In August, Tamar Nisbett went viral on TikTok after sharing details of how she was able to purchase her $620,000 New York City apartment without financial help from “mother and father”.
“My parents didn’t help me, and I’m proud of that because I did it myself,” Nisbett told CNBC Make It. “Even though there is no extra money, I want to make it clear that I am in a very privileged position to have jobs that have paid well for my entire career.”
From 2015 to 2018, Nisbett worked for Google and YouTube as a content strategist and earned stock options worth close to $60,000.
In addition to these stocks, Nisbett had about $35,800 in his Basic Savings Account and $50,000 in a Wealthfront Account.
She says Nesbitt also had $174,000 out of the $401,000 she hadn’t touched. But she was able to show that money to the bank when it came time to apply for a mortgage.
Of the $316,000 she had, Nesbitt said she was willing to use $120,000 of it to buy an apartment.
Buying an apartment that ‘felt comfortable’
While some might gift themselves a piece of jewelry or a vacation for their birthday, Nisbett, now a content strategist at Netflix, decided she wanted to buy herself an apartment instead.
Her 30th birthday was approaching in June.
“I moved to Amsterdam for my job and felt it would be a good time to start planting some roots,” she says. “I started thinking about what was a big thing I could offer myself, and the idea of buying an apartment was right.”
In March, Nisbet asked her realtor to search for apartments in her home in Brooklyn, New York, where she grew up and her parents still live. The catch was that she would be living in Amsterdam at the time and unable to see the spaces in person.
So her parents were able to provide some support. “If something goes wrong, my parents will be there,” she says.
After viewing three apartments, Nesbitt’s mother suggested she settle down in the one-bedroom, one-bathroom neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. It was on the market for $625,000.
The 600-square-foot apartment has a private balcony, a shared rooftop deck, and access to storage space. The building was also completely new, so no one had lived in it before. There was a subway station and a park nearby.
“I watched a video and trusted my mom and the realtor, so I made an offer,” Nesbitt said.
The Nisbett broker negotiated the price to $620,000, and closing costs were $11,000, thanks to a $10,000 credit she got from the building management company because she was okay with paying more up front.
“I felt it was worth paying a little bit more on my mortgage each month because I was getting credit that would help me with closing costs, and having that extra cash was helpful,” she said.
In total, Nisbett put 10% of the purchase price – $62,000. This put her mortgage at $2,400 per month plus additional fees for HOA and insurance, bringing Nisbett’s monthly costs for the apartment to about $3,300.
I felt so happy and satisfied
Nisbet closed the apartment when she returned to New York City in August and saw the place for the first time.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was so happy and relieved that it was so full of light, on a block I loved, and as cute as the pictures made it look,” she says.
“I could immediately see myself eating breakfast, reading on the porch, and walking to my favorite restaurants. I immediately felt that he was mine.”