Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have put their lenders on notice that they must respond to short sale requests faster. The two mortgage market giants told lenders they must respond within 30 days when a home owner asks permission to do a short sale, or an offer comes in after the lender agrees to allow a short sale.

In a short sale, the home owner gets permission from his lender to sell the house for less than what’s owed on the mortgage.

When the bank needs more than 30 days to respond, it has to send you a weekly update. And it can’t take more than 60 days total to respond. That’s plenty of time for banks to check the value of your house, or get approval for the sale from your private mortgage insurance company, if you have PMI on your loan, Freddie Mac told its lenders.

If the bank makes a counter-offer to a home buyer, the buyer will get five days to respond, and then the bank will get 10 days to consider the buyer’s next offer.

Source: Freddie Mac