Man not being able to post until late every evening now is brutal. Lots to catch up on each nite. Farbet all of the outs include all of the contingencies that are specified in the Residential Purchase Agreement. These include right to cancel due to anything you find in the disclosures that you do not like, or a right to cancel based on ANY findings that you make during the due diligence period, or a right to cancel because you and the seller cannot agree on repairs you would like made, or a right to cancel because the home does not appraise, or a right to cancel because you could not get financing! Lots of them for a buyer to lean on and by cancelling before you remove the contingencies you should be getting your deposit back.
To all the other posts, I think that they are all pretty good.
Original poster if your realtor does not want to work on short sales then so be it. I will tell you that TODAY a buyer of mine had his escrow close and it WAS indeed a short sale. Another short sale where I am the listing agent is still going through processing.
So those who say short sales do not close are INCORRECT. If you have patience and I mean extraordinary patience, they can close.
If your happy with your agent then great, if not I am sure you can find another one up in Temecula who will work any sort of transaction for you.