Contacting the lender for pay off amount

[Daniel Halsted]

How do you go about contacting the lender to find out how much someone owes on there property that is already in pre-foreclosure?  Are there public / subscription web sites for this or can you just call the lender direct?  I would imagine they would not  talk directly with someone outside of the mortgage but by pre-foreclosure there must have been a trustee assigned with a law firm or am I wrong?  

[James York]

@Daniel Halsted I don’t believe what you’re trying to do is possible. What you can do is make an educated guess with the information you have available. Public record will tell you when they bought and what they paid. In some markets and with the help of a realtor, you may even be able to guess at the loan type. With this information, you can research mortgage rates at the time of purchase. With a few assumptions, you can get relatively close to what they may owe. This is in no way precise, but is likely to get you In the ballpark.