Finding an Apartment (Part III)

Show Me the Money!

We had found THE apartment – but now we still needed to find the certified checks to close the deal.

Luckily, Ward – he's a consultant after all – had thought about the money in advance and had made an appointment back in Belgium with Chase (the consumer bank of JP Morgan Chase) to open a bank account. Opening an account went amazingly easy and fast – the same day we had our first American bank account and we could already wire the money we needed. However, the closing of the deal still didn't go that smoothly as we hoped.

Monday evening the money was transferred – however, Tuesday was a bank holiday, "Veteran's day" or "Wapenstilstand" in Dutch. Only Thursday evening we got the happy confirmation that the money had arrived, while Friday afternoon the signing of the lease was already on the agenda… All the time in the world? The same evening we went to the nearest Chase branch in Chelsea to collect our checks. Sufficient funds on our bank account, yes, but when the kind lady behind the counter saw two foreigners without American ID (only a strange brown booklet from an exotic country), without bank cards (those were still on their way), without any paperwork to confirm their existence to the bank (as this still needed to be entered into the system of Chase) just before closing time asking to write out a huge amount… that's where it went wrong. "No, thank you, come again…"

So we brought in the big guns, early Friday morning we went to the biggest Chase branch in New York – the one on 5th avenue – and patiently we explained our situation… and *drum ruffle* … we got our certified checks! One step closer to the signing of our lease.

However, we still needed to face the arrogant stereotype New York real estate lawyer representing our landlord. This guy was "time is money" written all over him… I pointed out a clause that did not make sense in our situation (OK, I can't help it, I'm a lawyer, I can't just sign a contract without changing anything) and kindly requested to just replace it with a new, more appropriate but harmless sentence. The real estate lawyer responded very helpfully: "Don't touch our templates… if you touch our templates, no deal!" – and babbled about another clause that did not relate in any way to what I had asked him to change. Just to prove, lawyers can be full of bullshit (ouch, admitted by a lawyer black on white – this will haunt me!). In the end, I just gave in as I didn't want to rip Mr. Big Real Estate Lawyer out of his "template cocoon" and since we really, really wanted the apartment. Though I have to say, once we handed over the check with his broker fee, the real estate lawyer was much friendlier....... maybe, I should just take it all back.

*** For the record, the above is not a generalization of real estate lawyers - I know a lot of great real estate lawyers who are very helpful, capable and intelligent ;-) ***

So that's how Evelyn and Ward got to sign their lease agreement for their very first New York apartment! A special thanks to our broker!

Stay tuned for more adventures…