If you are just a regular person like me and you need to buy a new home here in the St. Petersburg Florida area, can you take advantage of all the short sale opportunities we have in St. Pete?

You should be able to do so. You probably just took a huge hit and lost a lot of money when you sold your home and now it would be more than fair if you could at least buy a new home for a low price. The Short sales is one option to buy a property, house or condo for fair market value or below market value.

BUT, do you have the time to wait for the banks to make a decision? Where do you live in the meantime? Do you really want to make an offer on a short sale property and wait for 3 month, 4 month? Yes, that is how long it can take.

It all depends on the banks and how fast (or slow for that matter)  they work.

You won't believe what I have seen over the last year here in St. Petersburg and I am not talking about one particular bank, no so far every bank I dealt with was the same. Everything takes forever. So, back to the original question, as a regular home buyer wanting to buy a home for yourself to live in, can you afford to go after a short sale?  If you do not have the time to wait or the financial bacl ground to make offers on multiple properties, you have to think twice about buying a short sale. Short sales are ideal for investors that do not need to live in the home, they have the time to wait for the banks, they have the money to make multiple offers and they do not care too much about the particulars of the property as long as the numbers work out. What do you think, does this situation help our economy or make it even worst?

Anne Hensel

Real Estate Broker ABR, E-PRO,

C-CREC, TRC, ASR, RECS, AHS

St. Petersburg Florida

www.AnneHensel.com