foreclosure auctions- multiple mortgages

[Nat C.]

I appreciate this line of questioning has come up before but I am still struggling to understand how to ascertain if there is clear title when there are multiple mortgages.

The property shows multiple mortgages. There is no 'assignment of mortgage' or 'satisfaction of mortgage' between them.

Firstly I don't even understand how you can take out multiple mortgages on the one property. If Bank A wants to loan Sally 100K using her condo as collateral, how can Sally ask Bank B for another 100K using the same property as collateral?

I read that the first mortgage always knock out the subsequent mortgages. So if I buy a property where the foreclosing lender was the first to give out the loan, then my purchase will be safe.

However what about if the foreclosing lender was the middle or last on the list of lenders?