I wanted to talk about the myths about short sales from a buyers perspective. Short sales can sometimes take a while (an understatement) to go through the approval process. If you are in a rush to get into a home, do not put in an offer for a short sale. In Georgia the average time to complete the purchase process is between 14 days to 45 days. Short sale approvals can take up 
to 90 days, sometimes even longer which will extend the closing process. That's the major negative issue for most buyers. No one wants to wait that long to find out if the bank is happy with the price the buyer has offered. But short sales can turn out to be real good buys. If you are interested in buying a home that is a short sale, have an agent show you comps of homes that are currently listed or have sold in the last 6 months that are comparable to what you wish to purchase. If your short sale is at, or lower in price than the market price of other homes in the area, its a good deal, especially if the home is in pretty good condition, even better if its vacant. But here are important things you need to find out from the seller or listing agent before you put in an offer:
to 90 days, sometimes even longer which will extend the closing process. That's the major negative issue for most buyers. No one wants to wait that long to find out if the bank is happy with the price the buyer has offered. But short sales can turn out to be real good buys. If you are interested in buying a home that is a short sale, have an agent show you comps of homes that are currently listed or have sold in the last 6 months that are comparable to what you wish to purchase. If your short sale is at, or lower in price than the market price of other homes in the area, its a good deal, especially if the home is in pretty good condition, even better if its vacant. But here are important things you need to find out from the seller or listing agent before you put in an offer:
How many loans (mortgage liens) are on the property? 2nd mortgages usually lose big on a short sale and they can sometimes be the sticking point for a full short sale approval. The 1st mortgage company holds all the cards as the 1st lien holder. If the amount of the payoff is less than the balance of the 1st mortage, then any funds that the 2nd mortgage company will receive will come from the 1st lien holder. If the 2nd mortgage company is getting less than 10% of the balance from the 1st lien holder, they may require the property owner to bring additional cash at closing, which may kill the entire deal if the property owner has no cash to give. If there's one lien, the approval will come much smoother and faster. Once the 1st lien holder is happy with their net, there is usually no cash requirement for the property owner at closing.
Is the property a primary residence or investment property? Again it comes down to money. With a short sale, banks are much more willing to pay unpaid HOA liens, funds towards 2nd mortgage liens, etc if its a primary residence of the seller. If its an investment property, the bank may not be willing to pay any of those items to approve the short sale, and what they don't pay, the seller will have to pay to make the deal work. If the seller doesn't have the money......
When the 1st mortgage lien is a fannie mae lien, it may take a little longer to get an approval. The bank has to get an approval from the investor, and in this case, the investor is fannie mae, they have tons of short sale requests to review, it may take longer than usual.
You can find some excellent deals through short sales. I have had several that were approved in 30 days or less, it just depends on the bank. I have short sales priced at $105,000, $139,000and $159,000 all 4 bedrooms and in excellent condition.
