Here's the definition I find time and time again for this term:
transaction carried out by unrelated or unaffiliated parties, as by a willing buyer and a willing seller, each acting in his own self-interest.
What part of this is not true in a foreclosure or short sale, and what part of this has anything to do with "duress"?
ONLY real estate appraisers take the "duress" into consideration. I cannot see why. Again - when the frenzy was on, and you had to plop down $50,000 in the next ten minutes to get a seller to even consider selling you a condo, why was that not duress on the part of the buyer? Why is EVERY relocation and divorce sale not excluded? Why not exclude EVERY estate sale, EVERY case where someone has lost their job, EVERY case when the fourth child made the house too small? How about when you are on a relo trip and have 48 hours to find a house or else you will have to live in a hotel for three months with the kids and the dog? That's duress.
It's silly. If you HAVE to sell, why does that make that transaction different? I also think it's misleading that they have taken a phrase which means the same thing in every other legal setting, and added this "codicil" of duress. Call it something else! Call it a Duress Sale!