I am not endorsing your desire to buy right now, but if you must…
Go find 10 houses you like better and offer $250k. Even if the listing price is $400k, just do it. It is a buyers market… so start acting like it.
Get a an agent that knows what they are doing.
Go find some homes that will not be short sells even with your low ball offer. Make your offer good for 24hrs. Offer a $50,000 deposit that goes hard the minute they accept your offer. Low ball with balls as one of my buddies says.