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.