找房子的你 需要從零學起

As a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University, Victoria Porpora commuted to school from her parents’ home in Scarsdale, N.Y., where she grew up. The trip by Metro-North train to New York City took nearly an hour each way, because her arrival and departure point was the Harlem-125th Street Station on the East Side, and Columbia is on the West Side. “The crosstown bus was the killer,” she said. “It stops at almost every corner.”

維多利亞·波爾波拉(Victoria Porpora)是哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University)教育學院(Teachers College)的一名研究生，她經常往返於學校與位於紐約州斯卡斯代爾(Scarsdale)的父母家之間，那是她從小長大的地方。每次搭乘大都會北方鐵路(Metro-North)去紐約市，她在路上都會耗費將近一個小時，因為她上下車的地方是城東(East Side)的哈萊姆區125街車站(Harlem-125th Street Station)，而哥倫比亞大學在城西(West Side)。“坐跨區公交車真是要命，”她説，“差不多每拐個彎就會停一站。”

Ms. Porpora, 23, who is known as Tori, wanted to move to Manhattan, and the pieces fell into place when a friend connected her with Emma Murphy. Ms. Murphy, 22, who was living with her family in Mamaroneck, N.Y., had attended the University of Vermont for a year, but was starting at Columbia’s School of General Studies. She would have a similar commute, and was glad to team up with a roommate.

今年23歲、人稱多莉(Tori)的波爾波拉，曾經很想搬到曼哈頓生活，她經朋友介紹與艾瑪·墨菲(Emma Murphy)相識之後，這個想法終於落實了。今年22歲的墨菲與家人一起生活在紐約州的馬馬羅內克(Mamaroneck)，已經在佛蒙特大學 (University of Vermont)就讀了一年，目前正準備進入哥倫比亞大學的通識教育學院(School of General Studies)讀書。她的往返路線與波爾波拉相似，所以很高興找個室友合住。

Ms. Porpora’s graduate school friends, many of whom commuted themselves or rented rooms in Upper Manhattan, suggested she could easily hunt on her own, but she believed otherwise. “I am the queen of efficiency, and that sounded like a horrible idea,” she said. So she contacted her childhood friend Claire Marshall, a saleswoman at Citi Habitats.

波爾波拉在研究生院的那些朋友大多自己往返，或在曼哈頓的上城區租房住。他們告訴她，獨自一人也很容易找到住處，但她另有想法。“我是個節省女王，所以那個主意聽起來一點兒也不靠譜，”她説。於是她聯繫了自己的一位兒時好友、花旗居屋(Citi Habitats)的女銷售員克萊爾·馬歇爾(Claire Marshall)。

Neither Ms. Porpora nor Ms. Murphy had ever hunted for an apartment. They knew that finding a two-bedroom in their price range, up to $2,800 a month, would be tough but doable. “As long as we had a kitchen and a bathroom, we were really open,” Ms. Porpora said.

波爾波拉和墨菲以前都從沒找過房子。她們知道，按自己提出的價格區間，找到一套月租不超過2800美元（約合人民幣17538元）的兩居室公寓可能會很艱辛，但還算可行。“只要有一間廚房和一間浴室就行了，其他的我們都可以接受，”波爾波拉説。

Ms. Murphy felt overwhelmed. “I honestly didn’t even understand what a no-fee apartment rental was,” she said. Ms. Marshall explained it to her.

墨菲則完全沒有頭緒。“坦白説，我甚至不明白什麼叫無佣金租賃公寓，”她説。馬歇爾給她解釋了一番。

They spent a snowy day looking, starting a bit south of Columbia at a walk-up building on West 109th Street in Manhattan Valley. The apartment, a two-bedroom with a washer-dryer, for $2,795 a month, was on the ground floor, with windows facing the street. They flinched.

倆人冒着大雪天去看房，從哥倫比亞大學南邊不遠處開始，她們在曼哈頓谷(Manhattan Valley)的西109街(West 109th Street)看了一棟不帶電梯的公寓樓。那是一套兩居室公寓，有一台洗衣/烘乾機，月租2795美元（約合人民幣17365元）。公寓位於一樓，窗户正對大街。但她們退縮了。

“Everything that was installed — every appliance, every counter — everything was crooked,” Ms. Porpora said. “It felt like somebody threw together a two-bedroom out of something that was meant to be a studio or one-bedroom.”

“房間裏安裝的每一樣東西——包括每台電器、每個枱面，全都變形了，”波爾波拉説，“感覺就像有人把原本的單間公寓或一居室公寓，硬生生地拼湊成了一套兩居室。”

Both felt claustrophobic in the tiny rooms. “I am 5-9 and that added to the level of tininess I was experiencing,” Ms. Murphy said. They passed.

她們在那些小房間中感到了幽閉恐懼症。“我身高有1米8，所以尤其會覺得這裏太小，”墨菲説。於是她們放棄了這套公寓。

Farther south, on Amsterdam Avenue near 102nd Street, a two-bedroom in a small walk-up building was renting for $2,550 a month. This one was above a restaurant. Ms. Murphy, having discussed her housing search with friends at her retail job at the Westchester mall, was wary.

再往南走一段距離，在阿姆斯特丹大道(Amsterdam Avenue)靠近102街(102nd Street)的地方，有一套兩居室公寓，位於一棟無電梯的小樓裏，月租2550美元(約合人民幣15842元)，公寓下面就是一間餐館。墨菲和幾個同在韋斯切斯特商城(the Westchester)從事零售業的朋友討論了自己找房的事之後，她的態度變得謹慎起來。

“My boss told me a horror story about living above a restaurant with insects and rats and a lot of loud noise,” she said. “That was looming in the back of my head.”

