home owners getting divorced = short sale

[Murphy Kling]

I know, personally, a family that is divorcing. The husband informed me that they will probably short sale the property. When he told me about the divorce and the house was brought up, he said they expect to do a short sale and are expecting around $260,000 for it but he actually hasn't done the footwork to figure  out the real number yet. The house has a potential value of $320 + per Zillow. I still need to do my own comps on it. It's a great rental property as is. They had renters in it while they lived in Florida for a couple years, then moved back. It's a 2 story house on a corner lot, 2,600 sf, 4 bd + loft + guest br/office/ 3 bth. Inside it seems like the only thing it needs is paint. Outside, the husband, who is a friend of mine, had been getting some estimates on replacing the patio concrete & bricks / built in bbq as the patio was in disrepair. The estimate he had accepted for it prior to the divorce was $25,000 if I recall correctly. What would the best action I could take as an investor to get my hands on this property? I do know that I would need help from some private lenders. Note: they have not started the process yet for selling it.

[Juan Pardo]

Originally posted by @Joe S.:

@Murphy Kling short sales are not automatically approved. Short sales will nuke seller’s credit in a big kind of way. There’s no guarantee the bank would take a short sale low enough to make it a Slam dunk. I would probably consider taking over the seller’s house payments until I could resell the property at sometime in the future. This would save the sellers credit. I have bought a number of properties where the numbers did not justify getting a new loan, but I bought the property in such a manner that it was a win-win for both seller and buyer and definitely was a win over foreclosure or short sale. Keep in mind though if you agree to take over a person loan payments you better plan on paying that loan even if the house is not bringing in the income that you thought it would or if a renter didn’t pay.

That's what I was thinking too.. why would the bank accept a short sale in the first place?