元得到一座莊園

2.5美元就能得到一座莊園？那豈不是和白送差不多？當(dāng)小編看到這篇新聞的時(shí)候也是“不信”的，誰(shuí)讓它是白菜價(jià)，但翻譯完新聞后，我發(fā)現(xiàn)這2.5美元（17元人民幣）買了票，（這只是票價(jià)錢，誰(shuí)會(huì)不要錢到這種程度）,如果這座莊園未能在今年八月份前售出，你將有機(jī)會(huì)一夜變房主(也就是說(shuō)八月份之前如果有人買，你這2.5美元就….)。

莊園位于英國(guó)的蘭開(kāi)夏郡，內(nèi)有6間臥室。房間主人在陷入困境、難尋買家之后，決定舉辦有獎(jiǎng)義賣，任何花2英鎊（即17元人民幣）買票參加活動(dòng)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(wàn)張票。

37歲的鄧斯坦•勞十分喜歡梅林莊園并在2011年的時(shí)候花43.5萬(wàn)英鎊買下了它。之后他又花大價(jià)錢翻新重整，但很快就面臨償還房屋貸款的艱難處境，于是僅過(guò)了3年，鄧斯坦就別無(wú)他法只能將其出售。他最開(kāi)始的售價(jià)是80萬(wàn)英鎊，但無(wú)人問(wèn)津。勞決定將其延后到去年12月再出售，要價(jià)84.5萬(wàn)英鎊，可是依然沒(méi)有買家。于是，失望的鄧斯坦把要價(jià)降到65萬(wàn)英鎊，然而這個(gè)價(jià)錢似乎也沒(méi)有什么吸引力。莊園出售以來(lái)只有一個(gè)人前來(lái)看房，鄧斯坦在思考了自己的處境之后，決定是時(shí)候嘗試一種不同的出售方式了。

與妻子商量之后，鄧斯坦•勞決定舉辦有獎(jiǎng)義賣，參與者只要通過(guò)網(wǎng)絡(luò)或明信片、信件郵遞的方式購(gòu)買一張或多張價(jià)值2英鎊的票，就有可能贏取莊園。大獎(jiǎng)得主將在2017年8月1號(hào)揭曉，莊園主人希望在此之前能賣出去至少50萬(wàn)張票。這可能聽(tīng)上去太多了，但鄧斯坦的售票活動(dòng)還真開(kāi)了個(gè)好頭。

2月時(shí)，勞告訴《旗幟晚報(bào)》說(shuō)，他已經(jīng)賣出去了總價(jià)值12萬(wàn)英鎊的票。開(kāi)設(shè)義賣網(wǎng)站以來(lái)，參與者不斷增加。幾個(gè)月前英國(guó)媒體對(duì)鄧斯坦的大量報(bào)道也吸引來(lái)了很多感興趣的人。

“這真的是出于無(wú)奈。老掉牙的看房和賣房流程令人失望。于是我建立了一個(gè)網(wǎng)站，然后就火了。”鄧斯坦說(shuō)道。

梅林莊園現(xiàn)在的市價(jià)仍然是65萬(wàn)英鎊，但如果在2017年8月1日之前沒(méi)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，勞并不打算歸還票款，而是計(jì)劃把所有票款作為現(xiàn)金大獎(jiǎng)提供給一位幸運(yùn)兒。想要參加梅林莊園義賣的話，請(qǐng)登陸網(wǎng)站WinACountryHouse.com，通過(guò)PayPal購(gòu)買一張或多張門票，并回答一道十分簡(jiǎn)單的問(wèn)題——“這座莊園是什么風(fēng)格的？”。這道題目答案不唯一，但如果你不知道的話，小編在這里告訴你其中一個(gè)正確答案“喬治王時(shí)代建筑風(fēng)格”。祝你好運(yùn)！