" I stay away from short sales!" Can anyone tell me why a professional would utter these Words?

There are so many pit falls with Short Sales.  In our market area, only 14% close on offers for a many reasons.  The quickest we have closed is 4 weeks and the longest is 16 months.

We need to educate our buyers on how long it will take for a short sale to go through. They think they understand but the stress of the months of waiting to own the home can be very stressful to them and you may lose them as a buyer.

The shorts sales we have worked have been very difficult and stressful. I think we could have worked several other deals with the amount of energy we put into one single deal.

When I have the first buyer interview with a new client, I discuss short sales and REOs & then let the CLIENT decide if they want to go in that direction. Many buyer clients simply do not have the time to risk/wait on short sale approval.

As for the agents who won't touch short sales: I think there could be several reasons for that. One being that they are afraid to navigate the process (though really, as a buyers agent there isn't that much to navigate, unlike the listing agent). Or maybe they don't want to wait months and months for a (possibly reduced) paycheck.

In most cases it is the buyers who want nothing to do with them -- in our market less than about 16% of the short sale homes that get contracts on them ever close -- and the ones that do take months and months -- so if a buyer needs a home in the next 30-45 days these properties do not offer any assurance that the time frame will happen ----- for buyers without a timeline to get in a home, short sales can often times work. All the best in your market.

Yeah, one of the big problems I warn about is the emotional roller coaster. Sometime it can take 2 weeks to 2 months to get a response. Buyers who need to close by a certain time can get tied up only to have their offer rejected or beaten by another that came in after theirs. Most homes are as is and this also doesn't work for some people. If you have a deal that takes a long time and then they lose the house this can sometimes cause them to stop looking or go with another agent even if you didn't do anything wrong. There are a multitude of reasons BBank deals can be a wrong fit. For some they are good, but it is a different process and timetable and situation with the home and negotiations. Many of the contracts required are also way slanted to the banks and have the buyers giving up rights they had with regular homes.

And to take off on that Steve, it probably depends on what your market looks like. My market has an oversupply (mix of short sales, REOs and traditional) so most of my buyers can avoid short sales if they wish.