Who really owns your home mortgage note? You probably don't know. Find out here!

[Better Believe It]

Who owns the note? AN EARTHSHATTERING NEW RESOURCE!
June 14th, 2010

One of the most important issues in virtually every foreclosure case is trying to identify exactly who owns the note that the Plaintiff is foreclosing on. This issue is almost never clear in the pleadings filed by the Plaintiff despite the fact that this issue is the central issue in the entire case. Remember, the servicer is not the proper party in interest if they are not entitled to profit from the foreclosure judgment.

The plaintiffs and their attorneys make it difficult to find this information, but now we have assistance from an unlikely source, MERS or Mortgage Electronic Registration System.

You can check the MERS website here to access this information. This is critically important information in every case, especially when the Plaintiff has identified one party and the MERS site identifies yet another!



Click on the following link:

https://www.mers-servicerid.org/sis/

[flvegan]

1. Public records matter more (in many states) than MERS' website.

Which is why the first thing foreclosure defense lawyers do is order a proper title search.

[ashling]

2. I was in title insurance for years

MERS is part of the problem.

the Mortgage Electronic Recording Systems was developed by the mortgage industry to keep track these loans. According to most public Records laws, transfers of ownership of mortgages have to be recorded in the deed or other land records.

It used to be that every time your mortgage was purchased, there was a recording of that fact somewhere down the road - there had to be, otherwise title insurers would not insure a new loan, or at the very least would require that the seller's attorney track down the appropriate parties and have the instrument recorded. Of course, that was back in the day when there were stickler underwriting attorneys like me.

Most of the time it was no problem, though there was a good deal of fraud in some areas at times (Washington DC and Virginia come to mind - I worked for several title insurers there in the late 80s and early nineties)

All of a sudden, mortgages were being bought and sold in big blocks on the secondary market. You would see Omnibus Instruments conveying 50 - 100 mortgages. The last ones I saw of these were literally 2 or 3 inches thick. That's when the industry came up with MERS. At some point along the way, MERS would acquire it as the nominee and supposedly keep track of all subsequent transfers. After a while, they were named as the nominee in the original Deed of Trust. Technically, tis did not necessarily get around the public records requirements, but nobody in the industry much cared.

The only trouble is that MERS was not always able to provide a good chain. Again, nobody cared.

Now I gather that MERS has realized that there is money to be made in selling this information to the mortgagee. Whether or not they are bilking mortgagees, don't get the wrong impression that MERS is here to help ... at least not to help anybody but the mortgage industry. The reason that MERS exists was to foster fast and loose mortgage swaps.

[CoffeeCat]

4. I would never use this to look up my mortgage...

I'm wondering if they're using this to help the mortgage companies. If someone
does this kind of a search, that could send up a red flag that the searcher is
trying to get out of paying their mortgage. Then, they can get someone to
research exactly where that mortgage is and prevent the mortgage holder from
having any power.

Maybe it's just my paranoia--but I've never known a company like that to try
and help the little guy.

[tridim]

3. What does it mean if my mortgage isn't in the MERS database?

I'm expecting forclosure soon, and I know my mortgage has been sold at least 4 times in 6 years.

[ashling]

5. It won't be in their database unless they were used

somewhere along the way. It is possible that they weren't, or that the mortgage went to someone who didn't use them or keep them in the loop. More than anything, it was just to make it look nice and clean.

I don't know what to tell you since I am , thank God, no longer in title insurance and things change.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. What note?

I own my place outright. It was done intentionally some year back. Its also tax limited via Prop 13.

However, I have had several letters over the years claiming that I owed on notes that did not exist. Fraudsters are everywhere.

[Autumn Colors]

9. Well, BoA tries to foreclose on houses that never had a mortgage...

Did you ever see this story? Unbelievable.... just a heads up (since you mentioned the fraudster letters)...

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/bank-of-america-forecloses-on-house-that-couple-had-paid-cash-for/1072632

[Statistical]

7. Fannie Mae owns my house (well 78% of my house). n/t

[Autumn Colors]

8. Fannie Mae is listed as an investor?

What does it mean if it lists BAC (Bank of America) as the owner, but also has Fannie Mae listed as an "investor"?

I got my mortgage at a regional bank (People's Bank) who sold it to Countrywide after I'd only made one payment to People's and then it ended up at BoA when Countrywide went bust.