Short Sale on mortgage from 1999... need help

[Ivan Poon]

Hi guys, i need help on this situation.

I'm interested in a 3 bedroom raised ranch with a living area of 1300 sqft (and a finished basement of 580, but they never pulled permit for that so i guess it's not 'officially' part of the liveable space, according to the town records). This house is listed with an RE agent as being a 'potential short sale'.

average sale price for 3 bedroom in the town: $274,000

Listed price for this property: 300K (which i think is pretty close to FMV)
House was last sold to the current owner in 1999 for 195K

Based on the amortization of the mortgage, i estimate that the balance of the remaining mortgage is around 170K

I've talked to some RE agents and they tell me they can get around 20% off fair market value of the home (around 30% off the remaining mortgage) if they do a short sale in the area, but i think those are for homes that were purchased during the peak.

Since this particular home was purchased in 1999 and the mortgage is quite low already, would it be possible to negotiate down to just paying the balance of the mortgage (or even less?)

How would you handle negotiations on price with this?

The RE agent told me they got 30 offers (he could just be bs'ing me), but he's waiting to hear back from the bank.

Edit: OHHHHHH forgot one more thing, the agent mentioned that one of the two owners moved out (hinting at divorce maybe?).