Loss Mit Services

How to Vet a Short Sale Negotiator in Ninety Seconds: The Four Exemptions

Posted on 10. Nov, 2026 by ctlms in Blog, Foreclosures, My Blog, News, Real Estate, Short Sale, foreclosure

I get this question from agents all the time: “How do I know the short sale negotiator my seller found is legit?” Good question, and most agents never ask it. Somebody hands over a business card, or the seller finds a company online, and the file goes out the door. There is a check you can run first. It takes about ninety seconds, every piece of it is public, and here is the whole thing.

Why is there anything to check?

Simply put, in Connecticut negotiating a short sale for a homeowner is “debt negotiation,” and debt negotiation takes a license from the Department of Banking. That isn’t my reading of it. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 36a-671 writes “the negotiation of short sales of residential property” right into the definition.

Think about why the state bothered. A homeowner in default is about the easiest person in the world to take advantage of. So the state wants to know who is doing the negotiating, and it wants a license it can pull if something goes wrong.

So then you ask, “if that’s true, why are there short sale specialists advertising all over the place?” Some of them are exempt. Some of them are licensed. And that is exactly what the ninety seconds is for.

Step one: is this person one of the four?

The Department of Banking lists the exemptions right on its licensee page. There are four.

1. Attorneys practicing law in Connecticut. An attorney handling the negotiation as part of the law practice doesn’t need the license. Plenty of good short sales get done this way.

2. Banks and credit unions. They have their own regulators.

3. Licensed debt adjusters. That is a different license, and you can ask to see it.

4. Non-profits. Housing counseling agencies and the like.

That’s it. Read the list again and look for real estate brokers. There is no line for them. A real estate license is not one of the four. I hold a broker license in three states, and none of them is the reason I’m allowed to negotiate your seller’s file. The debt negotiation license is.

Step two: not one of the four? Find them on the list.

If the person isn’t an attorney, a bank, a debt adjuster or a non-profit, they need the license, and the license is easy to find. The Department of Banking posts a downloadable list of every debt negotiation licensee, and NMLS Consumer Access will search it for you too.

The list I pulled is dated November 2, 2026. It shows three companies statewide. One of them is a national non-profit. Mine is one of the other two.

Here is the catch that trips people up. The list shows the legal entity name, not the name on the business card. Loss Mit Services appears as Accredited Home Services, LLC. So if you search a trade name and come up empty, don’t stop there. Ask for the entity name and the license number, then look again.

Step three: not on the list and not one of the four? Ask.

Plainly. “Which exemption are you under, or what’s your license number?” Somebody with a good answer can give it to you in one sentence.

Then take that answer to your broker or a real estate attorney and ask what it means for you. I’m not going to tell you what your exposure is, because I’m not your attorney. I’ll just point out that the federal MARS Rule, at 12 CFR § 1015.6, reaches people who give substantial assistance to a provider they know, or consciously avoid knowing, is violating it. And the FTC’s own compliance guidance names supplying referrals as an example of substantial assistance.

I’m not naming names and I’m not telling you who to work with. The list is public. Check it yourself, and check me while you’re at it.

Can you still help if the house is already listed?

Yes. I hear this one almost as often as the first question. An agent figures it’s too late once the listing is signed, or that bringing in a negotiator puts the listing at risk. It isn’t, and it doesn’t.

I’m the negotiator, not the listing agent. I work alongside you and your seller. You keep the listing, the client and the commission.

Who pays for it? Neither you nor your seller pays anything up front or out of pocket. The buyer signs a separate fee agreement with us, and the fee is paid at closing, only if the short sale is approved and closes. It shows up on one settlement statement, with the same numbers going to every party on the file. A seller who already has an agent is helped through that agent.

The takeaway

Before your seller signs anything with any short sale negotiator, me included, run the check. Four exemptions. One public list. Ninety seconds. If the person passes, great, you’ve lost a minute and a half. If they don’t, you found out before your name was on the referral.

If you have a listing where the payoff is higher than any realistic price, send me the address and the approximate payoff. I’ll tell you within a day whether it’s worth pursuing.

As always, feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

Sean Wilder
Loss Mit Services
860-265-3727
CT Debt Negotiator NMLS #828273
Loss Mit Services is a dba of Accredited Home Services, LLC · CT Debt Negotiation License DN-828273