A foreclosure is the forced sale of real estate to pay off a loan on which the owner of the property has defaulted. The seller of a foreclosed property is the bank/lender, so you will be working with a bureaucracy not a home/property owner. A home that has been foreclosed upon and has been taken back by the bank/lender is called an REO (Real Estate Owned) property. If the property is a home, it has typically sat vacant for many months by the time the property is first listed. If the home is listed in the winter, it is usually winterized to protect the property. When the property is listed, the lender has already prepared for the sale and completed the appraisals needed to establish the list price. The purchase price accepted by the lender is determined by the number of offers received and the lender’s motivation.    
A short sale occurs when an owner can not sell their property for enough to cover the mortgage(s). Home owners are usually still living in the prop; ...