What is yesterday’s news (literally) may become tomorrow’s big headache for many homeowners who participate in a short sale.

A Feb. 3 article for CNNMoney.com explained how banks and other lenders are now pursuing former homeowners with “deficiency judgments” – asking them to pay the difference between what they owed on their mortgage and what the bank could finally sell the home for at auction.

This is even if the bank approved the short sale.

And get this: the poor homeowner featured in the article who had to declare bankruptcy because she was being chased for $65,000 from her short sale…was a real estate agent.

There are 30 states in which this is legal – fortunately, California is a “non-recourse” state and doesn’t allow deficiency judgments. But Californians still aren’t safe – if you refinanced your original loan (and that’s a lot of us), some or all of it may still be subject to a claim.

So how do you protect yourself? If you’re pursuing a short sale in California, add a savvy real estate attorney to your team (we just happen to know a few of them…).

There’s a proposed Federal Program to assist Banks and borrowers (one of hundreds) by paying Banks $1 for every $2 a Bank writes off on a loan. Why ‘write off’ any part in the first place? Because many of these homes are worth less than the debt; they’re underwater (banks call this “negative equity”).

Sounds great, right? $75 Billion has been allocated. That’s the equivalent of a $150 Billion write-down on mortgage balances. Nobody knows how, when, or if such a program will ever get off the ground, or who will be “eligible.”

It is supposed to help those who were victims of “predatory lending practices.” In other words, you’ll have to prove you weren’t lying when you filled out that loan application. (Weren’t they called “Liars’ Loans?”) So, there goes 75% of the potential pool of borrowers. (Come on people, does anybody really believe that a nail salon worker could afford a $750,000 house? Or that the worker had a good faith belief they could? What turnip truck did we just fall off of?)

And, just because the government is what the government is, the bailout won’t wipe away all the “negative equity.” No sir. The government wants to eliminate as little negative equity as possible – just enough to “hope to get [borrowers] committed again.” “Committed” to what? To staying in the house and not walking away from the mortgage, and renting the identical place just down the street for about half the cost?

I sure hope this program works. (Hey, I can dream, can’t I?)

CNBC real estate reporter Diana Olick broke a story on Jan. 15 about some piggyback lenders – or second lien holders – committing alleged short sale fraud by demanding a cash payment to release their lien in order for a short sale to take place.

Basically, because so many homeowners have taken equity out of their homes, it is not unusual to find two lien holders on a short sale. Of course, for a short sale to go forward, the second lien holder must release the lien, basically in exchange for….nothing. They don’t get paid.

However, just because they’re second lien holders doesn’t mean they are second-class lenders…we’re talking Chase, Citi, Bank of America here. They are going to find a way to get their money.

Olick was alerted to this story by the head of a company that connects short sale agents, investors and sellers. He told her that over 200 of his agents have complained that second lien holders are asking for – and in many cases, getting – a cash settlement to drop their liens in an “under the table” transaction that never shows up as part of the sales paperwork.

And that, they say, is a violation of RESPA, the 2008 law that requires full disclosure on real estate transactions as a consumer protection measure.

We say: maybe.

Like flakes of snow, every transaction is different. If the second lien holder is able to work a deal before the first lien holder does – and the second’s deal has nothing to do with the first’s deal – then it should pass the sniff test as a legal transaction.