First I would like to thank the creators/ membor of this site. As a first time homebuyer of a short shale home, this site has been extremely helpful and there's so much I've been able to walk away with regards to short sale proceedings. That being said, I have just a quick question. From what I understand based off of my online research, I'm in the last process of the short sale. I'm using a VA backed loan to purchase an FHA short sale however FHA does not allow closing cost assistance for non FHA loans. my contract asked for 3% closing cost and because of this, the lender has submitted a HUD variance in order to try to get the 3% approved since it falls outside of FHA guidelines. From what I've read this happens a lot and I shouldn't worry. My question is, how long does it take for HUD to approve a variance for higher closing cost assistance? And what happens (if) after the variance is approved? Their norm is typically 1% for FHA backed loans and we're asking 3% with a VA loan. Also, they're net proceeds far exceeds the required 88% even with the additional 3% closing cost which makes me confident they will approve the variance. Any help would be greatly appreciated. It's tough having to learn everything through online research.

Appriasal: 297000
Offered: 290000