The Bushwick one-bedroom seemed perfect for Henry and his fiancé — a renovated unit in a charming prewar building that even had an in-unit washer-dryer. It rented for $3,000 — “New York expensive,” per Henry, but cheap in the frenzy of of the 2023 rental market. Plus, there were no other prospective renters to fend off in a bidding war and no broker fee. He got the place through his friend Reid, who had bought the condo before having a baby and was looking for a tenant to take it over. He asked Henry for a month’s rent as a deposit. As for a lease, Reid didn’t want to go through the hassle of notifying his building about having a renter. And Henry didn’t care. “I figured we would work it out like two dudes,” he said.
What that became, in practice, was closer to psychic warfare. “We both tried to leverage the fact that we’re supposed to be friends,” Henry said. “I’d use it against him all the time: ‘Come on, dude, what are you talking about?’ And he’d do the same thing to me.”
