Short sales can be great opportunities for you but they involve a longer wait period to find out if your offer is accepted. Lets define short sale and then discuss the process. A short sale occurs whent he seller owes more than he can sell the house for and he asks one or more lienholders to take less than the full amount owed to them. When you are interested in purchasing a home that involves a short sale, you make an offer to purchase and the seller accepts. Next the seller has to put together paperwork for their mortgage company requesting them, based on your offer, to accept less than what they owe. It is similar to applying for a loan for the seller, they have an application to complete and they have provide supporting documentation. The bank that will get stuck with the short sale may require a short-form appraisal or broker’s price opinion before they make a decision. The red tape can last from 3 weeks to 3 months (or even longer). The worst one I ever did was one where the offer between the buyer and the seller was agreed upon in July 2010 and the closing didn’t occur until November 2011! I had another one where the bank never accepted the short sale and the person was foreclosed on while the buyer was still waiting for an answer. I’ve had them make people wait for 2 months then come back with a counter-offer to a higher price. I’ve had them accept the short sale and then find out through a title search that the seller had additional liens on the property so we could not close. I’ve also had them come back, after a long wait, with a requirement that the borrower can close within two weeks (which I always want to be prepared for). For the record I’ve done dozens of successful short sales! I am very familiar with the process and have some ability to keep things more on track than they might be with a less experienced loan officer. If you are buying a home in New Hampshire or Massachusetts, go to www.NHmortgages.com for a referral to a great loan officer.