Any home purchased in the past three years, since 2006 or earlier, has likely declined in value anywhere in the U.S.  In some cities, home value drops are greater than others. Add to that home mortgages with ARMs that have adjusted upwards and the dilemma of distressed mortgages is easily understood.

Of course, any homeowner in this situation may well be distressed under otherwise normal circumstances. But now, with massive job losses and cutbacks in hours worked for those who still have their jobs, it is clear that adjustments need to be made. The government is working on bailouts for homeowners, which will apply to some people. But others may not be eligible, or that help will come too late.

But any homeowner in difficult and unmanageable circumstances, even those in the process of a home loan foreclosure, may be able to work their own solutions out through a home loan modification. Either they, or more often their representative in a home loan modification firm, can deal with a bank directly to find a lower interest rate or other terms that bring the mortgage back into affordability once again.

Professional loan modifiers are generally teams of lawyers and finance specialists who understand the mortgage industry enough to predict success at loan modifications before contacting the bank. They charge about a month’s mortgage payment and, if reputable, will provide a 100% money back guaranty if their efforts fail to provide satisfactory modified loan terms.