"I'm one of those more difficult clients," admitted Mary Ellen LaManna, who recently bought a condo in Edgewater. It took her six years, but she finally found the home she wanted. Patience is required when a buyer has particular needs in a limited price range. Add persistence and optimism to the list of desirable traits, and the right home has a good chance of coming along. LaManna works as an executive assistant in Manhattan, so she focused her search for a condo on the Edgewater complexes for easy access to her job. When she started looking to buy, six years ago, she said, "Everything was out of my price range. I always wanted one bedroom and 1 1/2 baths. It's hard to find for a reasonable amount of money. Then prices started fluctuating." Prices of one-bedroom condos in Edgewater currently range from $189,000 to $499,000. All through her search, she worked with Geri Sheahan of the Nelson Chen Agency in Fort Lee. Through the online New Jersey Multiple Listing Service (MLS), LaManna would find condos that looked promising, and she would call Sheahan. "She always said, 'Sure, let's go look at it,' " said LaManna. "She never said, 'This is ridiculous.' And I'm fussy. I had to walk in and feel like it was home." LaManna laughed, "To put up with me for six years, you know she's a saint! Sometimes I called her every day." Eventually, she made an offer on a condo, but the deal fell through. A year and a half ago, she was outbid on another unit. Through the MLS alert list, she continued to receive notifications of new offerings in her category. She kept calling Sheahan to arrange viewings. "We must've gone to 50 places," LaManna recalled. Sheahan said her client would sometimes take breaks of six to eight months when the market wasn't looking good, but she kept coming back. "It was just a matter of a time," said Sheahan. "Prices are better now, interest rates are lower. It's a good thing she didn't buy back when she started out, when prices were so much higher." Finally they found a waterfront condo at Independence Harbor that had the requisite sense of home. LaManna felt it as soon as she walked in. "It's spacious, with a lot of sunlight and a huge closet," she said. "I had to give up the half-bath. But it's very convenient for work and shopping, a great place to live if you're working in Manhattan." A riverfront walkway enables residents to walk to several of Edgewater's shopping centers, restaurants and movie theaters. Other amenities include a clubhouse, a gym and exercise room, an outdoor swimming pool, a dog park, a playground, a tennis court and bicycle storage. LaManna bid under the asking price on the condo, and after a few days of negotiation, she agreed with the seller on a price. Getting a mortgage went without a hitch, and the inspection on the well-maintained, 17-year-old unit revealed no major issues. "It all fell together perfectly. It's what was meant to be. I get emails from her saying how happy she is," said Sheahan, who has no regrets about sticking with her client for more than half a decade. "Patience is important, and an understanding of where people are." LaManna finds the bus convenient to reaching her job, but once in a while, she takes the ferry. "It's a nice ride, and there's nothing like being on a boat and having the skyline of New York City in front of you. It's a beautiful ride."