Are you ready for a battle this will keep you occupied for a while. 1st being unemployed or income reduction is a huge piece for this it is a Hardship. Looks like you were never late on your payment, banks are very stubborn to give modifications to folks current on your mortgage. You have to be persistent on using that hardship with a job loss as you argument. My friend that is a airline pilot was put on furlough”layoff” last summer always paid his mortgage on time In January he really went after his Modification hard, with his hardship. He was after this day and night sending financials, hardship letters, budgets. He was current on this mortgage aswell. Well just last month his Modification finally was approved, his point was why stay in a place that i owe 50k more then its worth. This was not with Freddy Mac or Fanny May too. It dose not hurt your credit but they do look at it. you will find yourself in a full time job following up with your mortgage company, it is just not sending in a sheet of paper or a simple phone call like what people think. You may get denyed at first dust your shoulders off and apply again.
wish you the best of luck lots of folks out there trying to get these.

No. You don’t have to be employed to qualify. It might make the bank move faster to get your payments reduced.

It does not hurt your credit; except for the companies who refused to do a “modification” until you were 2 payments behind. Those 2 payments dropped the credit score.