Many hear about the phrase "real estate short sale" and do not fully grasp what it means. If you read the newspapers, or turn on the TV and the odds are high that you will come across stories about declining real estate market conditions and the increasing willingness of banks and other financial institutions to consider real estate short sales as an alternative to foreclosure.

In all parts of the country, real estate prices are down and the time it takes to sell properties has risen dramatically. It is no exaggeration to say that some regions are experiencing a virtual market meltdown (the Detroit market is one good example). A real estate market that is not doing so well is the giving the need for short sale real estate opportunities to grow.

A real estate short sale happens when a bank lets a property be sold for less than the amount owed on it. There are two conditions that must be met before a bank is likely to approve this: The first condition is that market values must be in a state that the property's sale price cannot cover the outstanding balance on the mortgage. A further condition is that the owners of the property must not be able to continue making mortgage payments on the property.

For example, a property that was purchased five years ago with an adjustable rate mortgage for 217,000 dollars. We'll also pretend that the owners had to take out a second mortgage for 10,000 dollars, which means that their total mortgage debt was 227,000 dollars. In five years, the percent that the mortgages have actually been paid off is likely to be an insignificant amount.

It's also likely that similar homes have a property value of 215,000 dollars and that the adjustable mortgage rate has risen four points. Additionally, we end up with a real estate short sale situation once one of the owners has lost their job.

For a bank, a foreclosure can mean a lot of time and money spent that a short sale would not. The reason for this is that the banks believe it is better to get the property off their books and accept a smaller amount of money they are guaranteed to get than to accept an unknown amount in the future. Those are the basics of a real estate short sale, though numerous complications can arise from having multiple owners and lenders not agreeing to a short sale terms.

For owners going through a real estate short sale, the experience can be a dreadful one, but there are experiences which can be far worse. In terms of items that would reach the credit report, there would be far worse items, such as foreclosure. On the positive side, it can represent a great buying opportunity for the smart real estate investor.

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