Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

A short sale is a negotiated agreement between you and the lender that if you sell the property they will take the proceeds as full payment and forgive any remaining debt. You start a short sale by listing the property and seeing what you can get for it, while contacting the lender to let them know what you are doing and asking them what you need to do to ask for them to accept a short sale if the offers come in below what you owe.

Your question makes it look as though you think a short sale is something a borrower can force a lender into. Actually, short sales are voluntary on the part of both the buyer and the seller. There are no "required documents," but when you ask the lender to begin negotiations with you, you should have recently reviewed, and have available to consult, the following documents: your loan application, your escrow closing documents, especially the closing statement, your note and your deed of trust, your most recent monthly statement, and any correspondence from the lender relating to late payments, default, and the like. If you have any evidence of what your property is currently worth, bring that too, to help make your point that the house is not worth the amount owed and that you could just walk away and take a foreclosure if they don't agree to a short sale. At the same time, you might want to consider asking for a restructuring if you can afford it and want to keep the house.

Ask them. It is their show and their decision whether to work with you.