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One woman has spoken out about buying five stunning vacation properties across Europe instead of spending all her savings on a tiny New York City apartment.
Amy Bile, 32, a digital consultant, loves living in New York and declared in an essay for Business Insider that she will continue to live there “for the foreseeable future.”
However, she admits that the price range for buying a home in New York would have been “prohibitive” for her if it weren’t for some incredible luck, such as “a lottery win or huge financial resources.” I admitted it right away. Rising cost of living in America.
For now, she’s renting a one-bedroom, 650-square-foot apartment for $2,850 a month, which she admitted is “pretty impressive by New York standards.”
Amy Vail, 32, is a digital consultant who feels most at home in New York City, but realistically couldn’t afford to become a homeowner in the big city.
Instead, Amy teamed up with a real estate company called Augusto and was able to become co-owner of five homes in idyllic locations in Europe, including the Spanish island of Mallorca (pictured).
Amy has always dreamed of living and working abroad.The photo shows her home in Mallorca.
But buying a similar size one locally would cost nearly $1 million.
Back in 2020 and 2021, while quarantined during the pandemic, Jen went “going crazy” and began obsessively Googling real estate in quaint towns across Europe. I noticed that many properties were being sold at unusually low prices.
“There were hundreds of articles about one-euro homes in small villages in Italy, France, and Spain, and everyone who jumped at the opportunity was able to build a home for $10,000 or so,” Amy looks back.
“I was like, ‘Wow, maybe I can do that.'”
She discovered August through online research. August is a “vertically integrated real estate group” that connects people looking for a vacation home with a wide range of options in some of Europe’s most beautiful locations, from Spain’s Mallorca to the French Alps. To the English countryside.
Essentially, August will allow prospective buyers to acquire a percentage of a “portfolio” of five different properties in desirable locations, with other buyers also owning shares in each property.
Each owner is given plenty of flexibility to choose how many weeks of the year they wish to spend at a particular property.
“The abbreviation I used to explain to friends and family was, ‘This is a timeshare, not a scam, because you actually have a stake in the stock and can access the property you want,'” Amy said. Ta.
Amy continued: “The collection I chose is five homes in Tuscany, the South of France, the French Alps, the English Cotswolds and Mallorca.”
She added that while it’s the smallest of the three-story homes, it still has “three to four bedrooms each.”
For her share of all five homes, the purchase price was a “flat one-off fee” of 360,000 euros, or just under $390,000. Plus, her upkeep and taxes cost about $10,000 a year.
She currently owns 1/21 of a “portfolio” of five different villas, including Mallorca (pictured), Tuscany, the south of France, the French Alps and the English Cotswolds.
When she first walked into her house in Mallorca (pictured), “I was alone in this house just laughing,” she recalls.
Amy detailed her motivations for moving into five homes, saying she had “always been intrigued or flirted with the idea of living abroad.”
While attending Colgate University, she spent a semester abroad in Stockholm and loved the experience.
Although she had companions who tried to visit as many places as possible while abroad, in Stockholm she mostly “stayed put” because she “liked to feel calm and familiar.” recalled.
“I really liked the place and the sense of home I felt after just being there for five months,” she added.
After graduating, she was considering job opportunities abroad, but was unable to come across a suitable opportunity.
But during the pandemic, she actually started rethinking what was possible for herself personally, especially given that many companies started allowing remote work.
“During the pandemic, when the reality of work for many people completely changed, that possibility opened up. Maybe this could be done sooner than I thought,” Amy wrote. Ta.
“I’m really into traveling, and in some cases living abroad or at least spending a significant amount of time away from my home base. It came sooner than I expected, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about since high school. Ta.”
Amy went on to explain that she currently owns approximately 1/21 of a five-home portfolio, which is split between her and 20 other families.
Amy estimates that her portfolio of five partially owned homes is worth nearly €7 million (just over $7.5 million).The photo shows a house similar to hers in the south of France.
Amy paid a one-off fee of 360,000 euros (just under $390,000) and $10,000 a year in maintenance and taxes for all five properties.The photo shows a house similar to hers in Tuscany.
“What I had access to was far greater than what I could have achieved on my own,” she said of the price tag.The photo shows a house similar to hers in the French Alps.
“You get that sense of familiarity and connection to a place, but without the hassle of needing a property manager or having a leaky roof and being 4,000 miles away,” she says. I looked back at the environment.
When it comes to sharing space with many other families, August has a point system for dividing up the time spent in a particular home.
“Everyone gets the same amount of points, so it’s very even,” Amy explained.
“You get 36 points a year, and each week has a different weight. The peak months of the summer are 5 points, then the shoulder season weeks are 2 points. From there it fluctuates a lot.
“For me, this was also a very attractive aspect: I don’t have kids in school, so I have the flexibility to use the lower points weeks.” Want to go for a month in October? I was able to do that because I didn’t have to worry about other people’s schedules,” she stressed.
She further estimated that the value of the entire real estate portfolio was probably in the range of 7 million euros (just over $7.5 million).
“You don’t have 7 million euros to buy five properties across Europe. So what I had access to was much greater than what I could have achieved on my own,” she says. emphasized its benefits.
“These are established, popular places that always appeal to a certain demographic. So I felt safe in that regard as well,” she added.
Most of all, she’s confident that while New York City is her home, she doesn’t feel the need to actually become a homeowner in New York City, or the greater tri-state area for that matter. Ta.
“Should I move to a more suburban area in New Jersey to buy a house?” No, I’m not moving to buy a house. Even if it’s in another city, another state, or a suburb. That’s my reality,” she said.
At the same time, when she first stepped into her Mallorca home, “I was alone in this house just laughing,” she recalled.
“I thought, ‘This is so cool. I’m standing in this beautiful house that I own. How cool is that? I’m here on an island. I never would have gotten here otherwise. No one knows if it was possible.”
“It made me very happy and very proud. I was proud of this accomplishment and of purchasing this.”
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