Shorts sales do offer buyers an attractive opportunity. Typically, short sale listings are lower in price than similar properties in the traditional resale but the buyer needs to be aware the process can take much longer than usual as lenders may take weeks to review the offer. Not only can great deals be found by purchasing homes from banks through short sales, buyers have many more options in the search for the perfect property when they consider short sales as opposed to the traditional resale property. For a patient buyer, the reward may be a great home without a lot of the work that would be associated with a foreclosure at a comparably great price.

Pricing - The list price of a short sale may be no indication of the actual price the home will sell for. The list price may be too high to attract an offer or too low for the lender to accept. Some short sales are offered at unbelievable prices in hopes that a buyer will be enticed to submit an offer. Buyers should know that when looking at short sales, the seller may accept the offer but it then needs to be approved by the bank. As we stated above, the offer may be too low for the bank to accept and buyers should be prepared for the lender to take weeks when reviewing the offer.

The Waiting Game - To help reduce the amount of time spent waiting for lender approval, pay close attention to properties that offer a short sale negotiator when looking at homes; properties with this feature provide more assurance to the buyer that the short sale can move to completion. Short sale negotiators pre-qualify the seller, allowing for an expedited process. Because not every short sale will be approved by the lender, choosing to look at properties that have a short sale negotiator in place will typically save buyers time and trouble when waiting for an offer to be accepted by the lender.