They Wanted a ‘Blank Slate’ One-Bedroom for Less Than $1 Million. Which Option Would You Choose?

As a student at New York University, Anthony Espino started off in the dorms, then bounced around various West Village apartments with roommates, at one point sharing a studio.

“I envy all the kids who knew better, who moved to Brooklyn to get a better deal,” said Mr. Espino, who grew up mostly in Seattle.

At the time, his priority was to be within walking distance of class. “Looking back,” he said, “I could have figured it out.”

When Mr. Espino was a freshman, his mother died. She had loved house-hunting and moving, he said, so it made sense to put his life-insurance money toward buying a home.

Shortly after graduation, he met Jeremiah Corley, a University of Florida graduate from Tampa, Fla., who couch-surfed with friends after he moved to New York. Mr. Corley is the social media manager for Maude, a sexual wellness company, while Mr. Espino has his own digital marketing agency, Miki.

[Did you recently buy or rent a home in the New York metro area? We want to hear from you. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com]

The couple, now both 27, rented an updated one-bedroom in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, for nearly three years, paying just under $3,000 a month. But as rents dropped during the pandemic, they got antsy.

“The unit above had a skylight, and they were paying less,” Mr. Corley said.

Mr. Espino found himself endlessly scrolling through listings. “I always wanted to have a place of my own that I could improve,” he said. “That part of renting killed me a little bit. You can’t do much with the space — even painting. Like, how long am I going to be here and do I have to repaint the walls when I leave?”

The couple hoped to find a one-bedroom for a monthly outlay of less than $3,400, preferring to go with a higher purchase price and lower ongoing fees. They had grown fond of their Fort Greene neighborhood and hunted nearby, looking for a good kitchen, outdoor space and natural light for their many plants.

“I didn’t want anything that gave off that vibe of doorman and all new amenities,” said Mr. Espino, who wanted “the antithesis of those cookie-cutter doorman buildings that are popping up everywhere in Brooklyn.”

Their agent, Michele Roderick of Real New York Properties, said the kind of large outdoor space they sought was typically found in small buildings. “They wanted peace, quiet and an intimate building without a lot of people going in and out,” Ms. Roderick said.

The primary criteria were somewhat amorphous: a home with character and potential, where they could do “little fixer-upper things,” Mr. Espino said. “I wanted a blank slate. We are both handy and like being homeowners and nesting.”

Among their options:

Find out what happened next by answering these two questions: