Is a short sale right for us now?

[Andrea Castor]

Although we've live-n-flipped and bought/held/sold three properties over the past 8 yrs, we now feel financially secure enough to really get a real estate business going. We've decided for now our main focus will be on flips, as 4 kids 8 and under keeps us busy and not a ton of time to deal with rentals. My husband can do all the work himself but it puts us on a bit of a time schedule. We'd like to have a house closed on, rehabbed, and on the market by Apr 1st when my husband's landscape business gets busy again. We'll then look for another one to start on around the Aug 1st time frame.

So far, we've found nothing we're in love with (aka, profit margins not large enough, property may not sell quick because busy street/one bathroom family house/possible risks with foundation, etc) BUT we did find a short sale. Mortgage is showing it was refi'd at $154k in Jan 2015. It was on the market maybe a month at $120k. Price dropped yesterday to $100k and became a short sale. It really needs VERY little work. Biggest concerns are huge deck and above ground pool all need ripped out and house reeks of pets. Rest just needs cleaned up, even has upgraded light switches, lighting, fans, siding, etc. BUT, its a short sale. Hard to believe that a $95k cash offer would be something the bank would even entertain. There is also the risk that the power has been shut off and if the temps drop below 30s, the pipes could freeze. Comps are looking around $140k BUT it has a new extra 2.5 garage and yard is 2x (.5 acre) all the other comps so hoping to list around $145,900.

BUT, should we make the offer and keep looking for something in the shorter term. Worse case scenario we get two flips almost at the same time? (And we only have the $95k cash so if we ended up using that on another property we'd have to find a short term loan from family) Should we not even make an offer? Thoughts?