If you are a buyer I don’t think there is much effort involved at all. You need to treat a short sale in a fire and forget manner. That is, submit your offer, then forget about it. The nice thing is you do not have to commit to anything, you do not have any money tied up, and there is not much effort you put into it as a buyer at all.

The quality of the listing agent, as well as the parameters of the short sale itself are what really matter. For instance, there are some short sales that Battiata has listed that I have sent in offers for buyers and it has been very frustrating. Little to no response at all. Long timeframes. Conversely there was a recent short sale that we were involved in with a very very competent agent from Coldwell Banker and he Wells Fargo was the lender and he handled it very well and got it done. In other cases you just get broken hearted. Recently a short sale offer a client had was in decent position but someone else came in all cash and the bank took that offer instead.

On the bank side there can be challenges as well. Obviously 1 loan is easier then two. If there are two and they are both with the same lender then that is better then if there are two and they are with different lenders.

The biggest problem you will run into right now is that most of the properties on the market right now that are short sales have offers already in on them. You need to hope that perhaps the buyer has walked away.

In my book they are worth the trouble but treat them with a sort of hands off attitude, don’t fall in love with the property that you have a short sale on and don’t get obsessed with it.