More than two-thirds of the American public are supportive of the Obama stimulus package, and encouraged by the administration’s plans to bolster the millions of distressed homeowners’ chances of staying in their homes.

But those plans are not in place yet. If you or someone you know is in a distressed mortgage – due to an out of control ARM (adjustable rate mortgage), loss of income, or other difficulties – it makes sense to consider something more immediate.

Loan modifications can be accomplished if you know how to negotiate with your lender. But few people do. For the price of a one month’s mortgage payment, a homeowner can hire a loan modification specialist to use their firm’s lawyers, financial experts and real estate professionals to approach the bank. They know the true costs of foreclosure to a lender. After all, banks are not in the home maintenance and sales business. Banks want to see monthly revenues from mortgage payments, and in this economy even if that’s reduced it beats a complete cut off from a borrower, with a house to then sell in a very difficult market.

Timing is very much of the essence. Investigate hiring a loan modification company as soon as possible. Ask if they provide a  guaranty, such as a 100 percent fee return if the modification process is unsuccessful. If they’re good, they will. The better firms succeed in 90 percent or more of the cases they take on.

For millions of Americans who are in home loans they didn’t understand – with terms such as skyrocketing ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) that are beyond their means to pay – it may be challenging to now consider using a loan modification firm to help negotiate a new loan.

The deja vu is in working with legal and financial experts who know more than you. Are they in it for a quick buck too?

First, understand what loan modification people do. On your behalf, paid a fee by you, they approach your lender to request better mortgage terms. Maybe they’ll get a rate reduction, or a reduction in monthly payments through a longer term (40 year) mortgage. Their goal is to keep you in your home at a payment schedule you can afford.

So what’s in it for them? You are asked to pay a fee of about one month’s mortgage payment. That’s it. And the better firms offer more: they should predict with 90 percent accuracy if they will or will not succeed in working on your case. And if they don’t succeed, they should offer a 100 percent money back guaranty (not all do).

How do they succeed where you might not? They know that banks don’t want to own houses. They know that foreclosure proceedings also cost the bank money to pursue. They also know that banks would prefer to keep you as a customer, providing them a monthly stream of incoming payments. But most important, they know how to cut through the red tape and voice mail jungle to talk to the right people.

It’s your home. It’s the place you retreat to every night after facing a not-always-kind world. It’s the place where you house your family, maybe children and a pet. You don’t want to lose it to a foreclosure.

But if the terms of your home loan are unmanageable – due to loss of income, other unexpected costs, or an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) that is out of sight – you may very well be distressed. If the bank has begun foreclosure proceedings, you can’t help but panic.  It’s your home.

Dealing with large banks – particularly lenders who are not in a building down your street, but are in far away places that you only talk to on the telephone – can only add to your stress. The tangle of voice mail, being put on hold, then talking to a distant bureaucrat who may not seem helpful, all make the process almost impossible.

This is why there are third parties who are helping thousands of homeowners stop foreclosure and negotiate better loan terms. They are loan modification professionals.  They are lawyers and banking finance experts who know the lender’s hot spots – what the lender’s position is. They know the lender really doesn’t want to take possession of your house. It’s usually a loser for them. And, they then lose a customer. When the loan modification specialist can demonstrate to the bank that you, the borrower, would be able to keep up monthly payments but at reduced rates, almost always the bank will agree to recasting the loan terms.

A reputable loan modification firm charges about one month’s house payment, and will return 100% of the fee if they are not successful (they generally can predict success with about 90 percent accuracy).

So of course staying in your home is an emotional experience. But a cool headed professional is who you need to make sure the negotiation is successful.

Maybe you bought a fixer-upper home because you’re handy.  Perhaps you’re good at paint, and know that a good coat of well-selected colors can brighten up any house and any room.

But if your mortgage is what needs fixing – perhaps you have to stop a loan foreclosure – it’s not a weekend project for non-professionals. A difficult, distressed mortgage is the work for professionals, people with the right training and expertise.

First, most people don’t know they can hire an intermediary to work with their mortgage lender. You can — they’re called loan modification specialists. Of course most of us deal with someone in a phone bank to discuss late payments, difficulties, current interest rates, etc., but when you’re trying to recast the terms of your mortgage, you need to talk to someone at a higher level.  Who, and how do you get there? Once you get someone on the phone, how do you get and keep their attention? The average bank home loan officer has 700 cases to work on. They need to be dealt with in a professional, cut-to-the-quick way.

Loan modification intermediaries know lenders – many of them were bankers themselves in the past. Others are real estate and finance attorneys, applying their expertise to your financial and housing well being. When they take on a case, they do so with more than 90 percent confidence they will succeed (they’ll ask preliminary questions to ferret out if your case can be made convincingly). Then they approach your mortgage bank with background knowledge on the bank itself — how expensive would it be for the bank to foreclose on your property? And under what terms, more favorable now to the homeowner, will the lender agree to adjusting the mortgage? It’s a matter of dollars and cents, but it’s also about knowing what to say and to whom.

If you engage a loan modification professional, your chances are greater that you’ll stay in your home — and be able to continue those Do-It-Yourself projects that ultimately add value to the home.

Does it make sense for you to deal with the legal and financial complexities of your troubled mortgage by yourself?

Probably not. In fact, the root of many of the nation’s mortgage woes are because millions of borrowers either didn’t read the fine print or know what the words in the fine print meant. Huge monthly payment increases came as a surprise to many of them, as did the downturn in the market that puts their home “underwater,” worth less than what they are obligated to pay.

Loan modification programs are the answer. A loan modification firm is staffed by attorneys, accountants, and financial experts who understand not only the meanings of the terms, but also the financial position of the mortgage lender. Loan modification experts know that a bank loses in a foreclosure – the bank does not usually gain (particularly in a market such as we have now) by owning properties. The bank also spends money on the foreclosure process itself, therefore, the bank would rather not proceed with foreclosure.

A good loan modification firm can look at your case and determine if you can beat the system, so to speak. Your financial picture, the terms of your mortgage, and the condition of the lender are taken into account by the modification specialists, who then will give you a prognosis. If they think they can win – get you better mortgage payment terms, such as a lower monthly payment because of an overall lower interest rate – they will tell you they can with better than 90 percent certainty. And if the firm is any good, they will also offer a 100 percent money back guarantee.

There are situations where it pays to use a professional. For millions of homeowners, this is one of them. It can help them stop a home loan foreclosure dead in its tracks.