[Rick Lee]

I'm trying to buy a short sale right now and my realtor is a Pelicanhead. We made our offer on June 29th and there is still no end in sight. Plan on a good four mos., best case scenario, from offer to closing on a short sale. I've read that only 5% of short sales in Phoenix actually close and I'm starting to believe it.

The fact that your kid is headed to college is of no interest to a mortgage company. They don't consider the college expenses in your debt/income ratio. FHA 203k can be a good deal, but it's a long process. How in the world does your landlord figure a 25% appreciation since 2006? What are they smoking? Don't be snowed by their BS about the after-tax costs of paying their asking price. Total BS. Might be true, but that's like going into a car dealership and having the sales guy immediately ask you what kind of monthly payment you want. Just insulting. Now, if they totally redo the place on their dime and bring it up to value, then maybe it's worth that price. But no property in the US has appreciated 25% since 2006. The benefit of going FHA is that their appraisals are pretty tough, so they won't be over-appriaising the place to get the deal done. And if it doesn't appraise for asking price, IIRC, the appraised value sticks to that property like glue for the next six mos.