The banks are becoming easier to work with as they have had plenty of time to get their systems in place as far as short sales and foreclosures go. They are still having a tough time keeping up with the volume and they are still turning away many decent short sale offers only to let the property hang in limbo and deteriorate further and liquidate it on the foreclosure market down the road.

I am not sure if they can become more efficient at this since there are so many variables involved and the people handling the files really don't have the motivation or the local knowledge to get the files closed faster.