Okay so the last time I posted the lender said that the house had appraised too low for it to qualify for a short sale.  But we could request a variance from HUD.

Well the variance was denied.  So as I was talking to the mitigator she told me that HUD had put some new rules into place the first of the year and my homeowner would now qualify for the short sale program.  But the property had to be listed with a Realtor, fortunately, it was, me.  I told the mitigator that the proprty was listed with me since I am a licensed Realtor.  She then informed me that I could not list it because HUD required it to be an arms length deal.  What makes no sense is that HUD wants the property listed so they can pay a commission to a Realtor instead of just selling it to me.  Oh well, no one said the gov. made sense. 

Anyway, now I have to find another Realtor to list the property for me so I can write an offer.  The good thing is that within the first 30-60 days HUD wants to net 80% of the appraised value of the property.  Here is where it gets good.  The property is worth 50-55K and the apprailsal came in at 28K.  All the bank wants to net is 22,400.00.  That is less than what I had offered initially.

I might be able to make this one work after all.

Fingers crossed.