Obtain a mortgage while you have a recorded payroll tax lien

[Lillian Shi]

Just got the prelim title search for a property, the owner has a recorded federal tax lien on early June 2007, that lien is attached to his property, around $110k and he obtain a mortgage by refinance his property( property is previous paid off), the mortgage is signed by the End of Jun 2007, recorded by early July 2007. The house worth close to 1 mil. And the loan that issue is $570K. My question is , how can the lender issue mortgage while there is a big tax lien attached on the property? someone told me it could be possible, because that 's right on the peak of bubble. I did some research say, there is something call " certificate of subordination of federal tax lien", once the lender obtains this, the mortgage company get the senior position of the liens and they will issue the loan. I want to know how to find out the truth.