Tonight as I was driving down the road I passed a "For Sale by Owner" sign in the yard of a Four-Plex.

There is s Tax Sale in my area (Virginia) today and again next month.  

I sell single homes and multi-home developments.My background is in the residential construction industry and retail building materials sales.

NOw on Craigs list you have scammer after scammer.. so I suspect some amount of phone qualifying would be in order.When one is in the sales business.. what is one's time worth.. your time is to sell. if that involves a drive well that's your choice.but basically its Qualify present and close.. has been that way for hundreds of years.when I used buy homes like this  we targeted what we wanted and we door knocked simple as that the only time we went to mail or phone is if they lived in another state..

I have a question about short-sale properties.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-existing-home-sales-fell-sharply-in-july-1472047382Sales of existing homes fell in July. 

Surely, the sale couldn't proceed without THEIR permission?

My father has been in the buying and selling (mostly commercial) in real estate for about 45 years and he has taught me a little bit.Always do a math analysis and look at your prospective properties before you make an offer or at least have a clause in the sales contract that allows you the time (about 15 days) to make a detailed inspection and possibly back out of the deal without a penalty that will hurt you too much.  

Do not cut any corner to make something look better.The more sales activity is probably where you want to be.  

I actually watched this one being redone because I look in this area a lot for homes for sale and saw the subcontractors there constantly.