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Contrary to what is reported by the owner of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc.—potential and existing homeowners should be warned that prior to, at, or after loan closing, and during the life of the pledged mortgage loan, the originator lender, a Member of the MERS® System, a consumer home buyer is not always notified each and every time an assignment, a sale, or transfer of purported servicing rights and ownership of his or her mortgage loan also linked to pledged real property, including the underlying debt (promissory note) registered in the MERS® System.

One red flag strategy used by real estate developer (builder) is to attract potential and existing homeowners seeking a brand new construction home to use its preferred lender, title insurance company, and title agent, by offering him or her concessions and incentives for the purchase of a new home. If potential and existing homeowners accepts the offer, he or she signs a purchase agreement (contract) for the real property and bound to use the Seller’s preferred lender, title insurance company, and title agent.

Title Land Edification has directly linked to most states local government: counties and municipalities—new home residential land developers (builders), taxing authorities, and financial mortgage lending institutions to fraudulent mortgage loan origination and a double-sold loan or double selling, and fraudulent closing practices affecting tens of millions homebuyers.

Mortgage loan origination fraud is primarily committed by or with the assistance of local government agencies such as counties and municipalities or industry insiders such as real estate developers, builders, property sellers, financial institutions, funding lenders, appraisers, realtors, attorneys, mortgage originators, title insurance companies, or title agents by way of the third-party National Mortgage Rights Registry (more commonly known as Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc. (MERS)® System.

One strategy used by new construction real estate developers via their preferred lenders, title insurance companies, and title agents, usually a member of MERS® System, to raise capital is to sell the same mortgage loan to more than one secondary-market investor (also a MERS member) via the MERS® System—this is known as a double-sold loan or double selling. A mortgage loan originator accepts a legitimate application and related documentation from a consumer borrower, reproduces or copies the loan file, and sends the loan package to separate warehouse lenders for each to fund the same loan. The original loan application documentation in which real property is pledged is duplicated and sold (or traded) more than once amongst MERS members on the secondary market via the MERS® System.

To conceal the strategy, the developer’s preferred lender remits the scheduled principal and interest payments to the purported servicer, a member of the MERS® System. Since all loans remain current, the consumer borrower is unaware that his or her mortgage has been double pledged at the time of closing.

See our patterns and red flags that may indicate real estate settlement (closing) or escrow accounting and  settlement fraud.

Title Land Edification's Red Flags Reminds Consumers To Contact Us Before You Buy or Refinance A Mortgage Loan—If Not, The Implications Are Clear

