Mortgage Reform in Vermont and abroad.

Mortgage Reform is a must. I am currently dealing with two potential short sales on properties that have loans larger than what a buyer has offered on the properties. It becomes a short sale if the bank agrees to take a loss on the property and convey it to the new buyer. The current process of trying to get answers from the mortgage company is incredibly frustrating and totally inefficient. In order for the mortgage company to talk to an agent a letter from the Seller needs to be sent to the mortgage company authorizing them to communicate with their agent. No problem there. I understand the privacy issues at stake. If the mortgage company does not lose the document, you need to give them 3 days before they will talk to you if it is faxed. Now that is efficient. Once they have the authorization and you have sent them a contract they have up to 14 days to let you know that they have received it. At least in my case, that is what they told me. At that time, they will let you know if they received it, and only, if they have a complete short sale packet. Of which, there are not standard forms that they supply agents, but apparently you need to have ESP to figure that one out. If you dont, they will not respond to your offer. The complete short sale packet includes, but may not be limited to, sellers last two years tax returns, last two months bank statements, a letter of hardship if they are not working and a whole list of more items that seem pretty standard to me. Unfortunately, they dont supply this standard list? Why I ask. For each day that goes by, the bank is losing money and it is costing the borrower more money. There is no urgency to this process. Deals get lost because buyers dont want to wait the 30-45 days before they really know if their offer is going to be accepted or not. It is a ludicrous system and needs to be changed. The people that got us in this mess, are dragging their feet to help get us out of it. The longer it takes, the more that is lost. Where can we go and who can we turn to for help in this situation? Not long ago banks wanted to get in the real estate business and were turned down. Thank goodness for congress recognizing that it could lead to huge problems. Oh wait, it was their lending problems that did lead to huge problems in the real estate market and our global economy. Now who is going to change the rules to make sure they dont make things worse than they already are. Someone needs to take control and institute new regulations that will expedite the process. Based upon my experience it wont be the mortgage companies.