Despite industry and government efforts to make short sales - transactions in which the lender agrees to accept less than the mortgage amount owed by the homeowner – easier and more quickly accomplished, improvements are coming up, well, short.

In some cases, the difference between the two numbers is being forgiven by the mortgage lender. In others, the homeowner must arrange with the lender to settle the rest of the debt.  I found many won't agree to cancel the debt but will later send a letter stating they have.

Theoretically, short sales are less costly to a lender than foreclosures. There are fewer legal costs involved, for example. But the chief attraction of a short sale is that there is a buyer for the house, while a foreclosed property can sit in a lender’s portfolio for months.  Especially as most become run down as they are unoccupied.

That’s why the Obama administration in March appended short sales to its efforts to reduce foreclosures for homeowners who fail to make the grade for the federal Home Affordable Modification Program.

The new program, known as Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative, is set to end Dec. 31, 2012. Under its terms, a lender must offer a short sale in writing to a borrower within 30 days after the borrower either is ruled ineligible for mortgage modification or has been deemed unable to sustain payments in a trial plan.

Lenders are offered incentives for each completed sale. So far, the results have been less than definitive.

Twenty-three percent of residential property owners nationally are “underwater” on their mortgages - that is, they owe more than their homes are now worth, according to CoreLogic Inc., of Santa Ana, Calif., which tracks foreclosure information.  In California however, I have more are likely to walk away as by law the note holder can only get the property back and is not allowed to get any deficiency from the borrower.

For such homeowners, a short sale can also be the best option, real estate experts say, because it may not hurt their credit history as much as a foreclosure would.  As a result, the homeowners may be able to qualify for another mortgage sooner once they get back on their feet financially.

Yet real estate agents continue to have problems getting short sales through the pipeline.  “It depends on the lender,” said Art Herling, Long & Foster vice president for the Philadelphia region. Some are more willing to work with agents and underwater sellers than others.

Carolyn Sabatelli, an agent for Weichert Realtors in Media, Pa., with 37 years’ experience, said she had so much trouble bringing short sales to the settlement table, she thought she was doing something wrong.  Then she attended a short-sale seminar sponsored by Wells Fargo & Co., “and after listening to the complaints of about 200 agents, I realized that it was not me but the system.”

I have found for short sales it is easier to collaborate with a company in which that is all they do while I concentrate on my sellers.  Though short sales require a lot of hurdles they can be a great buy for someone