[quote=walterwhite]what if the second is held by the same lender as the first?[/quote]
If the first and/or second TD’s in your short sale are in favor of [name of servicer/lender] AND MERS, the second may have originally been funded by the same lender as the first but the first lender no longer owns it.
In this case, it’s also possible that neither TD is owned by the original lender whose name is shown on its face.
One of both of these loans could have been sold off multiple times. In this case, MERS would presumably have records as to who owns it/them and would be able to share this info with your SS negotiator.
Since you are presumably a trained atty, scaredy, I will not put my usual disclaimer here :=]