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House Flipping 旧屋转手乐无穷

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For house fixers, the journey from project to final product is the highlight  对喜欢动手改造房子的人来说，从计划开始到最后大功告成的整个过程，才是最精彩之处

Elizabeth Keller loves houses but doesn’t have a home. She and her husband are living in a spectacular house she built in Charlotte, North Carolina. With five bedrooms, six baths, 5,700 square feet and a carriage house apartment over the garage, it’s a place many homebuyers would covet.

伊丽莎白．凯勒很喜欢房子，但本身却未拥有自己的住宅。她在北卡罗来纳州夏洛特建造了一栋宏伟的屋宅，目前就和先生先住在里头。屋子有五座卧室、六套浴室，面积达五千七百平方呎，车库上方还有马车车库改装成的住屋，的确会让很多购屋者羡慕不已。

Not Keller. She’s hoping to sell it for $1.95 million and move on to temporary quarters – perhaps a house in dire need of repair, a no-frills apartment or a spare bedroom in her daughter’s home. Keller is a house flipper, and she delights in the work, not the finished product. Like most artists, she’s eager to start over with an empty palette, imagining the possibilities.

但凯勒可不然，因为她想以一百九十五万美元的价格出售这栋房子，然后再搬到临时住处──有时他们可能暂住在亟需整修的房子，有时则在简朴的公寓房子落脚，要不然就是借住女儿家里的空房间。凯勒就是买旧屋转手卖出的行家，但她感兴趣的是翻修旧屋的乐趣，而非完工后的成品。她也和大部分艺术家一样，迫切想在一片空白的调色板上开始动工，并想象着各种可行的做法。

House flipping – buying, fixing up and selling a house for a profit – has become popular fodder for TV shows in the last few years. However, fluctuations in the housing market have discouraged this practice in most places. But generally, the up-and-coming entrepreneur buys an inexpensive property, repairs it as cheaply as possible, and tries to turn it quickly.

买旧屋转手卖出──也就是买下旧屋，加以翻修并转手赚价差──成了近年电视节目大肆炒作的主题。不过，房市的起起伏伏使得旧屋转手者开始在很多地区踌躇不前。不过，一般来说，这位崭露头角的企业家都是先买下要价不贵的房地产，然后尽可能用最省钱的方式来加以翻修，然后试图尽速卖出。

Keller, 59, is the antithesis of the TV flipper. Over the past 20 years, she’s flipped eight houses – buying them, living in them and rebuilding or renovating to exacting standards in her own time frame. She’s bought and sold numerous houses in North Carolina. She’s not discouraged by the economic downturn. She picks her projects carefully and knows they’ll sell.

五十九岁的凯勒和电视里所描绘的旧屋翻修转手行家大异其趣。过去二十年来，她转手卖出了八栋房子──都是先买下旧屋，自己搬进去住，然后依照她自己的时间表，以严格的标准来加以改建或翻修。她在北卡罗来纳州买下并出售的房子已经不计其数了，而目前的经济衰退并没有令她却步，她挑房子都很小心谨慎，而且都确知它们一定可以顺利出售才会下手。

“It’s more of a hobby and a pleasure than support of a family,” she says. Her husband, Jesse Pike, is a longtime pharmacist who doesn’t mind their frequent moves as long as Keller does the packing.

「这比较像是一种嗜好和娱乐，而非家里的经济来源，」她如此表示。她丈夫杰西帕克任职药剂师多年．并不介意时常搬家，只要凯勒负责打包就行了。

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fixer [ˋfɪksɚ] n. 解决问题的高手;能够收拾局面的人

carriage house apartment 马车车库改装成的住屋

carriage [ˋkærɪdʒ] n. 四轮马车

covet [ˋkʌvɪt] v. 垂涎；贪图；渴望

dire [daɪr] adj. 极度的；紧迫的

no-frills [ˋno͵frɪlz] adj. 不提供非必要服务的；简单朴素的；没有装饰的

delight [dɪˋlaɪt] v. 高兴；喜爱；取乐[（+in）]

palette [ˋpælɪt] n. 调色板；调色板上的颜料

fix up【口】修理好, 修补 to improve the appearance or condition of; refurbish

fodder [ˋfɑdɚ] n. 素材 raw experience or material

fluctuation [͵flʌktʃʊˋeʃən] n. 波动；变动

up-and-coming [ˋʌpəndˋkʌmɪŋ] adj. 积极进取的，崭露头角的 working hard to promote an enterprise

downturn [ˋdaʊntɝn] n.（经济）衰退，下降

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The advantage of not having a permanent home, Keller says, is not having a mortgage. She plows the proceeds of one house into the next and tries not to “overreach” financially in her projects.

