Today's ProJo.com featured a story on Sheldon Whitehouse's hearing on the federal loan modification program exposing the miserable failure that it is.  Of course if your an agent selling real estate you knew that along time ago, as we usually get contacted by the homeowner after months have gone by in their efforts to modify their loan with no result.  Meanwhile, depending on where the property is located, values may have slipped netting the bank less on a possible short sale.

Of course the short sale process is only slightly better.  It's called a short sale because it is a process whereby a property owner attempts to sell the property for less than they owe their lender, with the lender forgiving the difference.  This process essentially makes the bank or the mortgage company the primary negotiating interest in a potential sale.  That's why "short sales" usually take a long time to consumate.

A Riverside resident testifying at the Whitehouse hearing said it best about mortgage mod's, according to ProJo.com when he said," A service 'as simple and American and basic as a human being on the other end of the phone' is missing from the dealings that customers frequently reported having with their mortgage holders.

After successfully negotiating several short sales over the last few years I can tell you the communication regarding those is not much different. 

So what is the take away here? Beware of the loan mod program.  If you pursue that option and you begin to get that feeling in the pit of your stomach that its going nowhere, you may wish to move in a different direction.  And if you pursue a short sale option, get an experienced Realtor to help you and be prepared to wait.