The Hunt New Apartment Is Best of Both Worlds NYTimes.com

NOT until they began visiting open houses did Nicolle and Jeff Pillartz realize they had entirely different visions for their new home.

Skip to next paragraph Tina Fineberg for The New York Times

The building at 35 Clark Street in Brooklyn Heights was quaint.

More Hunt Columns Tina Fineberg for The New York Times

The offer at 110 Livingston Street was accepted, then declined.

The couple planned to buy a Brooklyn two-bedroom within a quick commute of Manhattan. But after they saw a co-op at 35 Clark Street in Brooklyn Heights, they realized how dissimilar their tastes were.

She found the building quaint and historic; he thought it was just old. “We are usually very much in agreement,” she said. “I was surprised at his vehement reaction.”

Mrs. Pillartz, 37, who is originally from San Diego, graduated from Trinity College in Hartford and moved to Boston. Mr. Pillartz, 39, from Guilford, Conn., graduated from Florida State University in Tallahassee and moved to Manhattan. After meeting through friends, they dated long-distance for three years.

Five years ago, Mrs. Pillartz joined her future husband in New York. For ,300, they rented a large one-bedroom above Ray’s Pizza on the Avenue of the Americas and 11th Street in Greenwich Village.

By last fall, the rent was still only ,500, “which is a good part of the reason we were unmotivated” to hunt for a home to buy, Mrs. Pillartz said. Their rental was just blocks from her office — she sells advertising for Forbes magazine, where she uses her maiden name, Nicolle Anderson. Mr. Pillartz, a senior account executive at Russell Research, a market research company, took a short subway ride to Columbus Circle.

“We had been saving money without any specific time to buy,” but a meeting with a financial planner “gave us a kick in the rear,” Mr. Pillartz said. The couple didn’t think that they could afford in buy in Manhattan, so they set out for Brooklyn.

“In truth, neither one of us knew any of the boroughs particularly well,” Mrs. Pillartz said. “But we felt we knew Brooklyn better than anything else. It was kind of arbitrary.”

Things that had never bothered them before in their rental began to grate — the constant sirens, the slow-draining tub, the five-block walk to the Laundromat.

They set their budget at 0,000, “although I was hoping to come in below that,” Mrs. Pillartz said. It would be a home to grow into rather than to grow out of, she said.

She immersed herself in research. “I went into my typical academic approach and bought a big book entitled ‘100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask’ and started diligently reading it and realized New York markets were really different,” she said.

Their visit to the Clark Street building was a revelation. The two-bedroom was priced at 9,000, though it later sold for 5,000.

She considered it too small, but her husband deemed it past its prime. “He said, ‘I am tired of living in apartments with nine layers of paint.’ It didn’t bother me in that way at all,” Mrs. Pillartz said. “I wanted something old!”

In Dumbo, they considered a lovely condominium for 5,000 on Bridge Street, in a warehouse conversion. But the location was desolate. And the selling agent mentioned a lawsuit, involving code violations, which gave them pause.

They needed help. Mrs. Pillartz’s boss recommended his agent, Katherine Camp, a vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman. She suggested the co-op building at 60 Pineapple Street, formerly the St. George Hotel.

The Pillartzes liked a huge two-bedroom for 9,000. For all the money they would save, they could renovate. Then, “reason caught up with us, like, what the heck do we know about construction,” Mrs. Pillartz said. “We started thinking this wasn’t the smartest thing to do.” (The unit later sold for 5,000.)

Ms. Camp’s business partner, Matt Holbein, took them to the Beaux-Arts-style 110 Livingston Street, formerly the Board of Education headquarters. A beautiful two-bedroom two-bathroom apartment was listed for 0,000. The owners, who were transferring to Portland, Ore., and expecting a baby, were eager to sell.

But there was already an accepted offer, somewhat below the asking price. So the Pillartzes offered 0,000. Their offer was accepted, then declined.

The other party was a “no-lender-financing buyer, and the seller wanted to go with the surefire bet,” Ms. Camp said. (The final selling price was 5,000.)

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen my husband so bummed out,” Mrs. Pillartz said.

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E-mail: thehunt@nytimes.com

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