At its best, a challenging economic situation such as a home foreclosure is a minute-by-tense-minute adventure in the world of Economics 2009.  When your life is a lot like what’s being reported on the news, you at least know it’s a drama being played out in homes all across America.

Of course, a home mortgage foreclosure can have tragic consequences for anyone who bought a house or condo in good faith that ownership was laudable and affordable. But things changed rapidly in the past two years, such that illness, divorce, income loss or reduction and ARMs blown up out of sight are factors that may seem impossible to overcome today.

There are solutions, however, but they’re probably too boring to make the news. Certainly, the solutions wouldn’t make it into a screenplay. These solutions come in the form of loan modifications – a recast of the loan terms that help homeowners keep their properties at lower monthly payments.

To engineer a loan modification is daunting for most individuals who are not real estate lawyers or mortgage experts themselves. Bank loan officers are busy handling hundreds of cases and thus don’t have a lot of time to talk to individuals to explain the process for them. But a loan modification firm handles it for them. For the price of about a month’s payment, a loan modification company can use industry insider information to know what new mortgage terms the lender would agree to.

If considering working with a loan modification firm, check their policies, features and success rates – all usually published on their websites.  Look to see if they provide a money back guaranty if they are not successful. I particular, see if they offer an installment payment plan for their services. This is crucial to any financially strapped homeowner.