Short sale real estate purchases aren’t for everyone. That’s the simple truth. If you need to purchase a home fast, a short sale isn’t typically the route to take. Short sales take a lot of time, and real estate agents often steer prospective buyers away from them.

How long is long? Five to six months is a good starting estimate, but some short sales can take a year or more. In that time, many buyers get frustrated and give up on the short sale real estate purchase, either because they want to move into a home, their financing is withdrawn or they’re just tired of playing the waiting game.

Banks are notoriously unresponsive when it comes to short sale offers. That’s frustrating to the prospective buyer, but it can be deadly to the short seller who simply wants to (or needs to) get out from under the home.

That’s the unfortunate reality of short sale real estate transactions. Unfortunate because the short sale is an excellent tool to help the seller move on with his or her life. A short sale can also help the buyer return the home to a productive state in terms of mortgage payments and municipal tax payments. It can also remove non-performing loans from the bank’s books. Most often – three out of four times – a short sale attempt fails and the home moves into foreclosure – the result no one wants.

Regardless of whether you’re the buyer or seller in a short sale transaction, a professional short sale negotiator can help to ensure that your short sale is the one out of four short sale attempts that does succeed. In addition to helping to conclude the short sale transaction, a professional short sale negotiator can also shorten the amount of time the transaction takes. This benefits the seller, the investor/buyer, the bank and the municipal taxing authority – a win all the way around.

Photo Credit: Ted Percival