Boy - this is just not my day. I downloaded Priceblink - but can't get past the second step. It installs. Then says to click to verify - and another tab opens up and I can see it working for whatever product it randomly selected. It lists all kinds of retailers and prices for the item. But then it says to return to the first window. When I do that, nothing in that window has changed. There is no place to enter an item that I want to search for. I can't click on anything in the screen. I tried it on my desktop this morning. Now I tried it on my laptop in case it was just a quirk on my desktop. But I must be missing something obvious. once it's installed, how do you open it and use it. Looks like a great add-on. Raven - I have an android phone. I tried to download some of the apps in that Lifehacker list - but google play just wasn't working. It kept forcing closed. I typed the name of the apps - but pressing enter to search led nowhere. So I'm going to try again now on home wifi - in case I was just getting throttled on 3G earlier in my office. I love the Amazon app that gives you 5% off. I get things from Amazon all the time. Getting the discount and ordering from my smartphone is a great option. Thanks. Lynn.

Peke - did your $200 shipping include installation? I've been quoted $500 from our dealer for delivery (from their shop, 20 miles from us), assembly if required (we may be getting the tall backsplash with the shelf), and installation. Not hook-up - that has to be done by a gas pro, apparently. I reckon $500 is steep, but the dealer has no competition within 500 miles, unfortunately for us.

It wouldn't set off any red flags for me. In my market, the only homes selling are those that are "bargain basement" prices. Nothing wrong with most of them other then the fact that the owner has to sell quickly. I might think there was something wrong with the house and possibly would hesitate if the home was significantly lower then comps and advertised "as is", but that's just because "as is" doesn't have a good connotation in my neck of the woods.

>Smart potential buyers will do their research in public records to determine how much was owed when the house was foreclosed on to figure out how much wiggle room there is between asking price and what the bank needs to get to break even. Sorry, but I don't follow this. In my area, there is no correlation between previous sale price and what the bank is willing to take. For instance, I've been looking mostly at townhouses in a specific complex. The last short sale that went through, the previous owner had paid 230K and the bank had it listed at 59K, which is about right. Currently there are two short sales: one where the last sale was 130K and the bank has it listed at 75K (been languishing for months at that price), and a newly listed one where the last sale was 235K and the bank has it listed at 90K. Actual REO/Foreclosure prices have nothing to do with previous sale prices, as far as I can see. I've also been looking at a little cottage that is currently on the market for 40K, foreclosed owner paid 499K at the height of the frenzy. So, for the OP, around here short sale prices tend to be optimistically high-ish, partly because the current owner could be on the hook for the difference between the loan balance and the sale price, but once they get into foreclosure the price is whatever whoever decides it should be to unload it quick. I don't think the realtors have much to say about this--it appears to be set from some corporate central office. Now that we're in the valley of fewer listings due to the robo-signing thing last year, everyone is asking much more. I expect that once the units held up by that start flooding back into the market, prices will drop again. But if you're looking for pricing logic, well, at least around here there isn't much.