How Do I Find Who Has The Note On A Home That Is In Foreclosure?

First determine which Assessor's Office in your area has information on the property. In my county we have two, one that serves the City of Cedar Rapids and then one for the County of Linn County, Iowa, where our city is. If the property is in town you would use the City Assessor, but if it is in the County, you would have to contact the County Assessor.

The information that you get from that office, which we have online, as you may too, will give you a "Book and Page" for the recorded Documents on the property.

The Assessor's Office may have information on who is the present owner of the property because they provide that information to your County Treasurer's Office so the Treasurer's Office can collect the taxes on the property,sending out the tax statement to the most current owner at their present address.

Once you have the property owner's name and possibly also the "Book and Page" of the recorded documents, then you go to your County Recorder's office and search out the ownership information at the Recorder's Office. In my county, all of this information is also online so it is relatively easy to retrieve.

At our County Recorder's Office website, we put in the name of the owner on the search line and it will give you a link to all of the recorded documents on the property in question.

The recorded documents will have the documents you will need to find in order to see who has the note on the property. There should be documentation showing the chain of ownership with regard to the foreclosure first. Those documents should tell you who holds the note on the property. The lender that has started the foreclosure is likely the entity who had the note on the property. You will be able to read what the mortgage says about how much the people paid for the house as well and may clue you in as to how much money the lender needs to sell the house for in order to break even.

Keep in mind that once you track down what is owed on the property this may not be a true picture of what the lender needs to sell the property for. Lenders pay $30,000 and upwards to take someone through the foreclosure process for legal fees so don't be surprised if there is a huge discrepancy between what is owed and what the lender is trying to sell it for through their agent.

Once you locate who has the note, you are welcome to call that lender and ask about the status of the property.

Better yet, hire a Realtor and he or she will track down this information for you.