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If you are having difficulty paying your mortgage, but want to stay in your home, you may be wondering: Can I get a loan modification?

A lender might be willing to grant a loan modification if you owe more than the amount for which the home can be sold. Banks also know that adding your foreclosed home to the supply of homes for sale will further depress the market, so your lender might be willing to work with you to modify your loan. However, you are not going to get a loan modification just by asking.

Can I get a loan modification? To answer yes, you must accomplish two things:

1. To get a loan modification, you need to show the bank that the modified loan is a better deal than foreclosure.
2. This brings us to the second point: You must show that you cannot afford your current loan. The lender is not going to grant a loan modification to a homeowner able to make the current payments. Lately, numerous homeowners have called complaining that their bank won’t give them a loan modification. The first question I always ask is: Are you behind on your bills? And the answer is always the same: Clients who are current on their bills are not having any luck qualifying for loan modifications.

Can I get a loan modification? The unfortunate truth is that struggling homeowners who have paid their mortgage on time are forced to choose between staying current and being denied loan modifications or improving their chances by skipping payments.

Let me repeat that… The unfortunate truth is that struggling homeowners who have paid their mortgage on time are forced to choose between staying current and being denied loan modifications or improving their chances by skipping payments.

The reality is that as long as you remain current, the lender would rather let you tough it out because recouping 100 percent of your loan is in their financial interest.

I would never advise anyone to default on monthly payments, especially because it might hurt their credit score. That said, as long as you are paying your mortgage on time, the answer to the question—Can I get a loan modification?— is probably no.