Video Transcript:
So how can you get the balance of a mortgage on a piece of real estate? This is Dave at TitleSearch.com. And when you run a title search, typically the dollar amount that you'll see listed for a mortgage is what was originally recorded as the mortgage amount that was borrowed when the mortgage was placed. So if somebody buys a house for, let's say, 700,000 dollars and they get a mortgage for 600,000 dollars... Ten years later, even if that mortgage has been paid down, the amount officially showing on title will usually be 600,000 dollars. The reason for that is what's going to show on title is what is recorded as a document in the land records. Every time you record a document, there's a fee associated with that recording. There's a fee for creating the document. There's a fee for a recording stamp that the county clerk puts on the document. And there's also a fee to have somebody bring it there and actually physically deliver it to the recorder. So if every day when the interest changed or the payment was made, if the bank recorded another document in the land records, then it would get more expensive. Actually, probably more than even the mortgage was worth because it may cost 100 dollars to do a recording for a lender. So the lender is not going to update the amount on title. Now, in their own internal records, in their account system, they'll have that absolutely absolutely updated day by day "payoff balance". It will not be reflected on title. The other reason they don't reflect it on title is because, let's say the mortgage is paid down from 600,000 to 500,000 dollars, and then the borrower stops paying and there's interest in taxes and penalties and legal fees to foreclose that property, it can go back up to the 600,000 dollars. You can't have an obligation that goes beyond what's recorded on title. If they reduced it back down to 500,000 dollars, and then there was interest and penalties and legal fees on top of that. It would be difficult for them to protect their interest on title for that higher amount. Typically, what you're going to see on title is the original mortgage amount, but it will give you the information you're going to need to be able to attempt to contact the bank to get the current mortgage amount. For example, it'll have the mortgage number, it'll have the book and page. It'll have the instrument number. You'll need all those if you want to try to contact the bank to get the daily balance amount. Remember, that balance does change daily. It's based on accrued interest and if there's any escrows for taxes or insurance. If you do have questions about running a title search on real estate, you can reach us at our website at title search dot com.