DO I NEED AN ATTORNEY TO MODIFY MY LOAN?

You absolutely do not need an attorney to request a loan modification. In fact you lender would prefer that you don't have one. Why? Your lender is the only party that can voluntarily modify your loan. An attorney can send a modification request to your lender just like you can, except the attorney will charge you a lot of money for doing so.

It may be helpful to hire a document preparation service that can draft the correspondence for you if you have difficulty with the necessary language. A document preparation service (www.DocsToWork.com) will only charge a small fraction of what an attorney will charge to help you. You can expect to pay about $100 dollars for document preparation services in connection with a loan modification request.

The lender does not shake when they see a modification request prepared by an attorney and many lawfirms or "loan modification companies" market their services as an assured bridge between you and a much lower payment. The lender is not going to say "let's settle this one" like the old Jacoby & Meyers commercials that dramatized the moment the insurance company receives a demand letter from the world renown law firm. You lender will honor a scensible request prepared by you, their customer, as long as it is written, well thought out, and demonstrates good faith on your part.