I work for a bank in adifferent part of the counrty, and by the time Sheriff Sale rolls around, we sure are not all that interested in a short sale anymore. We want a short sale so that we don't need to incur all those legal costs. Additionally, we can often sell them ourselves at lower closing costs than when some "short sale broker" comes in and tacks a bunch of additional fees on top that we wouldn't be paying if doing an REO sale.
Honestly, if one is already through the entire foreclosure process, and the property has already been sitting on the books as Non performing asset all that time, most last minute short sale attempts are usually delaying tactics-we may postpone confirmation of sheriiff sale if a legitmate short sale is due to close shortly, but we won't postpone the sale (unless the buyer is financed through us and we KNOW they are good-to-go). Many sheriff sales take a year or more to occur following initial default. If they threw a Ch 7, or Ch 13 in there, I've had foreclosures go two years. Even more if they do a series of Ch7 & 13 filings. Once the bank finally arrives at SS, they are not going to postpone if an approved short sale hasn't closed already. We'll simply wait a couple weeks more before scheduling confirmation.
Additionally, I see a great many foreclosure in which the house is worth more, empty and cleaned up (it is amazing how many foreclosures I see owned by "horders") by us, than when the owner is still in it. There are many cases in which we do our short sale analysis, send in our broker for evaluation, and hear back that the place is a pit, and having the tenants and owners out will add back to the value. Which creates a disincentive for those properties to be sold short prior to SS. In our shop a short sale means more before we have sat in FC for nearly a year- and before we were forced to accrue all those legal fees. If one wants a short sale, do it early in the game bso we don't have to sent it to the attorney.