Short Sale Offer Question

[David Roberts]

If a house is listed on the MLS as a short sale, and I wanted to put an offer in, does the offer have to be the asking price for it to be accepted, or do lesser offers get accepted?

My real estate agent said she was pretty sure it had to be the list price that I offered, and I didn't think the home was worth that yet, based on recently sold comps in the area.  House was listed for 50k, and I wanted to offer 45k.  

[Wayne Brooks]

Usually the listing price has absolutely no bearing on what the bank will accept, unless it's a preapproved FHA short sale. The bank will order a BPO after they receive the contract and all required doc.s from the seller.