<prompt> Human: I am looking to buy a home, but its a short sale. I realize they take a long time and require lots of additional steps which is not the issue. My question is that the sellers agent has come back to my realtor after I made the offer asking for me to lower my purchase price by 5,000 and write a personal check for the 5,000. To who I have no idea at this point, but the selling agent just keeps saying it will sweeten the deal for the short sale lender. This doesnt make any damn sense to me since we have our own lender lined up who will pay the lien holder for the agreed upon price. Also, the selling agentlender is now asking for my bank statement to make sure I have enough for the down payment plus the cash portion. This seems insane since I dont think its any of their damn business what my finances are; That should be between me and my lender. I also know there are multiple leins against the property - original mortgage, home equity, back taxes, and hoa dues. My realtor assures me that all current leins will be resolved prior to closing, but something just doesnt seem right about this.I am getting a really bad feeling about this and wanted to ask to see if I am overreacting or not.  <response>: Well, considering what I know about Short sales, it sounds like the owner of the house is attempting to make 5000 off the sale even though the whole purpose of the short sale is to clear all the liens on the property and the bank will take a lose on the house. The Sellers agent will probably get a cut of that 5k. Basically they want you to defraud the Sellers Bank. 