Congratulations on deciding to purchase a home. Right now is the best time to buy. Prices are low, interest rates are under 6% and sellers are offering discounts and incentives for you to consider buying their home. However, what about making an offer on a short sale property? There are a few things that you as a buyer need to be aware of before making an offer:

First, if you fall in love with a home that is a short sale and decide to make an offer, be prepared to wait a few extra weeks or months for your offer to be accepted. With a short sale, the listing agent has to get approval from the bank before they can accept your offer and open escrow.

Right now lenders are overwhelmed with the number of short sales and foreclosure properties they are dealing with and it can take weeks or months to get the bank to say yes to your offer. Keep this in mind when you are submitting an offer on a short sale.

Second, when writing your offer, try to keep what you are asking for down to a minimum. Lenders typically want to keep their overall expenses down and therefore don't want to pay for repairs, termite work, home warranties (although some do), and thousands of dollars in closing costs. Knowing this, lenders are willing to give you a break somewhere else: The price!

Lenders would rather give you a flat discount on the price rather, than open themselves up to costly repairs and high closing costs. All lenders know that short sales can cost them tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars and with the declining home values in some areas, the longer it stays on their books, the more it could cost them in the long run. Lenders would rather give you a discount of tens of thousands of dollars now (sometimes as much as $50,000 or more depending on where you are buying) than having to lose that and possibly more in the future.

If the home does need some repairs, such as carpet, paint and more, then factor this in to the price you are willing to offer. If necessary, take photos of the damage and have the listing agent submit it to the lender with your offer. Remember, the lender hasn't seen the home so they just assume everything is fine with it. If you show them it needs repairs, even minor ones, they may just be willing to accept your offer.

When the lender accepts your offer and you open escrow, please be flexible. There are still a few things that must be done that your agent will take care of, however since you still have to deal with the lender, it can take a little extra time. Escrow's typically run between 30 and 45 days.

Just remember that even though it took some extra time, you saved a lot of money buying a short sale, and that is worth every penny!