Public Resources For Finding A Property Owner
The easiest way to find out who owns a property is to do a title search, because this is public information, explains Lee Suryani, a senior real estate sales and leasing agent in San Diego. Of course, if youre in contract with a home purchase, a title search is often standard operating procedure by your real estate lawyer. But even if you are not, you can do one yourself.
Believe it or not, a simple online search of the address may reveal who currently owns the property without having to pay a dime. If not, there are other public avenues to explore.
How Can I Find Out How Much Is Owed On A House
Whether you’re a real estate investor looking for a bargain or curious about how much a current owner paid for a home when they bought it, the process to find the outstanding balance on a home can be accomplished in several ways–from simply asking to examining real estate records.
Tips
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There are several ways to find out how much is owed on a home. You can ask the homeowner directly, speak with the lender or search the local newspaper for foreclosure amounts.
Taking Out Another Mortgage After Eviction For Mortgage Arrears
If you’ve been evicted for mortgage arrears, you might have problems taking out another mortgage. This is because details of any payments you’ve missed are held on file by credit reference agencies, such as Experian or Equifax. Mortgage lenders will contact them to find out whether you have a good credit rating. However, your credit file wont show the repossession order.
Your past credit history may not stop you taking out a mortgage, but if you still owe money on a mortgage and try to take out another one, you may have difficulty getting a loan.
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Discovering Paranormal Activity Searching The History Of A House
This should help ensure that the property you are looking to buy doesnt have a dark past you may only find out about when youve been living in the property for a while. Helping you avoid buying a property that turns out to be a macabre tourist attraction, for example.
The report should or help put your mind at ease over negative energy in the home or ghostly activity if thats something that worries you.
While this service is often used by paranormal investigators, house appraisers, and real estate agents researching a home before they list it, buyers can also profit from using this service.
You could also use the information in a report like this to gain a better deal on a home. After all, it could impact the property value. Finding some negative information about a property could put you in a position to negotiate a better deal with the seller.
Whether you want to live in the home, or if you are purchasing as an investor, there is an opportunity for a discount. If you dont mind the idea of buying a property with what some people would see as a negative history, you could get a bargain.
What If I Dont Have Enough Equity To Pay Off The Mortgage
When you dont have enough equity to pay off your loan, its called having negative equity or being underwater. If you need to sell but dont have enough equity , youll need to either bring money to the closing table to cover the shortfall or consider selling with a short sale.
Short sale for underwater homes
If your homes value has dropped since you purchased it, you may owe more than its worth. If you find yourself in this situation and cant wait until market conditions improve to sell, a short sale may be your only option. In a short sale, the bank must agree to let you sell the home for less than what you owe on it, since theyll be getting less money than what theyre owed.
A short sale can damage your ability to buy a new home in the future, both because you will forfeit your original down payment amount to get out from under the home and because it will negatively affect your credit score.
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Ask An Experienced Real Estate Agent
When you are interested in the history of properties you are looking to buy, dont forget about local Realtors. A real estate agent that has been operating in the area for a long time, will have a wealth of knowledge about the area and possibly the property you want to own.
They might offer you some clues about the property so that you can narrow down your research, and they could be a good place to start. For example, I have lived in Hopkinton Massachusetts my entire life.
Some people may not know it is the start of the world-famous Boston Marathon. Others may not know Hopkinton has been rated as one of the safest places to live in America or have some of the best schools in the state.
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Things A Title Search Can Tell You About A Property
InfoTrack
12 December 2018
There are many circumstances in life when you may need to conduct a title search to get a Certificate of Title buying or selling property, proving ownership, refinancing your mortgage and the list goes on. But what exactly is a Certificate of Title and what can it tell you about a property?
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Honestly It Is Very Easy To Find Out Mortgage And Other Related Information On Properties Read Below To Know
Now that everything is online and the world literally worships the internet, it comes as no surprise that technical information is publicly available on the web.
Mortgages are public documents that are available for everyone to see. If you like a house and see a mortgage note on it, you can find out which company owns it by simply browsing through the internet. In this article were going to tell you ways to find out if there is a mortgage on the property.
Get A More Accurate Estimate
Get pre-qualified by a lender to see an even more accurate estimate of your monthly mortgage payment.
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How much house can you afford? Use our affordability calculator to estimate what you can comfortably spend on your new home.
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Your debt-to-income ratio helps determine if you would qualify for a mortgage. Use our DTI calculator to see if you’re in the right range.
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Who Does The Title Search
A title company or attorney will typically take care of the title search. In some cases, the lender or the individual home buyer may take over this process instead.
If you choose to tackle the title search process on your own, then you can seek out the records you need at places like the county courthouse, the recorders office, and the county assessor office.
It might be a good idea to let the professionals handle this part of the home buying process. Legal documents can get confusing to the untrained eye and you dont want to accidentally overlook something important.
Determining The Right Down Payment Amount
A purchase calculator can help you determine the down payment you need. There are minimum down payments for various loan types, but even beyond that, a higher down payment can mean a lower monthly payment and the ability to avoid mortgage insurance.
On the flip side, a higher down payment represents a more significant hurdle, particularly for first-time home buyers who dont have an existing home to sell to help fund that down payment. The calculator can show you options so that you can balance the amount of the down payment with the monthly mortgage payment itself.
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How Much Should I Spend On A House
An affordability calculator is a great first step to determine how much house you can afford, but ultimately you have the final say in what youre comfortable spending on your next home. When deciding how much to spend on a house, take into consideration your monthly spending habits and personal savings goals. You want to have some cash reserved in your savings account after purchasing a home. Typically, a cash reserve should include three months worth of house payments and enough money to cover other monthly debts. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to start planning out your housing budget:
Mortgage Life Disability And Critical Illness Insurance
Optional mortgage insurance products include life, illness and disability insurance. These optional products are different from mortgage loan insurance.
