A short sale could be denied for a host of reasons, but I will make the assumption that the home has other outstanding liens that the bank was not willing to pay to offer clear title. 

As of last summer the amount of student debt outstanding was almost $1 Trillion (with a T!)

It's written by J Scott (who is one of the people I quietly follow around the forums because he's just so damn smart) and you can read it in a few hours.

Not sure why Joe thinks this physician is crazy, sounds like his return may be outstanding and security position strong so I congratulate you on your recent success.

From my understanding there are no outstanding liens or bills on the property besides the taxes, but that will just be estimated into my costs once I get quotes from a few sources on the 2 units to maintain their use and demolishing the other 2.

It is worth it to go through a title company to ensure there are no other outstanding liens on the property. 

The following ways can help boost your score-  pay on time, increase your credit line as much as possible, payoff a big portion of the outstanding balance before running the credit check 

Full credit report with all account details, payment history, outstanding balances, judgments, etc.

About 20% of the time a small amount is held back for items like outstanding utility bills, missing items, or minor damages.

How do I even figure out the fair market value of the damn thing??