Short Sale Negotiators must be licensed?

[Brian Wall]

I just got finished reading this article here, and the Assitant Deputy of the DRE basically says, among other things, that the person or entity that negotiates with a lender on behalf of a seller must be a licensed entity.

http://www.loansafe.org/short-sale-fraud

Can someone clear this up for me? I am looking at doing my first s/s flip, and was planning on hiring a Florida based company (someone we all know here on the boards), to negotiate with the lenders, how can I protect myself, and the listing agent?

BTW, the article talks about other issues with fraud around short sales, all of which could be diffused with proper documentation, so I am not worried about the other things, just the licensing of the negotiator piece.

PS - Just found the actual DRE document where the article came from http://www.dre.ca.gov/pdf_docs/Article_ShortSales03_2010.pdf