How Erin McGuire and a group of friends turned a career shift into a shared home, business, and community
A co-buying story rooted in vision, trust, and collective possibility.
Relationship to co-buyers: Friends + extended community (friends and people found via social media)
Location: Allier region, France
Purchased: September 2025
Owned for: 4 months (and counting)
Purchase price: €650,000
Down payment: Paid in full
Ownership structure:
2 managing owners hold 30% total
12 additional equity holders hold ~3% each
31 loan holders supported the purchase
Work: Academia, international development, NGO work, marketing
Age at purchase: 41
The moment everything shifted
For Erin McGuire, co-ownership didn’t begin with a spreadsheet or a perfect plan. It began with upheaval.
After spending over a decade leading global research and development work focused on food security and gender equity, Erin’s career was abruptly disrupted. A major funding cut shut down her department, and overnight, the work she had poured herself into disappeared.
It was disorienting. Painful. And quietly catalytic.
Through that disruption, Erin found herself asking a different kind of question, not what’s next for my career? but what kind of life do I want to help build?
That question led her somewhere unexpected: to a 17th-century château in rural France, and to a bold idea shared with friends.
A shared vision takes shape
The idea was simple, but ambitious: create a place rooted in rest, creativity, and community. A retreat style home that could also act as a summer camp for women and non-binary people. A home that could also be a business. A long-term space for co-habitation, care, and joy.
Buying alone wasn’t the goal. Buying together was.
Erin shared the vision with friends, then friends of friends, then people she found through aligned communities online. Some became equity holders. Others stepped in as loan holders. What emerged was a layered, intentional ownership structure designed to support both the property and the people behind it.
In total, 44 individuals helped make the purchase possible, a mix of equity holders and loan supporters who believed in the idea enough to say yes before the building even belonged to them.
“It wasn’t just about owning property,” Erin shared. “It was about building something together that could last.”
The structure mattered…a lot
From the beginning, Erin knew this kind of co-ownership required clarity.
With so many people involved, the group established a multi-member LLC and worked with lawyers to develop clear terms before inviting investors in. The business plan came first. The expectations were explicit. People opted in knowing exactly what they were supporting.
That upfront work mattered.
Today, Erin serves as the managing member of the LLC, with defined decision-making authority. That structure has helped prevent friction over small choices and allowed the group to move forward without constant consensus building.
With this many people, “It would be much harder if everyone owned the same amount and no one had final say,” she noted. “This way, the vision stays intact.”
That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Managing money for people you love carries real weight. Erin shared that being responsible for others’ investments is one of the biggest pressures she feels, especially as the business launches and she’s the last person to take a paycheck.
But even that challenge is part of the shared understanding the group built together.
What didn’t go as planned (and still worked)
Not everything unfolded smoothly.
The closing date for the château was delayed multiple times due to financing hurdles and French bureaucracy. Erin had already moved to France. Investors had planned trips. When the sale finally went through, guests arrived to help set up, before there were even beds.
“It was chaotic,” she laughed. “But also kind of perfect.”
Despite the stress, the group gained more investors and excitement than Erin expected. The momentum grew. The belief deepened. What could have felt like setbacks instead reinforced the sense that this was bigger than any single obstacle.
Shared ownership, four months in
Right now, Erin describes the experience as being in the “honeymoon phase.”
Decisions feel aligned. Roles are clear. The structure is working. Root & Rise is alive, not just as a property, but as a living, breathing community project.
And importantly, Erin doesn’t romanticize the process.
She’s clear that shared ownership only works when the hard conversations happen early, about money, power, exits, and expectations. In their case, having those conversations before purchase made all the difference.
Without hesitation: yes.
“Do it,” Erin says to anyone considering buying with others. Not because it’s easy, but because what’s possible together can be far greater than what’s possible alone.
Her story is a reminder that co-ownership isn’t just a workaround for affordability. It can be a vehicle for creativity, resilience, and collective care. It can turn disruption into direction. Loss into legacy.
And sometimes, it can turn a group of friends into co-owners of something extraordinary.
Our newsletter is where we share real stories, practical guidance, and thoughtful ideas around buying and owning property together.
It’s for people who are curious, asking questions, and figuring things out, whether you’re ready to buy now or just starting to explore what shared ownership could look like.
PS: Online community coming soon...we’ll keep everyone posted!
Joynt helps you co-own a home with people you trust. Actually own a share of the property through a protected LLC structure, making ownership flexible, secure, and easy to manage.
New to co-ownership or already share a home? Joynt helps you set up an LLC, manage finances, and stay in sync with your group—all in one easy platform.
See moreCurious about co-ownership? Joynt makes it easy to buy and share a home with others—offering legal protection, flexible access, and simple tools to manage it all together.
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At Joynt, we believe in making property co-ownership simple, accessible, and enjoyable. The Joynt platform empowers people to own, manage, and share property with others. By handling the legal, financial, and scheduling complexities, we enable co-owners to focus on what truly matters—enjoying their home.
Whether you're looking to co-own with friends, family, or like-minded buyers, Joynt makes the journey effortless and rewarding.
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