[quote=Doooh]Tell me this, isn’t the most prudent thing to do, in this housing environmental we find ourselves in, is to find my own underwater seller who hasn’t listed his delinquent mortgage/home, and convince him to sell to me?

My choice in a Realtor is a distant second to finding, and creating my own seller. The best my Realtor can do is to scour the MLS like I’ve already been doing, fill out my paper work when I find something, and be the point of contact to the bank who is going to take it in the pants when I buy their house/mortgage.

We see that the MLS listings are for suckers who want to buy at “Current Market Values” with conventional financing, the old conventional way. Obviously things are done differently when your sitting on your own financing.[/quote]

You can do that.
But the problem is that the bank will generally review the price and evaluate the property to determine if the offer is at market.
They will allow some discount but will not take a bath irrespective of whether or not you have cash.
So its not like you will generally have the option of getting it significantly below market.
Banks generally require that it be active on the MLS before they will consider the short.
Also, working a short sale is very difficult (I am currently working 7).
The banks are disorganized and often non-communicative.
There is virtually no chance they will accept a buyer as a negotiator for the seller.
So yeah.
The professionals you use matter.
A lot.