Existing Mortgage Research on Private Deals

[Tom Nellman]

Hi, 

We are still fairly new to off market deals.  We have found that a lot of prospects say "If you just pay off my existing mortgage" or "If you just pay off my existing mortgage plus "$X.XX" Dollars More" it's yours.  They then when asked, they say I owe "about... "X" on the property".  As investors, how do we investigate/confirm how much they actually owe on the house.  Do you have to wait until the purchase agreement is signed and the title company gets the payoff letter from the bank and if the number is off you back out?  Just curious how this is handled, thanks!

Tom