Oh lovely short sales.  Your allure and promises of a “great deal” are hard to resist.  But are your promises empty?  Are you tempting buyers only to let them down in the end?  I was always told that if it looks too good to be true than it probably is.  And when I work with buyers, I let them know right up front all that can and likely will occur if they choose to submit an offer on a short sale.  And unless it is something they have done before, I tell them to try to avoid them unless they really feel the home is their dream home.

I know many agents these days that flat out will not list or help a buyer purchase a short sale.  I take the same approach but only with listing.  I will not list a short sale and instead refer it to an expert as I feel I will not do that homeowner any favors by taking that listing.  With buyers, I am more lenient because the fact of the matter is that short sales are abundant and in some price ranges if you did not include them, the buyer would be left with very little to choose from.

Yesterday I came upon a great article titled, “Short Sales: Answers for First Time Buyers.”  This is a great article for any first time buyer or buyer that has not dealt with short sales in the past.  I even found the comments about the article to be useful.  So if you fall into the category of wanting to purchase one of these homes, I would strongly suggest you read this article. Click  here and enjoy!

by Betsy Ballantyne (article via Trulia)