Buying short sales is a very good deal for an investor because basically you are getting a home that was once valued at a high price, for much less.

The reason banks even think about doing a short sale is because they do not want to foreclose on the home and have it on their books.  Therefore, they would rather take a small loss than lose 100% of the money they invested into the home.

It also saves them time of actually having to take full possession of the home after the foreclosure and pay all the fees that goes with it.

It is also wise to buy a short sale because the odds of the property being vandalized is much less because the owner usually still lives in the property as opposed to foreclosures that are usually broken into and stripped of anything valuable.

There is also the issue of bidding. When buying a foreclosure from a listing, you have to bid on the price either at an auction or through a realtor. If there is more than one person interested in the property, you have hope that your bid was the highest.

When buying short sales, you are the only one dealing with the bank directly and giving them your offer.