How to Find Out Who Owns Your Mortgage
Uncover the true owner of your mortgage. Gain clarity on who holds your loan, understand ownership changes, and access key methods for discovery.
A mortgage is a significant financial commitment, but its ownership can be unclear. Knowing who owns your mortgage is helpful for refinancing, understanding financial entities, or personal clarity. While you interact with a loan servicer for payments, the actual owner of your mortgage debt may be a different entity.
Understanding Mortgage Ownership and Servicing
It is important to distinguish between the entity that owns your mortgage and the entity that services it. The mortgage owner, also known as the investor or note holder, holds the legal right to collect the debt and is the ultimate beneficiary of your payments.
The mortgage servicer is the company responsible for managing your loan account on a day-to-day basis. This includes collecting your monthly payments, managing escrow accounts for taxes and insurance, handling customer inquiries, and processing any loan modifications or foreclosures. The servicer acts as an agent for the mortgage owner. For example, your mortgage might be owned by an individual investor, a large commercial bank, or government-sponsored enterprises, while a separate company handles all the payment processing.
Methods to Identify Your Mortgage Owner
To determine who owns your mortgage, start by reviewing your original loan documents. The promissory note, which is the legal promise to repay the loan, and the deed of trust or mortgage identify the original lender. Your closing disclosure also lists the initial lender and other transaction details.
You can also use the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) to track mortgage ownership. MERS is a national electronic registry that tracks ownership and servicing rights of mortgage loans in the United States. Many loans are registered with MERS and assigned a unique Mortgage Identification Number (MIN). You can search the MERS website using your MIN, property address, or borrower name to find the current servicer and, in some cases, the owner.
Another direct method is to contact your current loan servicer. Federal regulations require mortgage servicers to disclose the name and address of the owner of your mortgage loan upon your written request. This request should be made in writing, often referred to as a Qualified Written Request (QWR), to ensure a documented response. The servicer has a specific timeframe, 30 business days, to respond to such inquiries.
You can also use lookup tools provided by government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These entities purchase a significant portion of the mortgages originated in the United States. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offer online loan lookup tools where you can enter your property address and the last four digits of your Social Security number to determine if they own your mortgage. If your loan is owned by either of these GSEs, their tools will confirm it.
Changes in Mortgage Ownership
Mortgages are frequently bought and sold in the secondary market, meaning the ownership of your loan can change over time. When your mortgage is sold to a new owner, the terms of your loan, including your interest rate, monthly payment amount, and repayment schedule, remain unchanged. These original terms are legally binding and transfer with the loan.
Federal law mandates that you receive notification when your mortgage ownership changes. If your loan servicer changes, you will receive a “Notice of Transfer of Loan Servicing” from both your old and new servicers at least 15 days before the effective date of the transfer. This notice will include information about the new servicer, including their contact details and where to send payments. Even if the servicer remains the same but the underlying owner changes, you are informed of the new owner through statements or other notifications from your servicer.