[quote=patientrenter][quote=urbanrealtor]Before you go all legalistic on their asses, you might want to recall that the seller is broke (hence the short sale)….[/quote]

A short sale is not the same as a bankruptcy. You can own an expensive BMW, a 401k, a stock portfolio, another property, and… lots of other things, and still get a short sale.[/quote]

Correct.
However, the seller has already indicated an unwillingness or inability to contribute additional funds to this deal. Even if this were an elective short sale for a rich person (which is rare but not unheard of) there are additional measures protecting the seller from action. Specifically, the CAR RPA (which is, I suspect, the document the OP references) generally gets coupled with either the CAR Short Sale Addendum or the San Diego Association of Realtors Addendum to Purchase Agreement (SDAR APA) either of which specifically excludes the claim option for buyers.

Either way, it is very tough to force somebody to pay a debt to a third party so that they can lose money selling a house to you.

There are exceptions to this but they are pretty rare.