In this short video, Florida real estate broker Keith Jones answers the question every underwater homeowner starts with: what is a short sale, really? His definition is refreshingly simple. “A short sale is when you owe more money to the bank than what the property is now currently worth,” Keith explains, “and now you need to sell the property and get the bank’s approval to sell.” Below, we expand on that answer so you understand exactly what you’re signing up for — and why the right help matters.
The plain-English definition
A short sale happens when two things are true at once. First, you’re “underwater” — the home is worth less than the balance left on your mortgage. Second, you need (or want) to sell anyway, usually because the payment has become a hardship. Because a normal sale wouldn’t bring in enough money to pay off the loan, your lender has to agree to accept less than the full balance and still release the mortgage. That agreement is the whole ballgame. Without it, you simply can’t close, because the title can’t transfer with an unpaid loan still attached.
That’s the key difference between a short sale and a regular sale. In a regular sale, you set the price, you pick the buyer, and after the mortgage is paid you keep whatever is left over. In a short sale, as Keith puts it, “instead of selling your property on your own and keeping whatever’s left over, you have to submit that deal to the bank and have them govern over that deal and say yes, we’ll accept this deal — or not.” The bank, not you, has the final word.
How the process actually moves
Keith walks through the mechanics in order, and they’re worth memorizing because the sequence rarely changes:
- You get an offer. Your agent markets the home and brings in a real, written purchase offer from a buyer.
- The offer goes to the bank. “You have to actually get an agent to submit an offer to the bank,” Keith says. The lender’s loss-mitigation department — not the local branch — reviews it.
- The bank verifies the value. “The bank will come out and appraise that property and verify how much that property is now worth.” Often this is a broker price opinion (BPO) or a full appraisal ordered by the lender.
- The bank decides. If the offer lines up with what the home is truly worth and your hardship checks out, the bank approves. If not, it counters or declines.
This is why a short sale takes longer than a standard cash sale. You’re not waiting on a buyer’s financing so much as you’re waiting on a bank’s internal review. We cover the full sequence on our Florida short sale help page, and you can watch every step in Keith’s short sale video guide.
Why the agent you choose decides the outcome
The most pointed part of Keith’s video is his warning about representation. “If you don’t have a good agent that is well versed on short sales, that could take a ton of time, and you could be denied — because that agent doesn’t know how to present,” he says. That’s not a sales pitch; it’s the reality of how loss-mitigation works. A short-sale file is a persuasion document. The lender is being asked to take a loss, and the package has to make a clean, well-documented case that approving the sale nets them more than foreclosing would.
An inexperienced agent who submits an incomplete package, prices the home wrong, or can’t communicate with the bank’s negotiator can stall a file for months or sink it entirely. An experienced one knows what each lender wants to see, how to support the price, and how to keep the file moving. In a short sale, the difference between “approved” and “denied” is often just preparation.
Is a short sale right for you?
A short sale is a damage-control tool, and it shines in a specific situation: you owe more than the home is worth, you have a documentable hardship, and you still have time before any foreclosure auction. It is almost always gentler on your credit and your future than letting the home go to foreclosure, and it lets you leave on a planned date rather than a court’s.
But it isn’t the only option, and an honest advisor will tell you so. If you actually have equity — if the home is worth more than you owe — you don’t need a short sale at all. A straightforward sale pays off the loan and puts the difference in your pocket. That’s why our first step is always to figure out where you really stand. If you’re comparing paths, our breakdown of short sale vs. foreclosure lays out the trade-offs side by side, and our guide to stopping foreclosure in Florida covers the clock you’re racing.
Where we fit in
Because we buy houses for cash across Northeast Florida, we can be the reliable written offer a short-sale file is built around — an offer with no financing contingency that won’t fall apart while the bank reviews it. And if a short sale isn’t your best move, we’ll tell you that, too. Request a no-obligation cash offer or call or text 904-606-9163. The earlier you reach out, the more options you have.
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Short sales carry real legal and tax consequences — consult a licensed Florida attorney, a CPA, or a free HUD-approved housing counselor at 800-569-4287 before deciding.