It could happen with some lenders. But every lender is so different. I’ve heard anecdotally that certain banks are much more willing to negotiate in short sales right now, and some don’t seem to want to negotiate at all, even if it would be in their best interest to do so.
Don’t assume that banks will know how to manage their inventory of REOs. I remember from 1991 to 1995, that some banks were very poor managers of their new “assets”. Some didn’t have the right people in place to deal with their foreclosures. There was one bank called Northeast Savings, (no longer in business), that had a huge inventory of REOs in Southern California that they couldn’t unload. They ended up doing bulk sales to investor groups at something like 50 cents on the dollar.