IN A NEW YORK MINUTE

Ummm, I thought it was supposed to be easy to buy an apartment. Isn't there a mortgage crisis that hit Manhattan? I figured that we were going to have it easy. Sellers would great us at open houses with iced tea and bundt cake. They would beg us to buy their apartment. Not so.

Just a few hours ago I wrote about the awesome apartment that Husband and I found with the help of our equally as awesome broker. We saw, we fell in love, we put in a bid slightly under ask. Then we sat back and allowed ourselved to make fantasy renovations and dream of having two children who peacefully shared the second bedroom. I even already like the colors on the walls.

After we put in the bid, the sellers asked us for a little bit of information about ourselves in order to make sure we could pass co-op board approval. We both came off sounding smart, well rounded and quiet. The perfect neighbors. I marked up the floor plan with notations as to where the furniture would go. I ran through the pros and cons of having the couch on the east wall of the living room. I dreamed of owning my very own washer/dryer unit.

And then the bombshell from our broker. There were two other offers. TWO! How dare these people? I saw the place first. (Seriously, we were the second showing) and yet the greedy sellers still want to have an open house on Sunday. Clearly, they don't need tea and bundt cake.

So, Husband and I will sit around tonight with our check books and try and determine how high we can bid before throwing in the towel and hope that they can't secure mortgages. Grrr.