How much should I offer on a short sale?

[Aaron K.]

I decided to go with a real estate agent that is inexperienced with short sales.

He is a personal friend of mine and we are both new to the idea. We have found a couple different properties. These places would normally be outside of my price range, but he insists that we could probably make an offer that a bank would accept.

I don’t think it’s very practical, due to my lack of experience, but I love two of the properties we have seen and we could turn it into a really great investment.

The question is, how much should we offer usually? Is there a magic formula or percentage?

Also, how long does it usually take to do the whole process?

Sorry for the newbie questions!