Short Sale & I didn't know it

[Jennifer Williams]

Recently made an offer on a house that my realtor showed me, it was a listed for $140,000, then dropped to $120,000 (as a normal listing). Made an offer of $90,000 because it is sitting vacant, and not in as desirable condition compared to the other houses on the market in the neighborhood. We hear back from the seller's agent almost 24 hrs later, they accepted!---but its a short sale, they need to wait on the bank now... It wasn't listed as a short sale though. When my realtor asked why it was listed normal on the mls, she just said oh well its been on there since october and I just didn't get around to it....fishy. There was one offer on the property before us that fell through--probably because they were waiting so long on the bank. The good news is that the bank is through most of the steps and has been out to the property for the appraisal already. My realtor seems to think it will only take a couple weeks max. So we write up another offer based on it being a short sale, still contingent on inspection and that the closing period will be determined when we have agreed on a price. We have $500 earnest money on this and it cannot be walked through by the public anymore, so no other offers can come in based off viewing it. If we get the house for our asking it would be a good comfortable flip project. I will most likely wait out the bank on this one. In the mean time I am looking at other projects knowing this short sale could take a long time. This is my first short sale experience so what do you all think? Does it sound like it will take months or weeks? Should I look into other projects in the mean time. This is also my first go at flipping a house too. so I'm a little nervous about having two projects at once, but I don't like twiddling my fingers.