By now, it was early summer. “The inventory felt like it was gone, and the buying season was over,” she said. “I had sort of made peace with the fact that the apartment hunt was over until the next year.”

Still, she said, “I was checking StreetEasy nonstop, trying to make a miracle happen.”

Lo and behold, a new listing appeared. It was in the same Kensington building as the ground-floor studio, but was larger, with nearly 600 square feet. The online photos were underexposed and blurry. “I could tell they were bad iPhone pictures,” Ms. Reichman said.

The price was $260,000, with maintenance in the high $500s.

The floors were a mess. The bathroom had a tiny shower stall and no tub. The view included a parking lot.

“It was a dumpy apartment,” she said. “There were so many not-great things about it that I thought, ‘This is my chance.’”

Image She considered several apartments on Ocean Parkway, including one on the sunny top floor of an elevator building. It was nicely renovated, but already had an accepted offer. Credit... Katherine Marks for The New York Times

Also, she and Ms. Nemeroff got locked inside while the selling agent was in the hall. “When we tried to leave, it wouldn’t let us,” Ms. Reichman said. “I took that as a sign.”

She quickly offered $268,000.

“We went a little bit over,” Ms. Nemeroff said. “She didn’t want to lose another apartment. If the apartment was not perfect, it was fine. Her criteria were more about having that little alcove and getting to work in less than an hour. She didn’t need to have a cute coffee place down the block.”