mortgages public knowledge??

Question

hey guys and gals, 
i know how to access a lot of info i need through tax and county websites ...GIS and Polaris are both amazing...i have heard that mortgage info is public knowledge as well, although i have not seen proof of this..without directly asking the seller, does anyone know how to find out what people owe on their homes?? i suppose you could estimate by finding sales price, but you still don't know interest rate, their downpayment, or how much they pay...they could be paying extra each year, and thus owe less than you would think...help all..let me see your wisdom!!  thanks.

Account Closed · Answer

vikram, thanks for the quick response!

steve, where can you find the loan amount and terms?? thanks

Account Closed · Answer

You can get the balance by running the owner's credit report. Of course that is illegal for you to do so, without the owner's permission. If he's going to give you enough information to run his credit report, he'll give you the balance of the loan, if you ask, and if he knows it-- which he probably doesn't.

Escrow companies get the pay-off amount of mortgages by calling the bank. The bank will not give you that information.

Mark Yuschak · Answer

You can find the original loan amount and terms from the Register of Deeds Office.

Most RDOs have online access where you can look up such data.

Steve Babiak · Answer

What they currently owe is not public knowledge; the public info is the original loan amount and terms.

Since you can find loan amount and terms, you could extrapolate an approximate remaining debt balance - but as you mentioned, the borrower could make extra principle payments, or have neg-am ARM, or pick-a-pay option ARM - all of which will affect the accuracy of your guess.

Vikram C. · Answer

Lawyers use a service called LexisNexis and it is probably the best source of public records, court records, etc.  It is available to non-lawyers as well and used to be expensive when I used it many years back.
          
          I have seen mortgage data on it, but I am not sure if it is available for all states.