The idea goes that as a licensed professional Realtor, you automatically have the upper hand over an ignorant desperate seller, and they might sue you (and your Broker) later for having taken advantage. 

Desperate sellers do desperate things.

I am ashamed that I attended the FB seminars during the pandemic, as I was unemployed and desperate to find a new job.

You have to find somebody that is usually desperate to sell or lease or an off market type situation where the situation is going to benefit the seller as much, if not more then you. 

Now (divorced) and carrying the PITI+HOA solo, I am desperately missing that second source of income and the perks that come with it.

I can try this out on the days that I am not renting the houses, but I doubt anyone would want to park at a residential home and charge their car unless they were near 0% and desperate for a charger 😂

Long story short, this absentee home owner called me and told me that he desperately wants to get rid of his investment property in my area.

I am aware of that possibility, but at the same time, the buyers have been relocated and are pretty desperate for a new place, and they've been extraordinarily easy to work with.

So, again IMHO, the scales tip to this being a way to extract a few grand from a desperate homeowner.Short sales fall into a couple of categories.

After going thru the motions when starting out I actually began to get calls from desperate homeowners who wanted to actually GIVE me their houses!