From the article... (read it all HERE):
In the summer of 2007, they were living in a cramped studio in the West Village when they received notice that their landlord was planning to raise their rent from $2,000 to $2,500 a month. Around the same time, a much larger apartment directly above the one Mr. Capron’s brother was renting in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, became available — a two-bedroom 700-square-foot space for $1,900 a month.
They liked the size of the space and the location near Prospect Park, so they made a somewhat unconventional proposal: rather than asking the landlord to make repairs, they offered to do what they estimated would be about $19,000 worth of work themselves (a figure that included materials and labor costs), in return for a four-year lease with a $400 monthly discount, so they could recoup their investment over the life of the agreement.
