These days postponements are the norm. One of my short sales is on the third postponement. If you can get a short sale offer in they will postpone it. If you can claim bankruptcy I think they will postpone it. The owner does not make the postponement only the lender or servicer can do it. So this seller could have been submitting a bunch of fake offers… Also you may want to check county records for bankrupcty stuff..
These are speculative statements by me ocrenter. If I have more time later in the week and you remind me, I will call up a little bird I know. She is an ace at digging down slippery situations and rooting out the methods used.