The mortgage servicer will complete their own value on the property and will accept, counter, or decline the offer based on the value they obtained.The Seller would need to authorize you or who ever will facilitate the Short Sale to speak with the servicer(s) on their behalf, if you have never done one before i dont recommend you do it alone. 

My goal is to take it to the next level and really ramp up my rental activity, which I am hoping this site will facilitate. 

Any suggestions on who to help facilitate the 1031 exchange? 

BRAND new home that boo boo cost 25k.framing a house where in you dropped a ball at one end and it runs out the next.. get vertigo in it. ( another builder not me LOL) but he hired cheap unlicensed framing crew.on the landlord side I have had everything you can imagine.. from suicide to destroying the house.. in one of my storage facilites we woke up one day and someone was living in the unit and had it stacked to the rafters  Hoarder ..

The last one we ended up renting out in order to facilitate a relocation.

Also could they change the ownership of the property to help facilitate the sale?

Permitting the dwelling or grounds to be used for, or to facilitate illegal activity, including drug-related illegal activity. c.

I'd be happy to facilitate a meeting with the owner of our brokerage.

You understanding your goals and vision are paramount to connecting with the right agent, we are not CPA's or lawyers and don't always know what is best for you, we facilitate real estate transactions and help educate you along the way.Hope this helps, best of luck to you!

Considering we have an established team back east, your investment endeavors out of state would be facilitate greatly because you'd be able to leverage our network.