凯勒指出，没有永久固定住所的好处，就是不必背负贷款的压力。她把卖出一栋房子的所得款项继续投入下一个案子，并试着让每个案子都不至于超出她的财力范围之外。

“She creates the design for the house with her architect, she builds the house, she decorates it, and she stages it.” Says Robert Dulin, a realtor who has seen Keller complete several projects. He says he doesn’t know anyone who puts as much work into flipping houses as Keller.

「她和建筑师一同构思房子的设计，然后打造整栋房子，加以装潢，最后再打理好房子的门面以供买家参观，」房地产中介商罗伯．杜林表示，他看过凯勒完成好几桩案子，他说从没见过任何旧屋翻修转手卖家工作得像凯勒这么卖力的。

When she started in the 1980s, she mostly spruced up existing houses. But in recent years, she has built several houses on choice lots in existing neighborhoods.

凯勒在一九八０年代起家时，大多都只是把现屋装修一下而已；但近年来，她也会选定现有小区的上好地段，并盖了好几栋房子。

“Her taste is immaculate,” says Dulin. “She has an artist’s eye for color and texture, and she knows more about her market than any other builder/seller I have ever known.”

「她的品味可说是无懈可击，」杜林指出，「她对色彩和质地有着艺术家独到的眼光，而且对市场的了解比我认识的任何建商或卖家都多。」

Keller says that for each project, she designs with a specific kind of buyer in mind. For one recent house, she visualized parents with two children older than 10. The parents would enjoy the privacy of the first-floor master suite and the older children would have their own space upstairs with the rec room and bedrooms.

凯勒表示，针对每个案子，她都会在心里先设想好某种特定的买家。她最近着手翻修的一栋房子，设计规划的对象就是四口之家，一对父母，外加两名年纪在十岁以上的孩子。父母能享受到一楼主套房的隐私感，而大孩子们则在楼上享有自己的空间，有娱乐室和卧房。

For her next house, she says, she envisions a narrow, one-room-deep townhouse that would suit empty nesters, more of a couple’s retreat. But she’ll wait until the economy improves.

她说，下一栋房子想买个狭窄型、纵深一个房间的成排住屋，适合子女都长大离家的空巢父母来住，比较像是夫妻俩休养僻静的地方。不过，她要等到经济局势改善之后，才会开始动手。

Keller knows that in this economy, it’s not the optimum time to sell a $1.95-million house. She accepts that it may take a while.

凯勒很清楚，想要以一百九十五万美元的价格出售房子，以目前的经济局势来说，或许不是最佳时机。她坦承，可能得花点时间。

“If it doesn’t work, we’re here, and we’re comfortable,” she says. “This is what I love to do.”

「但即使最后没法卖出，反正我们就住在这里，而且相当舒服自在，」她说，「这就是我最爱做的事了。」

－by Nancy Stancill

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mortgage [ˋmɔrgɪdʒ] n. 抵押借款

plow into something 投入, 冲劲十足地工作：迫切而干劲十足地着手（如一项任务）to undertake (a task, for example) with eagerness and vigor

plow [plaʊ] v. 耕种

proceeds [ˋproˌsidz] n. (复数名词) 收益，收入；（期票，保险单等扣除应付费用后的）实收款项

overreach [͵ovɚˋritʃ] v. 因伸展过长而超越

stage [stedʒ] v. 展现；呈现 to exhibit or present on or as if on a stage

realtor [ˋriəltɚ] n.【美】（亦作R-）房地产经纪人

spruce [sprus] v. 把……打扮得整洁漂亮[（+up）]

choice lot 精选品; 上好地段

visualize [ˋvɪʒʊə͵laɪz] v. 想象；设想

suite [swit] n. 套房

rec 消遣；娱乐，游戏= recreation

townhouse ['taʊnhaʊz] n. 美国市内二层楼或三层楼多栋联建住宅

empty nester 厮守空巢者，孤寡老人（因子女长大后离家感到寂寞而改变住宅要求的父母）an empty nester is a parent whose children have all grown up and left home

单词发音

Vocabulary Focus

quarters [ˋkwɔrtɚz] n. 住处, 岗位 a place where someone sleeps

antithesis [ænˋtɪθəsɪs] n. 对立面；形成对立（或对照）的事物 the exact opposite

spruce up 将…收拾整洁; 打扮 to improve the appearance of something by making it neater, cleaner or by adding decorations

choice [tʃɔɪs] adj. 上等的，精选的being of high quality

immaculate [ɪˋmækjəlɪt] adj. 无瑕疵的，完美的 perfect and without any mistakes

envision [ɪnˋvɪʒən] v. 想象，展望 to imagine as a likely or desirable possibility in the future

optimum [ˋɑptəməm] adj. 最理想的 being the best to bring success

Elizabeth Keller.