Potential Short Sale- Next Step?

[Sandra Holt]

I contacted a homeowner who recently had his house listed on the MLS as a short sale, then removed the listing after a couple days. I know that he's upside down by quite a bit in addition to being past due on his HOA dues to the tune of $2,500 and he also has a personal loan out on the property in the amount of $8,000. Of course he's willing to sell me the property but what should my next step be? I told him to contact his realtor (since it's a short sale) and to tell the realtor to call me so that we can talk. Other than negotiating with his realtor, is there anything else I can do? Can I call his realtor directly or call his bank directly and tell the short sale department that I'm interested since it was recently listed as a short sale?

One other bit of information: the listing was supposedly removed because the bank did not want to forgive the personal loan of $8K.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!