As a result of the slump in the real estate market people have come up with different ways of making their property more attractive to a buyer. One of these ways is the Short Sale. A short sale of a piece of property is one in which the property is sold for less than the outstanding mortgage. The owner of the property normally would get the permission of the bank who holds their mortgage to go ahead with such a sale, which, when complete, results in the bank accepting the proceeds of the sale as payment in full of the outstanding mortgage.
Now, an Investor Assisted Short Sale is a variation of the sale described in the above paragraph. Here, the investor is buying the property at a discount. Often the investor buys the property for cash and subsequently settles with the bank who has agreed to the sale. The bank recognizes that it is discounting the property, but this is still better than having to foreclose the property.
These deals take awhile to negotiate and so the investor uses this time to list the property through the multiple listing service and also advertises the house in the papers for sale. Eventually the investor finds a buyer who qualifies to buy the property at a price set by the investor. This price is still sensitive to the problems in the housing market but it is attractive to the buyer and attractive to the investor since the investor still makes a profit from the subsequent sale.