Ah... the ultimate Real Estate riddle... well perhaps not, but it's still an interesting question to ponder!

The answer is, in a nutshell, when someone wants a house badly enough that they are willing to pay a purchase price above what is being asked on a Short Sale listing so that the seller is no longer "shorting" their mortgage.

I never would have believed it in this competitive market, but this recently happened to me.  An agent contacted me on one of my listings, had a client who wanted the house, didn't want to go through the process of a short sale to save themselves a few dollars and asked me how much did they need to offer to change this from a short sale to a FAST sale? 

Now, clearly, this would be a cost prohibitive option in the case of many Short Sales, but in a situation where the buyer has some cash, and difference between what is owed and what the property is worth is not a hugely significant amount, and where the property is desirable and in great shape, well this really is a solution that makes EVERYBODY (Buyer, Seller and Both Agents) happy.  And that this happened to me and will close in less than 30 days was enough to make me do a little dance of joy (considering I was anticipating a 3-4 month close knowing this short sale lender)!

The downside?  Hmmm... well I guess I will have one less Short Sale negotiator to send a holiday card to this year.  Yeah, I can live with that!