One of the many reoccurring themes in that article and subsequent responses is the fiduciary duty to the seller. As agents we absolutely need to keep that in mind, but there are two schools of though here.
Ultimately the end goal is to sell the house in order for the homeowner to avoid foreclosure. You could argue that an investor coming in with his/her own money and closing the deal is a great thing. They pay with cash and don't care if the short sale takes 4 months or a year - where a retail buyer may need financing and gets tired of waiting several months.
On the other hand, you could also argue that negotiating an incredibly low sales price on the A-B side is not in the homeowner's best interest. The lower the sales price, the greater the deficiency. That could increases their tax liability and potentially introduce a whole bunch of other problems.
You can see by the article that some agents don't have a problem with the idea, but unfortunately most do not.
On a side note I think it is also interesting that on Active Rain, a primarily RE AGENT website, short sale investing is frowned upon. Here, an RE INVESTING website, it is not only encouraged it is almost expected. I guess we should consider the source in either case.
