How to Find Out Who Holds the Mortgage on a House

If you're having problems with your mortgage, you need to find out who owns it.

The bank that financed your house may not be the company that owns your mortgage now. Companies buy, sell and trade mortgages as an investment; the current and original owners of your loan may be completely different, and the business that accepts your mortgage payment may only be a contractor for the actual owner. If you're happy with your mortgage, the ownership may not matter; if you want to negotiate a mortgage modification, you need to find the owner first.

Instructions

1. Ask your loan servicer -- the company that takes your payments -- who actually owns your mortgage. The servicer may not tell you; the Keep My House website states that some investors prefer not to have the information publicized. But if the servicer is willing to cooperate, that's the simplest way to find out. If you can at least find out a list of the companies the servicer works for, you can narrow it down.

2. Check at your local county courthouse. If the original lender has transferred the mortgage, it should be recorded there. In many cases, though, according to the Daily Caller website, companies have neglected to record the transfer after the mortgage was transferred.

3. Contact Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, government-sponsored corporations that invest in the mortgage market, and find out if one of them holds the mortgage. If your loan is owned by either corporation, your loan servicer has to participate in the federal Making Home Affordable program for refinancing and modifying mortgages. The program sets qualifications you'll have to meet; but if you do qualify, the program will help you reduce your monthly housing payments.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're faced with foreclosure, the Nolo legal website states that you may be able to buy time or avoid foreclosure completely by raising the question of ownership. If the company foreclosing on you can't prove that it owns your mortgage, it has no legal right to foreclose -- and the rapid turnover in mortgage securities means many mortgage-holders don't have the paperwork available.

• Multiple cases have turned up around the country in which mortgage owners or services forged paperwork to complete the foreclosure process; in some cases, the Daily Caller states, the forged paperwork was for mortgages the company didn't actually own. If you're going through foreclosure, you and your lawyer should be aware of the possibility of fraud.

References

• Making Home Affordable.gov: Look Up Your Loan
• Nolo: Defenses to Foreclosure
• KeepMyHouse.com: Who Owns My Mortgage?
• The Daily Caller: One Nation Under Fraud

Resources

• Making Home Affordable.gov: Borrower Frequently Asked Questions