  • The lender designates Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc. (MERS) as the mortgagee, solely as a nominee ("beneficiary") for the lender—is identified on a loan secured by a first deed of trust or mortgage on the principal dwelling; inextricably intertwined to the publicly recorded document that pledges the home as security (collateral) for the underlying debt (or promissory note), affecting approximately 3,524 real estate recording and taxing jurisdictions for each local county government nationwide.
  • The consumer borrower receives a Notice of Assignment, Sale, or Transfer of Servicing Rights from the purported secured (creditor) lender and a Member of the MERS® System, weeks after closing or prior to the due date of the consumer borrower's first mortgage loan payment of a federally related first-lien mortgage loan and subsequently sold (traded) to another MERS Member on the MERS® System.
  • The consumer borrower relies on title insurance purchased by the seller’s preferred lender instead of buying his or her own home title insurance.
  • The closing agent (and lender) requires the consumer borrower to electronically signed mortgage loan documents prior to, or at, loan closing.
  • Someone other than the consumer borrower is making a payment on the mortgage loan.
  • The consumer borrower does not find the MERS Mortgage Identification Number (MIN) linked to the mortgage loan on the consumer credit report.
  • The consumer borrower notices that his or her legal name is inaccurate (which does not exactly match the legal name as shown on the consumer borrower’s birth certificate, Social Security card, driver’s license, and all other applicable legal documents) on the tax parcel Supplemental Tax Bill Acknowledgment issued by the closing agent (or attorney) prior to, or at, loan closing.
  • The consumer borrower notices that his or her legal name is inaccurate (which does not exactly match the legal name as shown on the consumer borrower’s birth certificate, Social Security card, driver’s license, and all other applicable legal documents) on the title deed, on a loan secured by a first deed of trust or mortgage on the principal dwelling, and tax parcel prior to, or at, loan closing.
  • The consumer borrower notices that his or her legal name is inaccurate (which does not exactly match the legal name as shown on the consumer borrower’s birth certificate, Social Security card, driver’s license, and all other applicable legal documents) on the Truth in Lending Disclosure Statement, or TILA-RESPA, prior to, or at, loan closing.
  • The consumer borrower notices more than one mortgage loan on his or her consumer credit report.
  • The consumer borrower notices that the Assessor’s Parcel Number and/or Tax Map Number (tax parcel identifiers) identified on the Supplemental Tax Bill Acknowledgment closing document do not identically match those of the state and local government taxing authorities responsible for maintaining the tax records of this type of transaction.
  • The consumer borrower notices two separate and distinct loan numbers (e.g., Lender Loan No.: 3120019497 and MERS 18-Digit Loan No.: 1010462-0000059649-2) on a loan secured by a first deed of trust or mortgage on the principal dwelling prior to, or at, loan closing.
  • The consumer borrower receives late notices or tax invoices on more than one mortgage loan.
  • The consumer borrower is pressured to sign closing papers before having had a chance to study them prior to, or at, loan closing.
  • The local government agency, Taxing Authority (or Assessor) fails to notify consumer borrower(s) or potential and existing homeowners when a change to a parcel identifier (cadastre) occurs before the loan origination and closing process, which does not match exactly the parcel identifier identified on local government internal official (paper-based) records, e.g., zoning and occupancy permits—contradicting the parcel identifier identified on mortgage loan documents secured by a first deed of trust or mortgage on the principal dwelling, and title deed, which real property is being pledged or financed by the lender or its agent, prior to, or at, loan closing.
  • The lender fails to cite the consumer borrower’s legal name (which exactly match the legal name as shown on the consumer borrower’s birth certificate, Social Security card, driver’s license, and all other applicable legal documents) on all mortgage-related documents prior to, or at, loan closing.
  • The lender fails to cite the consumer borrower’s legal name (that exactly match the legal name as shown on the consumer borrower’s birth certificate, Social Security card, driver’s license, and all other applicable legal documents) on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) forms (e.g., Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, Mortgage Interest Statement (Form 1098)).
  • The lender fails to cite the legal name (which exactly match the legal name as shown on the consumer borrower’s birth certificate, Social Security card, driver’s license, and all other applicable legal documents) of the consumer borrower and the MERS MIN on all federally insured mortgage-related loan documents, (e.g., HUD/VA Addendum to Uniform Residential Loan Application, Direct Endorsement Approval for a HUD/FHA-Insured Mortgage, settlement statements, tax and insurance account (initial escrow account disclosure statement), certification of occupancy and contributions, concessions, Identity Affidavit).
  • The lender fails to cite the MERS MIN (loan number) on the IRS Mortgage Interest Statement (Form 1098) and other IRS mortgage and real estate tax-related forms on or before the closing date, including the life of the mortgage loan.
  • The closing agent fails to provide to the consumer borrower the Closing Disclosures, including the MERS Disclosure, three business days prior to loan closing.
  • The lender fails to provide the original paper or E-SIGN promissory note to the document custodian.
  • The lender requires (and establishes) that part of the consumer borrower’s monthly mortgage loan payment goes into a tax and insurance escrow account at closing—to pay local government taxing authorities such as counties and municipalities real estate taxes, and to pay mortgage insurance premiums for mortgage loans insured by Federal and State agencies.
  • The local government taxing authority, without legal justification, issues a property owner an “overpayment” (refund) due to unintentional error, when a property owner usually makes his or her real estate tax payments directly to the local government’s taxing authority.
  • The seller (or real estate developer and builder) fails to disclose and produce for inspection to the consumer borrower the approved, official paper copies of local government records (e.g., building permit, occupancy permit, electrical permit, fire suppression/alarm permit, gas permit, mechanical permit, and plumbing permit prior to, or at, loan closing).
  • The closing agent fails to provide the consumer borrower copies of all signed documents (involving all participants) prior to, or at, loan closing.

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Since 2007, our exclusive and innovative mortgage origination, chain of ownership, and title proprietary technologies found wholesale chain of ownership problems and irregularities with US-based residential mortgage loans and documents of legal title affecting the assignment, sale, or transfer of purported servicing rights of the mortgage loan and the underlying debt (promissory note) registered in the financial institutions’ member-based MERS® System—while protecting citizens of the US, the homeland, US territories, and protectorates in approximately 3,524 local government real estate recording, judicial, and real estate tax and assessment jurisdictions nationwide.

We provide business and consumer information in the field of tracking assignment, sale, or transfer of purported servicing rights (ownership) of US residential-mortgages history (chain of title) information anywhere in the US—registered in the MERS® System.

Our mortgage loan services closing/settlement verification tool supports military organizations, operations, actions, expert research, and document verification providers in the US residential mortgage industry for ten years. We provide service that tracks the changes in assignment, sale, or transfer of purported servicing rights registered in the financial institutions’ member-based MERS® System.

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TLE Title Land Edification Chain of Ownership History Report services are based only on information supplied to TLE. TLE does not have the complete history of every real property. Use the TLE verification service as one important tool, along with publicly recorded deeds when mortgage loans are originated, registered, serviced, and transferred in the financial institutions’ member-based Mortgage Electronic Registration System—to make a better decision about your next home purchase or refinance.

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