Hat tip to T&W for sending this in from dsnews.com:
Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton) recently introduced a bill to speed up the short sale process by requiring subordinate mortgage lien holders to make a decision on a short sale within 45 days.
McNerney’s bill proposes that if the lender does not make a decision within the given time period, the short sale will be approved on the 46th day.
The bill, titled Fast Help For Homeowners (FHFH) Act, received strong support from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
“Second mortgage lien holders frequently hold up and cancel the short sale transaction while trying to collect the largest possible payout in exchange for releasing the homeowner’s lien, even though the secondary lien holder often gets nothing if the home ends up going into foreclosure,” said NAR President Moe Veissi, in a statement. “While efforts have been made to improve primary lien holders’ response times, issues still abound with second and subsequent lien holders, and this legislation is a step in the right direction.”
The NAR also stated that its members continue to report delays in completing short sale transactions due to drawn out response times for whether or not an offer was accepted.
I’d really like to see something like this signed into law. Recently, a couple of friends were strung along on a short sale for several months while the two subordinate liens repeatedly tried to squeeze the would-be buyers for more money, threatening to kill the sale. Finally, the couple decided that they were tired of the whole situation and walked.
If a short sale just wasn’t going to happen, at least would-be buyers would be wasting less time waiting and wondering.