A Short Sale is a transaction done to avoid a foreclosure.

For an investor, there are “two” significantly different categories of “Short Sales” you need to be aware of.

In both categories the “Short Sale” is the sale of a house in which the proceeds fall short of what the owner still owes on the mortgage.

Category #1 "Unapproved" is when the bank has not approved a “Short Sale” price. They are sellers looking for a short sell offer to present to the bank There no guarantee the bank will accept it at the listed price. These are a gamble and they are very often a lot of wasted time and effort. Unless you think the bank is going to bite, its best to stay away from these. Unfortunately many sellers are forced to go this route because many banks will not tell the owners what short sale price they will accept until after an offer is received.

Category #2. "Approved" In this situation, the bank has already approved a “Short Sale” price. You can purchase it for that price, and unless someone else out bids you, you will get the property if you are qualified. In this situation the banks will seldom come down on the price, or contribute to closing costs. You need to have your financing already in place when you make an offer on one of these. These take a bit more paper work and patience than a non-short-sale, but can be really worth it.

Suggestion: In either situation you really need an experienced “Short Sale” Realtor. There are some great deals out there, but you need someone to get to the bottom of it.

If you are interested in purchasing a home listed as a short sale, I recommend you contact me at robin@top10realestatevalues.com to find out which of these are worth looking into. We do not list short sales on the www.Top10RealEstateValues.com website unless we have verified that the banks have approved the short sale price.

If you wish to sale your home, and you owe more than what it is worth, I can help you short sale your home. While nationally only about 10% of short sales are accepted by the bank, I have over a 50% success rate in completing short sales.