I looked up our liens on a database maintained by our county Recorder of Deeds. You probably have something similar, or could talk to humans at the same office for help. They have summary information on the deeds, mortgages and satisfaction letters, and also scanned copies of the documents. I didn't print out the scanned copies because I didn't feel like paying $10.50 each, but I should probably do so.
The second thing I did was look up our re-fi's in the MERS database. I found that they both are/were "owned" by Fannie Mae. The second one was never recorded at our county level, and both were probably sliced and diced into MBS's. I doubt GMAC can convey clear title, so I'm concerned about our mortgage and wonder why in the heck I'm sending them money.
Interesting - I’ll have to go to the courthouse and check on my own property. They want a $50 fee to do it online, which is too much. Paid off the loan last year and have the documents to prove it. No issues with any mortgage companies but I want to be sure.
This entire foreclosure issue needs to be worked out. I’m hoping/planning to be in a position to buy some property next year but I can’t act if I don’t know the condition of the title.
Good idea. Our mortgage was owned by Countrywide at one point. The last time we re-fi’ed, the papers were signed in the presence of a part time retired attorney in a rent-a-office. I forget the name of the bank that handled it all. My husband handled all those negotiations.
The attorney was a very nice man and very accomplished at his work. I found out that he had been quite important at one time around here, and just likes to do this work in retirement to keep busy. He was in his 80s. But, it doesn’t seem quite ‘kosher’, does it?