I had a short sale contract before. The house looked pretty nice with hardwoods throughout. Very Bright. Then it rained the day before inspection. During inspection, we found 1/3 of the roof was leaking and had dry rot. Windows were all foggy and had to be replaced. All but one bathrooms were functioning. It would take over $10,000 to fix these. So we asked for more price cut. The bank refused and we gave it up.
Sometimes, the owner stops the maintainance of the house and let it deteriorate.