This may be where the most money is made when it comes to short sales.  Real estate investors are able to locate motivated sellers who are facing foreclosure, then build a relationship with them.  once the trust has been established (this could take 5 minutes, it could take 5 months), then the seller allows the investor to purchase the property under a short sale.  The short sale negotiation process takes 3 to 6 months to complete. While the negotiations are being conducted, the investor located and secures an "end - user" buyer who buys the property.  The proit is made from the difference between what price the investor has negotiated with the bank, and what he sold it for the end user. 

There is no limit as to how much profit can be made on the spread in this scenario.  Investors are cashing in on these times and making big, big, big profits by buing and selling short sales.

Several years ago, you couldn't even mutter the term "short sale" to a Realtor. They would've looked at you like you were crazy, or some type of scam artist.  not it has become so too familiair with Realtors, because now it is common practice to list a property, and have to perform a short sale with the bank in order to get the property sold.

Banks and lenders are used to paying a 6 to 7% commission on real estate transactions when they settle on a short sale, so nothing really changes for a Realtor when it comes to getting paid.  It is highly profitable for a Realtor to be marketing to homeowners who are behind on their payments or in foreclosure, so that they can secure their own short sale listings before the next savvy agent comes along. 

Short sale listings and sales are not for all Realtors.  Due to their unconventional manner, some Realtors would prefer to stick to what they know, not learn anyhing new, and leave the crisis or other Realtors to clean up.  If you're a Realtor and don't have a list a mile long of your own short sale listings, then you are missing the boat. Don't be afriad to take on a short sale in fear of not knowing how to handle the trasnaction with the bank. There are short sale mitigators available for you to send your files to for short sale handlings.  This will free up your time, and you can avoid looking like you don't know what the heck is going on in this short sale filled real estate market.

A very widespread complaint is that noone likes to work on the short sale file. They just don't like dealing or haggling with the bank to , quite frankly, not really know the outcome. This can be extremely frustrating to people who are not in the business of dealing with banks and short sales.

If you've been around the real estate arena for a while, then you've certainly had your share of short sale files, even before the "wave" came in. You know how to handle the loss mititgation department, and how to get the short sle pushed through the system in the quickest fashion imagineable.

You can make money by performing this service for other people. I know that you probably don't have time to do this, or you may not hav the team in place to take on other people's files. Bu t it's certainly a way to make money in short sales, even if you're not out there taking advantage of the market.