The Listed Price of a Short Sale Property

Reader Question: If a home with a short sale is listed at 3500 is that all I would have to pay?

With short sales, closing costs may still apply, as they do with any other home purchase. So there could be other costs beyond just the listing price. The thing to realize with a short sale is that the mortgage lender typically calls the shots. In a normal real estate transaction, you would be able to negotiate directly with the seller -- for example, to negotiate who is going to pay the closing costs.

But with a short sale, the seller's lending institution will make many of those decisions. If a lender refuses to pay for some of the normal closing costs like transfer taxes, then you might have to pay for that out of pocket.

Short sale properties are typically sold "as-is" too. So you may incur some fix-up costs after the sale.

Aside from these (mostly obvious) add-ons, you typically won't encounter any hidden fees on a short sale property. The lender wants to sell the property as quickly as possible, they won't play any games like that -- they should be pretty straightforward.