I have a lot of people calling me asking me if I do loan modifications. My answer is always, “No.” Why don’t I do them? It seems like it would be a lucrative business to get into?

There are several reasons:

1. Lenders are not quick to perform the modifications – this puts the homeowner at risk. The filing of Notice of Default and subsequent Foreclosure will proceed as planned and scheduled. Negotiations for home modifications do nothing to stop or slow things down. I see it as a distraction. I will get frantic calls from people all the time shocked about the fact that they were getting the run-around and in the mean time their home is getting foreclosed on tomorrow. I hate to see this happen and unfortunately there is so much misinformation out there. Loan modification negotiations don’t stop foreclosure proceedings! Bankruptcy does!

2. I have simply not heard too many success stories. I have heard a lot of sad failure stories. I like to produce results for my clients, not just take their money and waste their time. If I don’t think you can afford to realistically keep the property, I will tell you. Most of the people performing modifications will not.

The moral of the story is this. You can try to modify your loan outside of bankruptcy (not with me), but please be vigilant about deadlines like foreclosure proceedings. I would hate to see anyone lose a home, especially if there are options out there to save it.