Thom Filicia sells upstate New York home to friend for $4.6 million

“Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” interior designer Thom Filicia has sold his home in Skaneateles, New York, in an off-market deal for $4.6 million.

The TV host has not only found a buyer for the five-bedroom lakeside home, but one who is a longtime friend.

« They purchased about 60% of the furniture separately and they want to reupholster and update some pieces, » Filicia, from nearby Syracuse, told The Post. The buyer, who requested anonymity, also wants to work with Filicia to renovate the boathouse, make the space more child-friendly (they have a young daughter) and customize an outdoor kitchen area.

Filicia bought the property, where he spent weekends away from his Chelsea apartment, for $965,000 in 2008, Syracuse.com reported. He came across it on his way home from a friend’s wedding and spotted a ‘For Sale’ sign.

« I wasn’t in the market to buy the house, » he said — a theme for Filicia, who also just bought a house in Sag Harbor after finding property by chance.

“My brother was looking for a new home in the Hamptons and asking my advice,” he said. Filicia found a house he liked – on the water, gated and with three modern barns – and suggested it to his brother.

Then, a few weeks later, while he was in Los Angeles, his phone rang. He was the childhood friend, and she wanted to know if she could buy his house and use his expertise to personalize it.

« I decided that instead of having two properties in Skaneateles, I would find something else, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, there’s the house I found with my brother in Sag Harbor. Maybe I should see if it’s available,” he said.

It was, and now is his. (His brother went with another house in the area.)

« It was kind of like this storybook » of organic coincidences, Filicia said of the series of real estate deals.

He now plans to split his time between fixing up the house in Sag Harbor, spending time in New York and continuing to enjoy Skaneateles, where he still owns a Federal-style mixed-use building that he is in the process of converting into apartments. .

As for his incredible luck with the property acquisition processes, all he can offer by way of explanation is simply that « [rescue] dogs and houses always find me.