A lot of people are losing their homes to foreclosure. Take Sandra and Jesse. They had been dating since high school. He got a job driving truck and she was a dental assistant. Shortly after they got married, the real estate boom took off. Sandy and Jesse got caught up in like a lot of people.

They had dreamed about someday owning a home. They wanted to get into a good part of town but the houses were already way out of their range. They opted for an older condo in an expensive neighborhood on a golf course.

The payments were high but not impossible. They were both up for raises. They took a mortgage that would start low for the first 3 years and then go up. By then they should have at least two pay increases. Since the payments were so low initially, they both went out and leased new cars. They were living the life of riley, as the old timers called it.

Well, the pay raises never came. In fact, just the opposite happened. Jesse's company cut his hours. Sandra's office layed off some people. She felt lucky to have a job at all. All the time the payment increase loomed in their thoughts.

Jesse applied for several jobs with other truckers but everyone was cutting back. He really couldn't take a second job because his hours were so sporadic. If his company wanted him to drive to Texas, he would be gone several days in a row. It wasn't possible to find a second job where you could miss a week of work.

The first couple of months after the mortgage payment increase, they were able to make the payments by taking a cash advance on their credit cards. Soon their cards were at their limits. They had to make the next house payment around the 15th of the month when they got paid again. They didn't know what they would do the next month.

For the first time in their marriage they started to fight. At first it was over something big but as time went on, they started arguing about everything. Jesse was drinking more and often fell asleep on the sofa, never even coming to bed. Sandra would lie in bed wondering if they would make it through this crisis. Maybe they should just walk away from the property and start over. They were probably going to lose the condo anyway, why break up their marriage in the mean time?

One night Sandra decided to see if there was any help on the Internet. She ran across some loan modification specialists. She had heard there were a lot of loan modification scams. She didn't want to lose the condo and get scammed out of even more money.

The more she looked into it, the more appealing it became. The government had issued regulations and loan modification laws to prevent people from getting hurt. Some states even required licensing so they could police it better.

There were some non-profit centers to help people understand what they would need to do. The problem was they were inundated with requests and really couldn't give the personal attention Sandra was looking for. She and Jesse weren't geniuses but they weren't dumb either. She just didn't feel comfortable negotiating with bankers for the biggest investment of their lives. Like you, she wanted to contact a professional loan modification specialist. She was worried what Jesse would say. He had been so argumentative lately, no matter what she said, he would take the opposite side.

One night she brought up the subject. Jesse stared into the TV like he wasn't listening at all. Finally she told him she had gone ahead and contacted an online loan modification company. Jesse went ballistic. He screamed that it was all bullocks. She was wasting what little money they had. Now they would be broke and homeless.

Sandra was very calm. She let him rant and rave until he wore himself out. When he finally stopped, she handed him a printed sheet of paper. It had a step-by-step plan outlined. There was a list of forms they would have to fill out and requests for their tax returns, paystubs and credit card statements.

Sandra explained that the banks were now trying to keep people from losing their homes. They already had too many foreclosures, they didn't want any more. She told him they would have to write a hardship letter detailing what had happened and how it wasn't really their fault because Jesse's wages had been cut. Most importantly, Sandra told Jesse they would have a professional represent them and do all the negotiating for them. The company she had contacted had saved hundreds of people's homes and was currently getting 3 out of 4 loans successfully modified.

Do you think Sandra did the right thing to fill out a request for free information on the Internet?

Do you think Jesse should read through the papers or should he just reject the whole idea without looking into it?

Do you think they should just give up and lose their condo?

Are you in a similar situation as Sandra and Jesse? Are you close to losing your home and don't know what to do? Are you and your spouse fighting more than ever because of the pressure?

There are a lot of loan modification companies out there. This has become a highly regulated industry. Everyone will give you a free consultation to explain why you should work with them and the cost of doing so. Its much less than you probably think.

If you are struggling to make your payments or have missed a couple completely, you need to do something now. Once you miss a payment the foreclosure clock starts ticking. If you wait too long, there is a point that there is nothing that can be done, you will lose your home.