Professional Negotiators - Do We Need Them?

I had an agent call me a week or so ago on one of my short sale listings. Started out talking like he was king know it all when it came to short sales, then he says " I assume this is going to be professionally negotiated." I just told him that I knew a negotiator if we needed one." I didn't even want to discuss what he was thinking needed to be negotiated, but my impression was, he thought he could write a ridiculous low offer and that some " Professional Negotiator" could convince the bank to accept it. All agents are negotiators to some extent, and maybe the bank would ask for a prommisory note or seek a deficiency judgment that might require some negotiation since sellers usually have very little money. Then maybe there could be an appraisal that comes in too high, and lender will require some documentaion on how much work the property needs.

I think most agents can handle that level of negotiations, since lenders are trying to improve their short sale process these days. ( I just received another invitation from a Bank of America loan officer to come to his office so they can go over their short sale process and equator again, so I know they are trying to work with agents to get these short sales approved.)

So what qualifies a person to be a " Professional Negotiator"? Doesn't have to be an agent to Professional Negotiator. Does NAR offer any classes or designations to become a Professional Negotiator? Do these negotiators have a resume or any testimonials from a variety of agents and lenders showing their closing success rate?

Also, will these negotiators fall under the new FTC MARS ruling? Yes. So could I get in trouble if a Professional Negotiator that I hire screws something up?

And what if a Title Company recommends the Professional Negotiator ( which one did recently). For now, I going to keep trying to get by without the use of a professional negotiator. I will ask the loan officer at BOA when I go in for his seminar on short sales and equator what their position is on the use of professional negotiators, and also if they have any that they reccomend.