Hi WhereIsHome,

I strongly urge you to contact your real estate agent, if you have one, and have them inquire with the listing agent/bank/short sale negotiatior that this approval can come in a time period that fits with your current schedule.  With your lease expiring at the end of May, you might want to look at other options just in case this does not work out, and many do not.  

I will fully disclose that I have not worked on a short sale since working with Redfin, as we do not support or write offers on these property types.  Prior to working here, I did several short sale negotiations and they took months to get approval.  Back then, banks we're not prepared to handle the huge demand for short sales and I hear it is much better now.  I hope I didn't discourage you from the process and wish you nothing but luck on the purchase.  

Our CEO, Glenn Kelman, had a great blog post on our site about short sales:

http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/04/short_sales_real_estate.html.  It explains Redfin's stance and provides great insight on short sales in general.  

BPO stands for Broker's Price Opinion.  It is a method by which a real estate broker evaluates the price of a property by following a set of guidelines and standards.  They use the market conditions, comparabe properties and other resources to evaluate and determine price.  In your case, the financial institution has requested a BPO to supplement or in lieu of an appraisal.  

Hope it helps!

Thanks, 

Marshall