My father is in the process of trying to purchase a short sale here in NH & I will rent w/my 2 girls since I am going through a divorce (I am very lucky & have an amazing father). The Agent has had my father's deposit and P & S agreement since middle of Nov 2010. The 1st mortgage has approved the short sale on 2/3/11 but the 2nd mortgage (bank of america) has passed the approval of the short sale to NCO, they keep telling the real estate agent 7-10 days, 10-14 days etc.. well now its nearly 45 days passed the original approval date from the 1st mortgage. The 1st mortgage has now told the current owners that if this short sale doesn't close by 3/12/11 (already past) that they will lose their HAFA money... well my real estate agent & the current seller have been calling NCO nearly every day & NCO has now told them to stop calling or he will file a harassment case! As you can imagine, both myself & my father are losing our patience, & not to mention the tension in MY home since I am still in the house w/my ex until this sale goes through, does any one have any advice?

Advice: never buy a short sale unless you can wait and wait. They are notorious for lasting forever, changing terms, the agents will accept other offers or suddenly decide the price is higher, etc, and they generally get away with all sorts of unethical practices because people are too busy to turn them in or don't know where to, or it falls on deaf ears.

One of the things that caused the mortgage meltdown is that lenders were very lax with documentation. So now they are having to go through a lot to get proper documentation and are leery about going without it. This may be the cause of the delays.

Many short sales are never approved. Esp if there is a second loan, since depending on what you offer, it means that the second lender will get nothing.

Even when approved, short sales can take up to 6 months or more now adays.

You may want to look more at foreclosures where the bank ( just one lender) already owns the property.