First of all, forgive me, I really know nothing about short sales but I'm going to do my best to describe our situation.

My husband and I put an offer in on a BofA short sale in New Jersey (Sussex County) in June. We've had a hard time getting information from the real estate agent about the status of the sale. She's always very vague and I understand that she can't make guarantees about what's going to happen or give us information that she doesn't have, but we always have to contact her to find out anything at all and we have to really press her to get her to explain what things mean. Today after several phone calls, the agent told us that the bank had approved our offer, but now the sellers need an FHA variance. I have no idea what that means and we couldn't get her to explain it very well.

Any information about this kind of situation would be greatly appreciated. How long can we expect this step to take? We really need to be into a new house by the beginning of December and I'm starting to feel like we'll never make it with this place.

The current owners moved out about two months ago but they are keeping it maintained as if they still lived there. I don't believe they've made a payment on the house in at least 9 months, maybe more.

Again, any information would be a great help!