How to buy a short sale.  Advice from a lawyer who works with Realtors and sellers all over California and Florida A short sale is an opportunity to find a win win win - if you and the seller know what to do. 
Do not get your emotions to tied up in the purchase
Do not work with an inexperienced Realtor - Either on the buyers side or the sellers side.
Do make sure you know what you could sell the target property it for in todays market and then offer less
Do make sure you can convince the lender of the true value of the home. You must put together a compelling CMA/BPO detailing for the lender why it should accept your offer.

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You may want to make multiple offers on multiple houses at the same time - Make sure you consult with a lawyer othewise you might wind up having to close on multiple properties. 

You may want to make an offer which scales down the longer the lender takes to ok the deal.

You may only want to make serious offers on homes where the owner has a real financial or medical hardship. 
You do not want to work with certain banks right now. 
If you are only going to make one offer, make sure your buyer's Realtor knows which lenders respond quickly. 
Does your Realtor know how to sneak and offer in at the last minute?

You most definitely want to include language in you offer which allows you outs.
You do want to make the deal as "clean" as possible.   (your realtor should be able to explain why.)

You do want to be able to close within two weeks of acceptance by the lender.

You do need to include vital clauses in your purchase contract. 
You do need to make sure the seller's Realtor knows how to create a nice short sale package.  (I have seen very few nice ones)  If you want to make the deal work - you may want to get involved in the presentation and negotiations. 

You do not want to make any comments about the law to the buyer.
(In my opinion too many seller's Realtors are making counter offers.  There are times when that makes sense but, I think you should just send the intial short sale package in to get the negotiations started.  Some banks give the seller's agent net proceeds number it needs to approve the transaction.  (Knowledge of that that number then entitles the Realtor to say the short sale has been approved in the MLS - In my opinion) 

Buying a short sale is not magic.  What it takes is at least one professional who can put together a compelling package.