What Does ‘Mortgage Servicer’ Mean? Why Is Knowing this Important?

If you are trying to contact your lender to work out a payment plan or discuss some other matter, knowing who owns your mortgage can be very helpful. Unfortunately finding out is not as easy as it sounds since more often your mortgage lender is not the one who owns your mortgage.

When you purchase a home and obtain a mortgage loan, you receive a monthly statement from your mortgage company. Often, however, your mortgage company may be a servicing company.

A servicing company services the ‘note’ for the investor who owns it. For example, Countrywide (now Bank of America) may service a loan that doesn’t actually belong to them. The loan could belong to Deutsche Bank or Wells Fargo among others. Additionally, there are some mortgage lenders who actually own the notes that they service.

Your loan may also be owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, both of which have a loan lookup tool on their websites.

For the Fannie Mae loan lookup, click here.

For the Freddie Mac loan lookup, click here.

Finding out whether federally-owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac own your mortgage has become very important because loans owned by these companies may be eligible for the Making Home Affordable Program or some of the other government programs.

When processing a short sale, servicing companies follow the guidelines set up by the investors who own the mortgages. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs have specific guidelines just as loans owned by private investors have their own sets of guidelines. Surprisingly, two short sales at the same bank may not be handled in the same way because different investors may own the notes.

So, the next time you hear the phrase, “Who is the investor on your mortgage?”,understand that obtaining the answer to this question may have an impact on any future loss mitigation plans that you may have.

 

 

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We can help sellers throughout San Diego North County and beyond to avoid foreclosure and walk away from their home without having to pay a penny, and without having their credit ruined by foreclosure or bankruptcy.

Some of the communities we serve are Encinitas,  San Marcos, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Escondido, Rancho Bernardo, Poway, Vista, Valley Center, Fallbrook, and surrounding areas.