Tim .. thanks for your comment here.  If you are authorized to do loan mods by CA Dept of Real Estate, that's good.  Please do good work for homeowners and do not charge them fees in advance of your successful work.

Johnny .. thanks for your comment.  I have no private loan modifier servicers to recommend. If you know of a good and reputable company that is approved for such work through CA. Dept of Real Estate, and if they do not charge fees in advance, and if their fees are contingent on successful loan mod, please let me know. Thanks.

Ben .. thanks for your comment and professional disagreement about my contention.  I believe that the first source of servicers to be chosen for loan mods are non-profit organizations.  The second source would be Realtors and brokers who are pre-approved to provide such services through the Dept of Real Estate in their state.

IET Real Estate ... Thanks for your comment here. I do know people who have used non-profit groups for loan modifications, which were successful.

Pothik ... If you are satisfied with results of the loan modification company referenced at your comment, congratulations.

My primary question would be whether that outfit you mentioned is authorized to do such mods by your state's Department of Real Estate and whether they expect to be paid only after successful modification.  That's the way it should work for the benefit of the consumers.

Michael ... Interesting comment.  You are right that I'd like to protect consumers and people from getting scammed by private loan modification servicers.

Fees should not be collected by private modifiers or attorneys doing such work in advance.  Public policy should be changed to prohibit such practice of advance payment.  Loan modifiers are in the financial services business.  Legislation has been introduced here in CA in both senate and assembly do prohibit such advance fee payments for loan mods.

It's probably OK that private loan modifiers are forced to work hard and use a lot of time. That's the way it should be.

Realtors and real estate agents are in the real estate business ... not the financial services business... and do almost all of their work on contingency, getting paid only after escrow closes.  Realtors doing their work successfully for customers and clients spend hundreds of hours, managing the process, meeting with clients, exchanging with other agents, physically inspecting properties, interracting with contractors, telephone calls late at night, early in the AM, on weekends and holidays.  Realtors are mostly happy to work hard and pleased to get paid at the end of a successful transaction. 

Lots of real estate transactions fall apart along the way, and sometimes customers disappear.  Realtors don't get paid a dime in those situations.

That system should be no different for private loan modifiers.  If it's challenging for you as loan modifider to get paid that way only at the end of successful modification, think of something, a new approach, and run it by your attorneys on proposed contract formation. 

Please call or email me if you have questions about my article or response.

Ben (IET Real Estate) ... Thanks for the interesting comment and idea and how private loan modifiers could get paid in stages through an escrow.

Non-profit agencies are not businesses seeking to make money from the clients and loan modifications they serve and provide and should not be treated the same at private for-profit businesses that provide such mod services.

Thank you otherwise for the idea about staging of payment through an escrow holder to the private loan modifier.

If you or anyone is in the private loan mod service business, write up your proposal about staging of payemtns and present it to the Department of Real Estate in your state for its consideration.

That loan mod servicing agents should not be paid advance fees for their services is now the new law in California.  That also limits attorneys from charging advance loan mod fees for their services.

However, clever servicing agents are getting around this by calling their services something else, like professional consultations, or forensic loan servicing, or lawsuit management, and not that for "loan mod" servicing.  We'll see whether these people will get away with charging advance fees using the cloak of a name change.