Short Sales, When are they Binding?

As many of you in the real estate business know, short sales are becoming more and more common.  They can be a very long, confusing, and frustrating process.  There are so many things to learn about shortsales.  There is actually something new to learn in every shortsale transaction.  Something that I learned (luckily it has not hindered me or my clients that I didn't know it) is that in a shortsale the contract is binding upon acceptance from the sellers (also known as current home owners).  This is very different than a foreclosure property, as those become binding upon acceptance from the bank.  I know many real estate agents, and consumers who think that that a shortsale contract becomes binding upon acceptance / signatures from the bank.   Wow to think that a buyer client could not act on their due diligence to get financing, appraisal, inspection etc and be legally binding to buy the house upon acceptance from the bank even if something was wrong with it.  The bank's approval of a shortsale acts for contract purposes as a contingency, much like a financing contingency.  Just wanted to pass along that little bit of information.  That is the way it is for the state of Georgia, it may be different in other states.