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“Short sale” simply means the seller is trying to sell the home, with their bank’s approval, for less than what they owe on the mortgage. They must prove to the bank that they have a “distress” situation and can’t afford to pay the loan. They send a letter to the bank pleading their case. The bank either approves or denies the “short sale”, with either relieving them from any liability in the loss, or not relieving them.

Where you come in to play: you make an offer on the property, the seller signs off on it and you have a contract with the seller contingent on them getting approval for the short sale. This paperwork gets sent to the bank along with the sellers other paperwork asking for the short sale. It may take a long long time from the time you put an offer in to the time you hear from the bank. They are not just looking at your offer, but many times they are looking at approving or denying the seller’s request to short sell. Be patient, they may approve your offer, or counter.

If you can wait it out, there are some great buys with short sales.

There are 1668 residences listed for sale in Alachua County with the local MLS board.

Of these, there are 281 listed as “short sale” and 59 that the banks have foreclosed on.

The short sales range in price from $15,000 to $899,750 with square footage from 540 to 5157. As you can see not all short sales are low income homes.

The bank owned/foreclosed properties range from 1044 to 3227 sq feet, and pricing ranges from $24,900 to $439,900.