Short sales have become a known entity due to the current mortgage crisis.  Many individual borrowers with adjusting mortgages who cannot refinance because of a decrease in value of their homes ask the lender to accept a payoff less than what is owed.  To enact a short sale a borrower must have 1. A documented hardship (illness, unemployment, etc.)  2.  Have a bonafide offer on his/her home by a qualified buyer.  However, many short sales do not close escrow before the home is repossessed by the bank because the process simply is too complex and lengthy.  Getting through the process with a lender's loss mitigation department can take months.  Between 6 and 8 percent of all closed escrows are short sales.  The process requires revision, simplification and standardization.  A proposal by David Silver-Westrick asks the following:  1.  That all lenders and servicers make it easy for agents and sellers to locate the correct department and individual responsible for processing the short sale.  2.  That all lenders agree to a single industrywide application and list of supporting documents.  3.  That all lenders commit to updating the listing agent and seller on the status throughout the process.  4.  That the lender deliver a clear response in writing within 30 days from receipt of application.