how do I find mortgage loan balances

[Chris Jones]

hi everyone

i wanted to know how does an investor find a homeowners mortgage loan balance, like is this some kinda service you have to signup for or some website you must go to and etc.

the reason i wanted to know this is so i could put together reasonably offers, because i know most homeowners aren't gonna come out of pocket (if selling for less then what they owe) at the closing to just sell you their property

than i was told by another investor to just ask the homeowner up front, but i've found out that works best if at all, when the homeowner calls you, which some times they still give you resistance. but when your as proactive as me and are also calling them, their is a whole lot more resistance from the homeowners to give you this info ((i guess they look at it like your gonna steal their equity or something if their is any to begin with))

or maybe i'm asking for this info the wrong way, probably because i can't really back it up to them why i need that info in the first place

but anyway if anyone knows of a way to find a homeowners mortgage loan balance please let me know i'll be so thankful, because on some investing audio i heard two investors saying they don't even ask for this info because they can so easily find it through a simple search ((HOW))