Picking Out The Real Estate You'll Buy With Your Friends

I like to ask my friends and their lovers which of them will go in on the Mona Lisa’s Florentine villa with me. It was purchased by her in-laws in 1498, features fourteen bedrooms and a lemon house, and went up for sale on the Tuscan market this year. So: which bank will sponsor us on this purchase? Do we have any outrageously wealthy potential patrons out there? Trust fund kids lurking among our social circles? Early Bitcoin investors who are friends of friends of friends? If we pull together an offer, someone can have dibs on the olive oil mill.

But more importantly, I love stories of people who split apartments or start compounds with their best friends. We're supposed to stop living communally after college, or once we age out of roommates? Bummer! I think we need more social scripts for choosing to live with and near your non-romantic loved ones. And I want a villa with my friends. So try it! Next time you hang out with your BFFs, spend some time on Zillow and pick out the Soho loft or Napa wine farm or Montreal pied-a-terre you'll put a down payment on together.