Living with a friend isn’t unusual for a 23-year-old. Buying a house with your bestie, though, is far less common.
Sophie Harper and Madison White did exactly that in 2022, purchasing a three-bedroom home just outside Austin.
By pooling their income, Harper and White were able to become homeowners before they turned 25.
From roommates to homeowners
Harper and White, both 27, first lived together as random roommates their first year at Whittier College in Southern California.
“We met the first day when we moved in, and we just hit it off,” Harper told Business Insider. “We became best friends.”
They didn’t live together the rest of college because White was a resident assistant, but they planned to rent an apartment together once they finished school.
“We lived in California for a year after graduation, and then we were like, ‘We should move. Why don’t we try something new?'” Harper said. They decided to relocate to Austin in 2021, renting a space together in town.
They rented for about a year, settling into their respective careers: White is in PR, and Harper works in the flower department at Trader Joe’s. They were happy in their rental, but White aimed to become a homeowner as soon as possible.
As she looked at available homes in their area, she realized she and Harper could likely afford to buy a home if they pooled their incomes.
“One night, we were talking, and she was like, ‘I think we could buy a house for about the same price as renting,'” Harper said. “I was like, ‘OK, why don’t we go see? It doesn’t hurt to see if we can get preapproved.'”
Buying a new build
Rather than approaching a bank for a loan, Harper and White decided to work directly with a builder, as the new-build market was booming in their area at the time.
They started working with Lennar Homes, which approved them for a loan of $290,000. White and Harper narrowed down their search based on that price point, finding a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house that was already built and available in 2022.
In addition to their loan, they also applied for a down-payment assistance grant, which they said enabled them to purchase a property without having to repay the down payment as long as they lived there for three years. Thanks to the loan, the grant, and some careful saving they had done in their first two years out of college, they were able to buy the house for $296,000 when they were just 23 and 24.
“We are pretty good with our money,” Harper said. “I like to save. I think it’s just an anxiety thing. I want to make sure I always have a cushion.”
“We had the money that we were able to do it, and also the timing was just perfect,” she added. “It was right before interest rates really started to rise.”
The pair also had no concerns about sharing financial information.
“We’re really open,” Harper said. “I think it’s important to talk about that stuff anyway as young women.”
“I don’t think there’s any shame between us about what our credit scores are or what we make,” she added. “When you’re buying a house, you just have to lay everything out. You have to be honest about what debt you have, income, all of that.”
Home sweet home
Harper and White have owned their home for three years now, personalizing it with a pink living room and a gallery wall full of their memories as friends.
They’ve loved taking on this step together, as White told Business Insider.
“Owning my own home was always a dream of mine, and I feel so grateful that I’ve not only been able to accomplish that early in life, but also to have been able to do it with my very best friend,” White said. “Any time you make a major life decision with financial consequences, there is going to be a risk, whether you do it alone or with a friend or a romantic partner or a family member.”
“Knowing that you have somebody that you can depend on and that can depend on you is an amazing piece of mind,” White added.
Harper agreed, telling Business Insider that she and White are “really proud” that they could buy a home when they were so young, and that “doing it together was just icing on the cake.”
In terms of their finances, Harper and White split their mortgage and other utility fees, but they don’t keep score when it comes to day-to-day costs for their life.
“We treat it much more like a family, like a partnership,” Harper said. “If we buy something like furniture, I’ll buy one thing, and she’ll buy the next thing.”
They also don’t keep a formal chore chart. Instead, they help each other wherever they can.
“We’re good at going off each other’s energy,” Harper said. “If there’s been times where I’m really busy, or I’m sick, or I’m just down bad, I’m not in the mood, she’ll pick up a sock and do a load of laundry. She’ll clean the kitchen. And vice versa. If she’s ever in that situation, I know she knows that I’ll pick up the sock, too.”
Looking to the future
Because of their grant, Harper and White moved into their house knowing they would live there for at least three years.
“We just treated it as a long lease,” Harper said. “I had no idea what was going to happen in three years career-wise, or if we would have boyfriends, or if we would want to move. We knew three years was a minimum.”
Those three years have passed, and Harper and White don’t intend to sell their home anytime soon, even if they move out.
“It’s a good investment,” Harper said. “We want to be able to keep it and sit on it and have it with us.”
They may rent out the property, or White and her boyfriend might live in it if Harper moves out. Whenever they do sell the house, they’ll split the profits.
Harper said she hopes more people realize there are creative ways to become homeowners, rather than just waiting for a romantic partner or saving to buy a home solo.
“If owning property and having a home is something you want, and the goal can be achieved by doing it with someone else who also wants that, I say go for it,” Harper said.
White told Business Insider that it just “made sense” for her to own her first home with Harper by her side.
“I know that it’s not the conventional way that people buy homes, but we have lived our entire adult life together as a team, and it really only made sense that we would do this as a team too,” White said.
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