Some short sale sellers will make your life extremely “interesting” with their talent for putting on multiple mortgages and collecting liens.  You get to negotiate them all,  because if any one will not sign off, the short sale does not close.  This is why some Realtors will not take short sales with too many mortgages and liens. 

The first issue is how do you negotiate with all the liens.  Some of the people providing Realtor training say to negotiate with the last one first.  In other words, if you have a first loan and a second loan, find out what the second loan will settle for first, then negotiate with the first loan. 

You can also negotiate all of the debts at once.  The reason is that there is not a linear relationship between them.  How do you break a standoff? You have to know what is allowed under your local rules, the disclosure rules for lenders and the National Association of Realtors code of ethics.

When you get good at short sales, you can handle many liens at once and get them to a closing at the same time, and be able to avoid foreclosure at the same time.

For a more detailed discussion on this topic please go to http://shortsalesr.us/short-sale-how-to/short-sales-with-multiple-loans-and-liens/.