“我的老闆剛給我講了一個很可怕的故事，説住在餐館上面會有許多蟲子、老鼠和噪音什麼的，”她説，“我到現在還在後怕呢。”

Also a problem was the railroad layout, which would require one to walk through the other’s bedroom to get to the bathroom. The apartment seemed fine for a couple, Ms. Porpora said, but “it was so not conducive to any way we would want to live.”

公寓的直筒式户型也是個問題，你得穿過室友的卧室才能進入洗手間。這套公寓似乎更適合夫妻居住，波爾波拉説，但“對我們而言，住起來就不那麼方便了。”

They soldiered on, wondering whether every place in their price range would have a drawback. “I trusted it was going to get better,” Ms. Murphy said.

於是，她們繼續前進，想知道在她們定的價格區間內，是不是每個地方都有不近理想之處。“我相信情況會越來越好的。”墨菲説。

Still farther south, they visited a two-bedroom apartment in a five-story building. Both liked the location in the West 80s, “in an amazing neighborhood with Starbucks on one side and 150 independently owned restaurants on the other,” Ms. Porpora said, exaggerating just a bit. The rent was $2,650 a month.

又往南走了一段，她們來到一棟五層建築中，看了一套兩居室公寓。倆人都喜歡這套公寓不超過西80幾街的位置，“這是個非常棒的社區，一邊有星巴克(Starbucks)，另一邊有150家獨立經營的餐館，”波爾波拉説得有點兒誇張。這套公寓的月租為2650美元（約合人民幣16464元）。

“I noticed right away the apartment building smells nice, or at least it doesn’t smell bad, which was important for me,” Ms. Murphy said.

“我立刻發現這棟公寓樓裏的味道還不錯，至少聞起來不噁心，對我來説這很重要。”墨菲説。

The living area was an odd six-sided shape. The bathroom was minuscule. But each bedroom had a closet, and there was plenty of overhead storage, thanks to the high ceilings.

這套公寓的客廳是罕有的六邊形。浴室只是個彈丸之地。但每間卧室裏都有一個衣櫃，上面還有一大片空間可以存放東西，這多虧了那高高的天花板。

The long, skinny layout seemed ideal for roommates. “The bedrooms were split so it didn’t feel they were on top of each other,” Ms. Marshall said.

這對室友似乎對公寓的狹長户型非常滿意。“兩間卧室是分開的，所以不會感覺緊挨着對方。”馬歇爾説。

She told the two women that they needed to apply quickly if they were interested. They were. Ms. Murphy’s lesson about no-fee rental apartments was reinforced: This wasn’t one. The roommates split the broker fee of one month’s rent, and arrived just after Christmas in time for the new semester.

她告訴兩個女孩，如果她們想租下來，就得趕緊申請。於是她們照做了。墨菲還深刻領會了剛上過的無佣金租賃公寓課：這套公寓並不是。兩名室友分攤了那筆佣金，即該公寓一個月的租金。她們過完聖誕節就搬了過去，等着新學期開學。

Now, Columbia is an easy 20 minutes away via the No. 1 train. “I like having a home neighborhood and a school neighborhood,” Ms. Porpora said.

現在，她們搭乘1號線只需20分鐘，就能到達哥倫比亞大學了。“我喜歡住在一個既是住宅區、又是大學城的地方。”波爾波拉説。

She pays $1,250 a month for the smaller bedroom, which holds a bed and a dresser. “You couldn’t come in here with your Pottery Barn bedroom set,” she said, but it’s all she needs. Her room, and the living room, face a back alley.

她每月支付1250美元（約合人民幣7766元），住在面積較小的卧室裏，房裏放了一張牀和一個梳粧枱。“你不可能把從Pottery Barn買的那套卧室傢俱都搬進來，”她説，但她要用的都有了。她的房間和客廳都面對着一條偏僻的小巷。

Ms. Murphy pays $1,400 a month for the larger room, where she can fit some shelves and tables. Her view is of an air shaft. “If I were to look out my window all day, I would be able to watch what my neighbors were doing,” she said.

而墨菲每月支付1400美元（約合人民幣8698元），住在面積較大的房間裏，裏面還可以放幾個書架和桌子。她房間外的景觀是一個天井。“如果我整天往窗外看，就能看到鄰居們都在做些什麼。”她説。

They planned to furnish the living room with a secondhand couch donated by Ms. Porpora’s sister, but learned it wouldn’t fit through the narrow hallway. “Tori’s dad is super handy and measured everything,” Ms. Murphy said. Instead, they have a futon handed down by Ms. Murphy’s father. It came apart for transport.

她們原打算在客廳裏擺上一座波爾波拉的姐姐送給她們的沙發，但發現客廳太窄了，沙發放不下。“多莉的爸爸非常能幹，他量過了所有尺寸，”墨菲説。於是，她們用上了墨菲爸爸拿過來的一個日式坐墊。這東西在運輸時可以拆開來。

They were able to create both a sitting area and a dining area in the living room. They put the television in front of a window. It blocks part of the alley view, which sometimes features “people rolling garbage cans,” Ms. Porpora said. “It doesn’t bother me, but I can see how that would be a huge deterrent for a lot of people.”

因此，她們可以把客廳分成休息區和進餐區。她倆還在一扇窗户前面放了一台電視機，擋住了窗外小巷裏的部分景觀。有時候那裏總能看見“有人在滾垃圾桶，”波爾波拉説，“我倒不太在意，不過因此我就明白了，為什麼許多人都對這套公寓望而卻步。”