JP, I can’t tell if you are asking nostradamus because that is a question relevant to his post and mine.
I don’t know how an attempt of steering a short sale lowball would go. Obviously the seller couldn’t get too carried away or, as you say, a foreclosure would be in the works.
In reference to his question the lenders could try to cooperate if it were better than foreclosing but I don’t see a first holder being too generous, as in splitting the sales price by percentage of respective original loan money with a second, if the money isn’t there to cover the first. In this case the second could get a nominal amount instead of being wiped out by a foreclosure.
I haven’t reviewed this entire thread so I hope this is relevant? I really just wanted to smart off about the sellers!