House hunting

Exactly two weeks ago, my hubby and I were doing a little house shopping. Thanks to Obama's first time home buyer credit, we have been motivated to not renew our contract with the landlord (even though we both love our apartment) in search of what we hope will be a good investment. However, being a younger couple who just graduated from college last year, this is obviously a completely new experience for us. So, two weeks ago, we walked into a house that we decided we wanted. We put an offer down on the short-sale and held our breath, waiting to hear something from the bank. Unfortunately, the bank is not as anxious as we are to get us moved in. In fact, even though our offer was extremely high, we have been informed that three other offers have been put down and are being considered. It is difficult to say what will happen. They told us that they would take 7-14 days to make a decision. Next Monday will be the 14th day. Our agent says we shouldn't count on getting an answer from the bank quickly, even within the timeframe which we were given. And so, we wait, and continue to look around a little bit. But I never realized how quickly we could become attached to the ideal of having "the" house. Eh, I need to remind myself that the offer has not yet been accepted, the house has not passed inspection, and there are still a number of financial hoops to jump through before we may even dream of all the things we would do if we got it.