You Don't Let Prime Real-Estate Sit on the Market

I'll be honest, finding an apartment when The BFF and I first moved to the city was one of the hardest things we've ever had to struggle with. Yes, we've had pretty easy lives, but seriously, the experience was SO painful. I won't bore you with the details (mostly because I'm too lazy right now to adequately describe the horror), but for two weeks, three amazingly generous girls allowed us Texan vagabonds to share the living room futon in their spatially-challenged Greenwich Village apartment.

For fourteen straight days we endlessly scoured Craigslist for anything that would work. After having two almost-signing-the-contract situations fall through, we were desperate to find something suitable. We had a checklist of required apartment specifications and had narrowed down our scope to a few, particular neighborhoods, but other than that, we were pretty open to whatever came our way.

We saw a lot of apartments. I mean a lot. Most were terrible. Like "a ply-wood 'wall' with a hole cut out for the front 'door' separating us from an annoying 18-year-old guy" horrible; like "a creepy stay-at-home chain-smoking creepster roommate" horrible; like "legitimate Craigslist 'wire us some money through MoneyGram' scam" horrible.

So once we found The One, we did not let it out of our sight. It had everything we wanted - good location, beautifully remodeled features, A DISHWASHER! It was love at first freaking sight. Yes, there were a few things that could have been better, but it didn't matter - we wanted it.


When you find something you've been searching for and realize it's everything you need - maybe even surprising you with hidden charms like courtyards visible from both sides of the apartment! - you lock it down. We knew that we couldn't let this one get away; we couldn't bear to live without it.

So after meeting a guy and dating for long enough to get a good sense of one another (the initial "getting to know each other" stage of dating obviously requires more time than judging an apartment - think a couple of months not days) and, if nothing has moved forward in terms of commitment (e.g. more frequent communication/hanging out/inclusion in activities/The Talk), I begin to realize that I'm not what they're looking for.

The longer a piece of property (i.e. a potential relationship) sits on the market without so much as a contract negotiation, the more likely it will decline in value. My mother is a realtor so I know what I'm talking about.

If you're really interested and truly wanted it, you wouldn't risk losing it. You sign the lease (or you buy it! Although I'm clearly nowhere near THAT kind of commitment, metaphorically or otherwise).

You're not willing to commit to me? To jump through some hoops to get me off the market? Sorry ... Snooze = lose.