At-Risk Owners Pay Big Bucks to Mortgage Modifiers

A growing mortgage-modification industry has cropped up amid the housing bust, the Washington Post reports, charging homeowners thousands to help them negotiate better loans. The problem? Non-profit groups already offer those services gratis. “It is very frustrating to find a homeowner who has paid a for-profit company $3,000 to $5,000,” said one mortgage-servicing director, “when they could have gotten better assistance free.”

The companies say they offer better service than swamped non-profits. “I am not in this for the money,” said one owner. “I see it as a mission and a duty.” But one of his former clients says he spent $7,000 and received little help. “I was blind,” he says. “I wasted my money, and they lied to me.” (More Housing and Urban Development stories.)