Financing on a "Short Sale''

[Dominique Mickles]

Hello bp members, I was just browsing at 2am and I came across a town house in the area that I am actually looking to move to in my city. It is a "short sale" for 25k and of course it needs some TLC, and the thing is I am looking to purchase a property doing seller financing. Can I still approach a short sale with seller financing? and since it's already a short sale can the price still be negotiated?

[Eric Nurmi]

@Dominique Mickles If someone is in a short sale situation then the possibility of them being able to do seller financing is next to zero. The reason is they still have their primary loan and haven’t been making the payments. I know of people who have tried to do something similar and the sellers took the money, didn’t pay their primary note, and the house was forclosed on and the buyer got nothing. For prices on short-sales, often the bank has not approved a price unless a previous offer has already gone through. So, the price offered may be lower than what the bank is willing to take. If it is a local bank rather than a larger national bank, It can be easIer to complete a short sale. I’ve been in situations where the larger national bank was working through a short sale in one department and foreclosing with another. Neither were talking to the other. It is extremely inefficient.