A Real Estate Tipster for Hipsters

For the first time in decades, this year’s must-have accessory for the most deeply committed avant-garde may not be creative angst or even the highly coveted—but more often affected than genuine—vainglorious self-loathing of true artistic genius (I don’t mean you, of course). Nope, this year’s earlobe flesh tunnels might just be Brooklyn condos or Queens coops.

Now, the NYC real estate market might sound perfectly suited to members of a subculture who routinely pierce their most tender flesh with sharp metal objects, but that natural affinity has yet to be embraced, Eve Levine tells The Brooklyn Paper, by hipsters who pride them selves on being “the opposite of Wall Street.”

As a NYC real estate broker, Ms. Levine is fluent in the un-hip “realities” of such things as the housing market and repairing bad credit. But as an artist and musician, Ms. Levine also has the hipster street cred to effectively communicate her knowledge to the type of people who believe that “hipster street cred” actually exists because it's so ironic it's not, but so un-ironic it is.

Ms. Levine recently founded an informational series that meets in trendy bars called “Hipster Mortgage Night.” Her goal is to bring the good news of equity building, home ownership to the righteously inked tribes of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and anywhere else they may be found, paying rent with tip money.

For some “Hipster Mortgage Night” attendees, however, the news isn’t always good. For one couple who envisioned their first purchase would be an entire house, the reality check was as painfully brutal as it was painfully necessary:

“Now we know a one-bedroom is best […] It was a really informative experience, but it kind of crushed my dreams.”

Don't worry, they'll get there. So will you.

Click here for or more information about upcoming "Hipster Mortgage Nights."