Alright already. Everyone’s had enough of the doom and gloom of the economy. If you’re a homeowner with a distressed mortgage, perhaps because of a crazy ARM that has increased your monthly payments to an intolerable level, you’re probably sick of hearing about how bad things are.

Here’s the good news that gets little attention in the press: your mortgage terms can be changed. And it doesn’t take super stellar credit, as is required with a loan refinance. Loan modifications are for people who’ve faced difficult circumstances, such as loss of income, divorce, illness and medical bills, or other adverse situations. A loan modification is when a bank looks at an individual situation and decides that it would be worth more to them to NOT foreclose but instead work out a manageable plan with the borrower.

The trouble is most people don’t know about loan modifications. And of those who do, the whole process of approaching and dealing with a bank may be intimidating. Bank officers are harried enough with all that’s going on their industry. Typically, a loan officer has 700 cases to manage, many of whom are emotionally distraught people (and understandably so). They would try to help if they had the time to educate you.

A better path, one taken by thousands already, is to engage a home loan modification specialist firm. These are qualified experts in mortgage law and finance. Typically, a lawyer and a finance person will examine your existing loan and the rest of your situation, then look at who your lender is. They have insider industry information on what a bank may want to do.

When your mortgage is successfully renegotiated, you pay the loan modification firm a fee of about one month’s mortgage payment. If they are not successful, you owe no payment at all (check: only the better firms provide a 100 percent money back guaranty). In the end, it’s a no-lose quest for the homeowner who is worried about keeping their home.