It's important to understand that in a short sale, it's the lender that accepts the offers, counters, or declines the offers from the buyer, not the homeowner, although legally the owner still owns the property. Most of the time the lenders agree in principle that there is going to be a short sale, but they would not elude to the amount they would agree to unless there is an offer on the table. I have  seen this step in the process take up to 90,days or more, especially if there are more then 2 lenders involves and a mortgage insurance company, all this takes time. 

    This makes the process even more difficult given buyer's attitudes and choices in the market today. As these sales become more prevalent, lenders  are using companies that are assetts management companies that are doing just short sales and using Real Estate Agent for appraisals to  quickly handle these steps so as not to lose deals.

You may be saying that this sounds like a pretty good deal for the struggling homeowner, but there are some issues to be aware of. First, should the lender "forgive" the shortfall amount for the homeowner, a taxable event is likely to occur. Uncle Sam considers the amount forgiven by the lender to be taxable income. Also, not all lenders will forgive the shortfall amount, they may require it to be paid back over time. In the case of multiple mortgages on a property, the secondary lenders may attempt to garnish the homeowners wages as recourse. And there is also an impact to the credit worthiness of the homeowner going forward. A short sale will likely result in a 50 point hit on the home owners credit score and will take at least a year to "work-out". That's a lot more appealing to the minimum 100 point impact on your credit score and 11 years to "work-out" most foreclosures creates.

The bottom line is if  you are having problems making your mortgage payments, contact a real estate agent don't call your friend or your relative call an experienced professional and lender sooner than later time is of essence. Ask to speak with a supervisor in your lenders Loss Mitigation Department to get the process going. Waiting to long will result in more harm than good and fewer options for you the homeowner.