worrry about that October 15 escrow deadline?

Forget about short sales
A short sale occurs when a homeowner is no longer able to make their mortgage payments and owes more on their home loan than what it can fetch in the current market.

They’re attractive from a price point, but they can take months to close. So if you’re after the tax credit, “you have no business looking at short sales,” says Steven Senter, a real estate broker and the owner of Keller Williams Fox Valley Realty in St. Charles, Ill. When making an offer on a short sale, not only does the seller have to accept the offer, but the bank must accept and approve it too – and that can take a while. “There’s no guarantee on when the bank is going to approve it – it may approve it in 30 days, maybe in 300 days,” Senter says.