Co-buying a house with your best friend
Co-buying a house with your best friend
Cass Lang and Jordan Heiden, 27- and 28-year-old homeowners, want you to know that you don’t need to worry about them.
“One of the comments we get is a lot of concern for us because of this nontraditional setup that we’ve got,” Heiden said. “You don’t have to worry about people who choose this lifestyle because chances are, they’ve thought it through and they’re doing it with someone who they feel really safe and happy with.”
The “nontraditional setup” they’ve got is co-owning a house as platonic friends. Lang and Heiden met on their first day of college classes in New York City. They lived as roommates for several years after graduation, and last year, bought a house together in Vermont.
“We both wanted the same thing at the same time, so why would we not do it?” Lang said.
In 2022, the National Association of Realtors’ housing-affordability index dropped to its lowest level in decades. Though housing prices have moderated as interest rates have risen, affordability remains a challenge, especially for first-time homebuyers.
That’s led to an increase in people teaming up with friends, partners and roommates to purchase property together. One report from a property data analytics firm found that the number of co-buyers with different last names increased by 771% between 2014 and 2021.
For Lang and Heiden, buying a house together felt like a natural next step. After bouncing from apartment to apartment as renters in New York City, they grew tired of high housing costs and the daily stressors of big-city living.
“It just became really clear to me that this was not a good space for my mental or physical well-being,” Heiden said.
“During the pandemic, just, like, my goals shifted a lot, and, like, my perception of work shifted a bunch as well,” said Lang. “That really played into that decision of finally being, like, ‘OK, I don’t want to play this game anymore.’”
Knowing they still wanted to live together and that their money would go further if they pooled it, the two friends relocated to Vermont to shop for houses.
“When we thought about leaving New York behind, we thought about leaving other things behind as well and just wanting something of our own,” said Heiden. “No more landlord,” Lang added.
After six months of Airbnb-hopping and putting in multiple failed offers, they purchased a home in Barre City for $250,000. “The loan we have is a special loan for first-time homebuyers,” said Lang. With fees, they said their down payment was about $14,000 — or $7,000 each. “It was doable for us,” Heiden said.
Heiden had saved enough money from jobs in her teens and early 20s, including chopping tobacco as a teenager, to cover her share of the down payment. Lang took money out of her retirement fund. “I had to forfeit a lot of that money for taxes,” she said, “but I thought that it was worth it.”
They are both 50% owners and said they share the costs and responsibilities of homeownership equally. “We have a great friendship, but we also work really well together,” said Lang. “I wouldn’t jump into this with someone I just met.”
The friends have shared parts of their homebuying journey on TikTok. “We get a lot of comments from women,” Lang said. “That really encompasses what our goal was … to show that there are alternative ways to do things.”
They said they also get comments from people concerned about the idea of co-buying with friends, considering that friendships might not be as stable as marriages or familial relationships.
“People change all the time — we understand that,” said Lang. “But for the most part, things don’t change overnight.”
“We don’t have a set timeline of how long we’re going to co-own this specific home,” Heiden agreed. “We just know that right now, it works really well.”
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