A fast path to owning a multi-family apartment building in Astoria

The New York Times has featured Arash Vakil in an article tracing his steps from live-at-home son and Queens College student, to owner of not one but two western Queens properties. The key for him, it seems, is living with your parents as long as possible.

Vakil, who grew up in Flushing, was motivated by his desire for a shorter commute to his job in Manhattan.  A three unit brick house for $790,000 on 43rd Street in Astoria made for a good choice. Since tenants were already living in the house, he didn’t even have to go through the rental process and he was able to have income instantly.

Vakil worked on the home renovations himself after, incredibly, simply watching some YouTube videos. The renovations cost around $125,000 in all.

The punch line to all this is that his parents didn’t want him to move out and worried that he wouldn’t be able to cook for himself. Given the availability of cooking videos on YouTube, we somehow feel he will be just fine.