Should I buy a short sale?

 Short sales are a wonderful way to find a deal if you know how to use make offers. If you don't know how to make offers the right way you will find short sales an exercise in frustration. First you need to understand that most short sales don't work out. I would venture to say that aproximately 20% are successful.... Buyers that do it correctly can and do land some great deals....

First off you need to understand that commons sense does not apply when dealing with big banks and making offers... The banks have an illogical (putting it nicely) thought process for approving short sales... After seven years of doing short sales I have come to have somewhat of an understanidng of their process.. However much of the process is obscured from the consumers perspective thus making it harder to determine the actual criteria they are using to make an approval situation.

If you decide to make an offer on a property using a short sale here are a few tips:

1. Have a long time line to close 90-180 days.

2. Don't expect the bank to give the property away. They are going to sell it for as close to fair market value as they can get. They are going to get an appraisal and base acceptance on this value and usually look for 80-85% of this value net to them.

3. You need find out if there are any judgements, liens, etc... on the property or you could waste a bunch of time to only find out there is a judgement against property that makes it unfeasible.

4. Is the seller in Bankruptcy or planning to file soon..?? This can make or break a deal. It is possible to buy a property in bankruptcy but makes it much harder.

5. Get an agent that is very experienced in the short sale business so that your offer is properly constructed and can help navigate through the tricky process.

http://www.avalonpropertiesgroup.com