Can You Short Sale?

You can short sale, short sell, short change your neighbor if you want. I think sale can be a verb when it's coupled with short. :)

Jon,

We use to call it "settling with the bank" or a "negotiated settlement."

You may have seen credit reports noted "settled for less than full balance."

But, all those point out that the debtor settled for less than he owes. Short sale is ambiguous enough to let the dead beet to claim victim status. It's all about passing the blame!

Bill

You can't short sale your house, but you can short sell your house.  But once it's done, your house has sold as a short sale. 

John, you are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!  Your understanding of grammatical English is better than most who were born and raised here.  Short sell and short sale are both correct in the right context and although most use them interchangeably, that is incorrect usage.

That's why stores have SALES where they SELL things.  Sell is a verb, action, something you're DOING. Sale is a noun, a thing.

I'm going to (short) sell my house.

My house was a (short) sale.

Jon- whereas you had to learn correct English, unfortunately that does not necessarily hold true for those born here.  Sell is a verb and sale is a noun. 

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bored%20to%20debt

 

I think it was the slang expression "bored to debt" that made it possible for the common word pairing "can you short sale?" to exist. lol!

15 years ago they were called pre - foreclosures, we did a lot of them for the military back in the day.

Jon, my command of the English language is not too bad, when I am writing. I will admit to something if you promise you won't tell anyone....

When I was a senior in high school one English class we had to take was writing a term paper. I can't remember what the name was. Anyway... doesn't matter. The class we actually attended was nothing, we did nothing except for take quizzes every Friday on grammar. I failed each and every one. If you ask me, I cannot tell you why it is this way, or what it is called. It becomes like Greek to me. But, if I am writing it, I have no issue.

Fast forward to the end of the term. My term paper was handed in and handed back to me with an "F". Why an "F"? He wrote in red pen that it was not my work and he was failing me for plaguerism.

My father went to the school and told them otherwise. My father has the same love of writing and reading that I do. He watched me study the information, take notes, and painfully write and type the term paper myself.

I got an "A". And thankfully, the quizzes didn't count as part of our grade. Of course the teacher wasn't happy. He was sure I had cheated and didn't appreciate my father coming to the school. I think he secretly thought my father was lying, but what do I know.

To sell short, I get that. To short sale, I don't get that. A short sale, yes indeed. We are lazy and make up new words and our own rules all the time.

Andrea, the reason you don't get it, "to short sale," is because that's incorrect. Sale isn't something you do. It's something that is. Sell is something you do. To sell short is correct. To short sell is correct. That house is a short sale is correct, because it's not describing something you're doing, but something that is. Welcome home!