They can help you make your mortgage payments, or help pay off the balance on your mortgage if you:
- become critically ill
Your lender might offer you optional mortgage insurance when you get a mortgage. You dont need to purchase the insurance to be approved for a mortgage. The lender adds the cost of these optional products to your mortgage payment.
There are important limits on the coverage that optional mortgage insurance products provide. Read your policy carefully and ask questions about anything you dont understand before purchasing these products.
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Should I Port My Mortgage
There are two main reasons people port:
So if you are able to port and one or both of these factors apply to you, it may be beneficial to do so.
Probably the biggest downside of porting your mortgage is that youre limited to your lenders products and may be missing out on better deals being offered elsewhere.
Pro tip: If youve built up equity in your current home and therefore dont need to borrow as great a percentage of the value of your new home , youre likely to be able to access better rates than before.
Before you commit to porting, its a very good idea to speak to an independent broker or financial advisor who can access the whole of the market and make sure youre getting the best deal for your circumstances.
How To Estimate Affordability
There is a rule of thumb about how much you can afford, based on the calculations your mortgage provider will make. The rule of thumb is you can afford a mortgage where your monthly housing costs are no more than 32% of your gross household income, and where your total debt load is no more than 40% of your gross houshold income. This rule is based on your debt service ratios.
Lenders look at two ratios when determining the mortgage amount you qualify for, which generally indicate how much you can afford. These ratios are called the Gross Debt Service ratio and Total Debt Service ratio. They take into account your income, monthly housing costs, and overall debt load.
The first affordability guideline, as set out by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation , is that your monthly housing costs mortgage principal and interest, taxes, and heating expenses should not exceed 32% of your gross household monthly income. For condominiums, P.I.T.H. also includes half of your monthly condominium fees. The sum of these housing costs as a percentage of your gross monthly income is your GDS ratio.
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Find Out How Much Untapped Cash You Have In Your Home
It is generally assumed that most people know what their home equity is. However, many people are still confused about the topic. As a homeowner, you need to understand how home equity works. That is especially true if you are looking to refinance a mortgage or borrow money against your residence.
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How To Find Out Who Holds The Mortgage On A House
Finding out who holds the mortgage on a home is helpful for owners who are facing financial difficulties and want to avoid foreclosure, as well as home buyers looking to purchase a home before it gets foreclosed. If you are the property owner, you are entitled to the information. Prospective purchasers may use public resources and the help of professionals to get these details.
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Locate the county auditor where the house is located. Many municipalities offer online forms allowing you to obtain all the information you need from the county database. If not, you may need to make a request in person, by fax or via postal mail. Information about home sale transactions is public record, allowing you to find the propertys deed and both recent and historical data regarding past sales including the names of the property owner, who issued the mortgage, amount of the mortgage and the propertys sale price.
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Contact the company you mail your mortgage payments to–also referred to as a loan servicer–if you are inquiring about a property that you own. Ask to speak with a supervisor to request the information about the mortgage holder via telephone. It may be necessary to send a request to the company by certified mail should you encounter difficulties obtaining this information over the phone.
References
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To Make Sure Your Servicer Gives You Accurate Information About Loss Mitigation Options
Different backers offer various loss mitigation options to borrowers. Your options often depend on what entity, like FHA, VA, USDA, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac, owns or guarantees your loan, and you probably have choices. For example, you can get a CARES Act forbearance if you have a federally backed loan, such as an FHA, VA, USDA, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac loan. Different investors offer various foreclosure alternatives, too.
But servicers don’t always give accurate information when telling you about what foreclosure alternatives are available. So, you need to know who owns or guarantees your loan to know what options might be available to you. Learn what options are generally offered for your type of loan and be ready to ask your loan servicer about them.
Understand What Information Is Public
Before you spend time searching for mortgage information, its important that you understand exactly what information youll be able to find. To protect a sellers privacy, some information simply isnt public record. For instance, you wont ever be able to get the account number or other sensitive information.
A public mortgage records search may reveal the following:
- Borrowers name
- Square footage of dwelling
- Propertys assessed value
During your search, you may also uncover information about previous sales, listings, and the price for which the property was listed/sold in the past. Youll also be able to look back on how the propertys assessed value has changed over time.
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Use A Mortgage Calculator
As a practical matter, youre much better off using a mortgage calculator to calculate your mortgage payment because its very hard to even input that formula properly in a regular calculator. Using a mortgage calculator takes the guesswork out of the formula for you and can help you calculate your mortgage payments much faster. There are several types of mortgage calculators, so its important to understand the purpose of each one so that you can be sure youre using the right one for your needs.
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A Word About Credit Scores
There may be some confusion about how liens affect your credit score and which ones actually show up on your record. Some mechanics liens and judgment liens are reportable, which means they often end up on your credit report. Thats because they factor into your repayment history, which makes up more than a third of your credit score.
To report them, the creditor must have a minimum amount of identifying information from a debtor, including their date of birth or Social Security number . A lien may still show up on your credit report even if its paid offusually for up to seven years.
However, not all liens put a dent in your . For example, a consensual lien that you have on a home or car that youre still paying off wont show up on your report.
The same applies to tax liens. The three major Equifax, Experian, and TransUnionremoved tax liens from their credit reports as of April 2018. The agencies stopped reporting them because of the number of errors, inconsistencies, and disputes they received.
To see if theres a lien against you, request a free credit report from Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion at AnnualCreditReport.com. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of these credit reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.
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