Bob and Mary Keenan need mortgage relief quickly with a reduced payment. A series of reversals has left them strapped and incapable of paying all their bills, the largest of which is the loan on their newly built home.  Mortgage workout programs are all over the news and sound like nirvana to financially distressed homeowners like the Keenans. But they are often not as simple as they seem.

We will lead Bob and Mary through the mortgage modification gantlet. In the process, we’ll help illustrate who qualifies for mortgage help, what it consists of and how to boost your chance of qualifying.   As the mortgage marketplace has soured and left millions of American homeowners in or at risk of foreclosure, banks have launched increasingly aggressive programs to work with troubled borrowers. A group of banks represented by the Hope Now Alliance, for example, boasts that it has helped keep more than 2 million delinquent borrowers in their homes by changing the terms of their loans.  Read the complete article > written by Kathy Kristof.