Sounds like your agent is giving you good advice. Check all the other questions here on Trulia from people who made offers on short sales, and they're waiting months for a reply. And remember, when the reply comes, it may not be positive. It's really a gamble. And there's seldom a way to speed up the process. So, bottom line is that if you're really interested in a short sale, you should be prepared to wait for months, recognizing that even then the answer may not be positive.

You might consider expanding your criteria a bit. First, you may find some good deals that aren't short sales. Just owners having to compete against short sales in their neighborhoods. And don't rule out foreclosures. If a short sale fails, and a foreclosure occurs, then the bank owns it, and it comes back on the market. Buying a foreclosure isn't a piece of cake, but people I know (including a number of people who work the Maryland foreclosure market) say that foreclosures, in general, go quicker and more smoothly than short sales.

Good luck.

I just spent over an hour in a class disscussing the short sale issues in Maryland. Many of the homes listed as short sales are not truley seller hardship sales. When a seller finds out they will have a $50,000 lien against them the whole sale could fall apart. In our office we are finding that it is taking months for a response. It does depend on the bank as some respond in a month and some in 9 months. The Washington Post recently had an article saying these same things. The best buys are those homes listed within 10% of a short sale in good condition. A good deal is really what you are probably looking for.

The referenced article does quite a good job of explaining short sales from a buyer's perspective. This may help you understand your situation.

Protege,

First, your agent's answer should be a question, which is, "What action is in your best interest?" As mentioned previously, if you don't "have to be" in home in a hurry, then it's hard to beat the value of buying a short sale, as long as you really know what it should be worth in the current market.

Use whatever resources you can drum up to determine which direction your area is heading. One of the last things to do is buy into a short sale in a neighborhood where values are still continuing to slide, probably due to the continue number of short sales...kind of a circular situation eh?

Best of luck,

Jeffrey

Are you in a hurry? I would wait 4 months to save 40K, that is 10K per month savings. But if you're in a hurry, your realtor is right, it takes longer to buy short sale property.

I have both listed and sold short sales and pre-forclosed homes. I haven't heard of them taking 4 months, but they can take some time, because of the current backlog of bank owned properties. It isn't an easy process,,,,, if the homes are in good condition,,,, I would say, ride that wave and have your broker put pressure on the listing agent for a daily report. Might drive the agents nuts,,,,,, but it is one way to stay on top of the status. I have found, that as an agent, I have had to repeatedly call a listing agent who had about 50 bank owned listings,,,,, I would find that if I didn't call her at least every three or four days, then it would pass to the back of her mind. Some of these agents are just toooo busy to be paying attention to all of the details. If you like the house, press onward! If you have any hesitations,,, follow your instincts, that is what God gave them to us for!

short sales are ok if preapproved by the bank