The Hunt
Three Friends Pooled Their Finances and Bought a Queens House Together. Which One Did They Choose?
Unable to afford the homes they wanted on their own, a couple and their friend combined resources and bought a multifamily house. Here’s what they found in western Queens.
Sebastian del Castillo spent the first half of 2022 scouring the internet for a home that he and his partner, Silviana Russo, could afford in the neighborhoods straddling the Queens-Brooklyn border. But despite their $750,000 budget, the couple, who were renting in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, kept coming up empty.
“We were thinking, what can we find within our budget?” said Mr. del Castillo, 40.
“And the answer was nothing,” added Ms. Russo, 32.
Their friend Ben Loy was in a similar predicament. Mr. Loy, 42, was eager to move out of his cramped one-bedroom rental on the East Side of Manhattan. His budget was also around $750,000, and his search had been equally frustrating.
All three were looking for room to grow: Mr. Loy wanted a second bedroom to use as an office; Ms. Russo and Mr. del Castillo, who plan to have children, wanted space for a nursery.
One day, Mr. del Castillo started looking at homes for $1 million or more, just to see what was out there, and noticed that many listings in that range were two-family houses.
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What if the three friends joined forces on a purchase?
“Suddenly I was like, ‘Well, this is tenable,’” said Mr. del Castillo, a retail logistics manager. “I knew we could borrow to get a big enough mortgage to get a duplex on our own and rent out the other half, but we didn’t want to be landlords.”
Mr. Loy was intrigued. “It started as a half-joking thing, but the seeds were planted,” he said. When the couple began sending him links for homes in Ridgewood, Queens, he jumped in.
“It just made a lot of sense,” said Mr. Loy, a software engineer. “If I were to buy a condo or co-op, I’d have an HOA I needed to deal with, so I might as well buy with friends.”
The trio, all fans of tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, met years ago at a gaming store in Williamsburg. “Ben is our couple friend,” said Ms. Russo, a media producer. “Couples have couple friends, and our couple friend just happens to be Ben.”
With their funds pooled, the trio could afford a two-family home for up to about $1.2 million in Ridgewood, the fast-developing Queens neighborhood just over the border from Brooklyn.
“I noticed about five years ago that Ridgewood was where a lot of people who were being priced out of Bushwick were going,” Ms. Russo said. “And I thought, now is the right time to buy in Ridgewood, because in another five years it’s going to be too expensive.”
They connected with Sheila Fairweather, a broker with Oxford Property Group, who wasn’t surprised to find three friends buying together. “Two-families are so common out here,” she said. “Why go for a one-family when you know someone who can live in the downstairs and split the mortgage?”
The two parties wanted to split the costs evenly, so they aimed for a two-family house with units of comparable size and quality.
They also met with a lawyer and discussed contingencies. If, say, Mr. Loy brought a partner into his home, he would continue to pay his full portion of the mortgage. If Ms. Russo and Mr. del Castillo had a baby, Mr. Loy said he would be eager to babysit. They all pledged not to offer their units as Airbnbs, and if one of them had to temporarily move out and sublet, the others would get a vote on the new housemate.
Among the properties they considered:
No. 1
House on Dead-End Street
This house on a dead-end street had a two-bedroom, two-bathroom duplex above a two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit with a home office. It had a covered front porch, ample sunlight, a big backyard deck and a finished basement. The downstairs unit had an updated kitchen, while the kitchen upstairs needed renovating. There was a nice jetted tub in the downstairs bathroom, but none of the air-conditioners worked. The asking price was $1.15 million, with about $6,200 in annual taxes.
No. 2
In Maspeth With Parking
This two-family home was in Maspeth, just north of Ridgewood, on a peaceful street near bustling Metropolitan Avenue. It had a three-bedroom, one-bathroom duplex unit above a ground-floor unit with one bedroom and one bathroom, and it came with a private driveway, a sprawling covered deck and a backyard. Both units had been recently renovated. The asking price was $949,000, with annual taxes of about $6,200.
No. 3
Subdivided With Big Yard
This two-story house had a four-bedroom, two-bathroom unit over a four-bedroom, one-bathroom unit and a finished basement. The friends loved the location and were charmed by the bay windows and big backyard. The ground-floor unit had been recently remodeled, but the upstairs apartment was divided into separate two-bedroom units, each with its own kitchen and bathroom. The basement had also been divided into two rental units. The asking price was $1.2 million, with about $7,000 in annual taxes.
Find out what happened next by answering these two questions:
Which Would You Choose?
House on Dead-End Street
In Maspeth With Parking
Subdivided With Big Yard
Which Did They Buy?
House on Dead-End Street
In Maspeth With Parking
Subdivided With Big Yard