Attorney Based Loan Modification, Pros and Cons....

I wanted to take this time to write an impartial analysis of Attorney Based Loan Modification Companies, Law Firms that do loan modifications, and loan modification companies that have attorney networks. It seems to be the going trend. So let's look at the Pros and Cons (no pun intended) for the consumer, the company, and the oversight (FTC, AG's office, etc...).
Attorney Based/Backed Company:
Pros: Representation by a third party, and of course the bank doesn't know whether it's a legitimate company or not. You have a chance that they'll hear "attorney" and just snap to.
Cons: It's a bluff. An attorney based company means that they have an attorney on site. What is that attorney's actual work schedule, is he/she actually the one doing my negotiations? The answer would be NO. The attorney is there to do simply that, "back" the company and allow them to use his name to circumnavigate current legislation regarding loan modification companies. If you're attorney backed/based, then you can legally charge upfront fees, excessive fees, and they're not required to offer you any type of refund or cancellation abilities. They are exempt. FTC and AG offices are wising up to this loophole.

Law Firms that "specialize" in Loan Modifications:
Pros: You are usually dealing with an actual law firm. There are actual attorney's there, and are usually available to make a call to the lenders, if needed.
Cons: The idea that there are law firms out there that "specialize" in loan modifications is kind of absurd. I've never heard of a "loan modification attorney" until about 6 months ago. Usually, the attorney's have little to no experience actually processing and negotiating for customers. Like most of their cases, they have paralegals or assistants do the work for them, they bill $300 an hour and pay the paralegal $13.00 an hour. So you're paying for attorney's wages, to get the same results you would get from a legitimate company that's usually less than half the cost.

Attorney Networks:
Pros: They are currently legal to do modifications in states that other companies cannot do modifications in. They accomplish this by having numerous attorney's in a "network" throughout the country, so that they can use a licensed attorney's name in that state thus being compliant with the state's regulations.
Cons: Just like the others, you still don't have the attorney doing your modification. As a matter of fact, that attorney probably knows absolutely nothing about you, or your situation. They just get a check for X amount of dollars for every client that the company retains and uses that attorney's name for. If the modification company that is using the attorney network gets shut down by the FTC with a cease and desist order, are those numerous attorneys in the network going to step and handle the modifications that were promised? Of course not, the modification company was the one who made all the money, not the attorney.

The reality is that most real attorney's are used to making good money. That's why they went to law school and paid through the nose for it. If an attorney is used to making $300-$500 per court hour, and it takes let's say a minimum of 10 days to 2 weeks to get a modification, how much time would they actually have to invest with you? Let's say a total of 15 man hours to get it done start to finish. That's $4500 on the low end, and $7500 on the high end. So if they are NOT charging you that much, I'd be very skeptical on what's missing, because it's usually the attorney that's missing. If they are charging that much, then it's just a question of how much you want to pay. If you're accustomed to paying substantially more for things than they are worth, then going this route would probably work out well for you as you wouldn't know the difference anyway. If you're opposed to paying twice as much for something just because they gift wrapped it for you, then contact PMC today and find out what makes us different.