Short Sales are when the seller owes more on the home than he can sell it for and asks the bank to forgive some of the mortgage. All Short Sales are subject to Lender approval. Although there are deals to be found, there are also a lot of pit falls and obstacles too. In Florida it is customary for the seller to repair things found during an inspection up to a certain dollar amount as defined in the offer. This doesn’t apply to short sales. Short Sale  homes are sold “As Is with Right to Inspect” You have to hire a home inspector to check out the house and if you don’t like something you can walk away. The seller usually pays for title insurance in a “normal” transaction but not in a short sale. That expense becomes the buyers. In a normal sale you make an offer and give the seller something like 24 to 48 hours to accept, reject or counter. In a short sale it can take 30 to 60 days to get a response from the lender. Finally, if all this wasn’t enough the lender can reserve the right to walk away from the transaction and foreclose and the buyer would loose any money spent on home inspections, surveys ect.  

    I think short sales present an opportunity to get a great deal as long as the buyer knows what they are getting into.

• If you need to have a reliable closing date a short sale may not be for you.
• If you lack patience with bureaucracy a short sale may not be for you.
• If you need down payment assistance a short sale may not be for you.

  To see an example of an Ocala Short Sale.

  If you are interested in short sales I can set you up a Listing Cart on the Ocala Marion county MLS and load every short sale in the county into it. Every time a new short sale comes on the market it will be added to your cart and you will be notified via email.