Short sales - quick closings?

Granted for buyers, short sales are a way to get a bargain.
 
But short sales can be anything but short. Unless homeonwers work with highly skilled short sale agents, buyers and sellers can get frustrated if the process is protracted, which may lead to the transactions simply getting abandoned. For upside-down homeowners, short sales are a way to avoid foreclosure. But for pretty much everyone involved, short sales are not a way to buy a house quickly.
 
Short sales—when houses sell for less than the mortgages owed on them—and foreclosures rise during tough housing markets. According to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, short sales and REOs now account for more than half of the home sales in the Orlando area.
 
Sellers faced with foreclosure may opt for a short sale because it does not damage their credit as much as if the bank took over the house. They typically contact a professional short sale expert and real estate agent like us and set a sales price, based on certain formula to get a house sold. Once the property goes under contract, the bank must approve the price. Getting banks to agree to accept less than the mortgage amount is what takes time.
 
The negotiations can become so complicated, with different lenders setting different rules. As a result, short sales take about a month longer than other home sales to complete. Banks typically take 45 to 60 days to even acknowledge they got the paperwork and to assign a negotiator to work on the sale so if you want to be succesully in short sale, hire the best team.