Now for property questions...

Short Sales: the pricing is what ever the listing agent and seller want to put. if we are interested in any one of these, I will ask what the seller owe + the commission. The reason is that the bank has not given the sellers the price(99% of the time) and the listing agent is guessing. I see a lot of properties with great list price then sale price and that is due to it being a short sale. The owner still owns the place and he is hoping to sell it for current market value which usually is (these days) less than what is owed on it. The bank/lender is the approving authority.

the way a short sale works is, we put in an offer, the listing agent presents it to the bank. the bank reviews the offer by the board of directors or a group approved by the bank. The may meet once a week, once every other week or once a month. We then have to wait for the answer from the bank.

Foreclosures are different: these are owned by the bank and are telling the listing agent what to list it for.