Short Sales: How are they working?

[Jaden Ghylin]

I've been hearing a lot about short sales and the trend towards more of them to avoide foreclosing. I also hear that they are a lot of work and the banks frequently don't approve the offer price after working on them for months.

So, my questions are: Are you finding short sales as a viable way to purchase a property and meet the 70% ARV formula? Are you writing on multiple short sales in parallel? How many short sales do you write on to pick one up and how much time do you spend to write on one? Are you picking up short sales from homeowners calling bandit signs or are you marketing direct to them through mail or phone campaigns? Have you had trouble getting the BPO to come in at your price? Have you done anything to influence the BPO in your favor?

Any input would be appreciated. Just trying to get a feel for how well short sales are working as they seem to be trending higher and it seems like banks are going to start being more flexible with them.

-Jaden