"Do I contact a real estate lawyer?"

If you do not understand the agreement that would be a good placer to start.

If this is an unsolicited offer, it'll likely cost you money;
lenders sometimes offer "no cash" re-finance, or they may now call them modifications, but "no cash" doesn't mean no cost;
they roll in closing costs, *which increases your indebtedness*.

If you've asked for a modification to lower your interest & payments, then, yes, I'd get an attorney to read it.

Even straightforward-sounding wording may be tricky.

I wish you the best.

"If this is an unsolicited offer, it'll likely cost you money;
lenders sometimes offer "no cash" re-finance, or they may now call them modifications, but "no cash" doesn't mean no cost;
they roll in closing costs, *which increases your indebtedness*. "

Not always.

I have had a couple lenders give true 'no cost' adjustments over the years when rates fell and they wanted to keep the loan and not have it refinanced out from under them.

They offered within 1/16 of a point of the going 'best' rate for the type of loan (investor).

Places that hold notes seem more willing to want to keep their money working if you have good credit.

Have an attorney review the offer if it is more than a mass mailing solicitation.

I had an unsolicited offer for a loan modification that seemed too good to be true, but it turned out to be legitimate and I did the deal.

Start with a calculator and do a what-if scenario. Add up all the costs (one-time and recurring) of your current mortgage over the time you plan to be in the house, then add up all the costs of the new loan. If the total cost of the new loan is higher than your current loan, there's your answer and you can stop at that point. If you don't know how long you'll be in your house, then you can find the break-even point of the new vs old loan and see if it's acceptable to you.

If the total is lower for the new loan, then what I did in this situation was go to the mortgage broker I worked with to get the original loan. He's someone I've known for years and trust; his wife was my real estate agent on my last sale/purchase, and will be my agent when I put my house in the market later this year. I had him review my calculations and talked to him in general about the outlook for loans, particularly where the LIBOR has been and might go since that was the index of my ARM.

Some banks have an incentive to keep good customers (go figure!) and so are sending out these unsolicited loan modification offers. I found that my bank was very willing to talk to me about the terms and answer all of my questions. Oddly enough, I keep getting offers from the same bank, but none of them have terms as favorable as the ones I accepted.

Several big lenders are doing this now and it isn't a scam. They are offering fixed rate loans that are competitive.

On the flip side, there will always be lenders offering "no cost" loans but will either be charging a higher percentage or adding costs to the back end. You really need to read carefully or get a lawyer to look at the terms.

The modification was requested by myself, after suffering a serious horse accident, and being out of work for greater than one year. Upon returning to work, I now have restrictions that have decreased my monthly income. We are fortunate, in that the mortgage company, has been willing to work with us. They have lowered the interest rate to 4.5, but tacked on 10 yrs to the loan terms. The new payment is about $200 less each month. Our property value has dipped approx $50K below what we owe on the house. It appears that the best, next step, will be to have this document reviewed by a real estate attorney. I will take the original mortgage documents for comparative purposes. Thank you for your insight. I will post and let you know the outcome.