Real estate agents are stepping up pressure on mortgage servicers to reform the short sale process.
This past week, the California Association of Realtors began placing full-page ads in seven California newspapers calling for servicers and regulators to make changes to the short sale process, such as requiring banks to respond promptly to short sale offers.
"Horror stories abound from potential homebuyers and realtors forced to wait 90 or more days for a response to a purchase offer or being required to fax short sale applications or other paperwork as many as 50 times," said Beth Peerce, the president of the California Realtors group, in an open letter to consumers. "These delays discourage potential homebuyers from considering a short sale purchase and undermine the process for those who short sales are intended to benefit — the hundreds of thousands of families facing foreclosure."
In January the Realtor group created a task force to investigate why there are three different versions of the government's Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program, which was designed to encourage short sales.
In a short sale, the home is sold for less than the amount owed on the mortgage and the lender accepts a discounted payoff rather than incur the cost of foreclosure.
