Had anyone on here SUCCESSFULLY bought short sales in Long Island, NY?

[Corey Demuth]

I have been trying to hunt out a good first deal in long island for a while now, and I have almost totally given up on this area. But I work here and want to live her so it is really in my best interest to try like hell to figure out if there is some way that I can make profitable deals around here.

I have run into a ton of headaches pursuing short sales in this area. Here are some of the problems I've encountered:

1.) Brokers posting ads for houses that are not really valid prices. Example: Broker posts a house as a short sale, at a price of 224,900. After months of anguish, it turns out the bank really wants like 260k for the house but the broker/agent made a lowball ad just to generate interest/bids.

2.) Many real estate agents/brokers don't really seem to "get" how to even ATTEMPT to get a short sale approved. They claim they can do it but all they end up doing is wasting your time and for several MONTHS you are on the hook, because if that deal comes through you're committed to buy at the price you bid, which means you can't bid on or buy other property in the meantime.

3.) In the end the offer just gets rejected so you have wasted several months and lost other opportunities.

4.) Some of the promising deals vanish seemingly overnight, or never even get listed. I'm convinced some people have special connections and get the cream of the crop deals before us normal guys ever even have a prayer at bidding on them. I understand that's the way the world works but is there any way for me to crack into this secret circle?

Is there anyone on here who has bough short sales successfully? If so, I'd love to talk to you about it.