I'm a newbie preparing to be schooled

[Jeff Hogan]

I've searched through the forums a bit; but, decided to go ahead and ask my specific question.

I'm looking at a short sale....sounds too good to be true so it probably will be. It's listed at 59k and the home is assessed at 115k through the county website.

My question is two fold --

If I take a loan out I'll probably have to go up to 80k which would make my payments roughly 500 a month. Property taxes on this place are 2k a year ($125 a month) and then I figure another 1k a year for insurance.

It looks like it's going to be about $750 a month that I'll need to pay towards the loan. I'm pretty sure I can get $850 a month for the home.

Is it worth the headache for $100 a month?

What questions am I not asking myself?

Lastly...can I do this short sale w/out a realtor? I'm not one.