Banks appear to be treating short sales as exactly what they appear to be; foreclosures gone bad. In other words, in the past, foreclosures almost always returned 100% of the first mortgage that the banks were holding, back to them and so they just waited the three months, sent the warnings to the mortgagors  and foreclosed but when the #%$# hit the fan and they got stiffed too many times, walla, short sales made a comeback. If you, as a Realtor, are looking at a possible short sale listing the first thing you should do is contact the bank; now make sure it's not the loan servicer but the actual first lien holder and make sure there is only one lien, more than that you either move on, or inform the other mortagees that you will do your best, if there is any money left past the first, which is highly unlikely and,  remember, when you call the bank, the person answering the phone usually has no authority, and the attorney handling the foreclosure, if it's at that stage, usually will also have nothing to do with the short sale, you'll need to talk to THE one person mitigating or handling that short sale; when you get them on the phone find out how many short sales they have done/are doing and if they'll be upfront with you about giving you a figure that the bank WILL accept. If they don't have a broker working for them offer your services to do a BPO (Broker's Price Opinion) and they may even end up giving you more business. As far as accepting the BPO, if it is too high they may turn it down, so if you are not the Realtor doing the BPO and it comes in too high challenge it and assert your business experience and knowledge of the markets and, of course, it always helps to have a partner (could be a wife) who is willing to do most of the leg (hard) work, while you blog away. As far as the mortgagors you are representing they should be aware that the banks ARE treating these as foreclosures and their chances of getting another home loan are very slim, for at least the next, probably 2 years, depending on how the banks respond to Congress and how Congress responds to the market.

Peace,