Fannie Mae claims to have owned my mortgage a month BEFORE we bought the house!

[customerserviceguy]

22. My experience is about eight years old at this point

but let me give it a shot.

The Resolution Trust Corporation was established to acquire the assets of failed S & L's in the wake of the great shakeout of housing lenders in the interest rate collapse of the 1980's. It's primary purpose was to find ways of getting private equity into the portfolios of the failed lenders, but it was also given broad authority to sell the assets of these institutions when they collapsed.

Much more often than not, an assignment or release of a financial instrument involves reciting the names of the original parties as part of the identification of the loan being sold or satisfied. That way, if there is an error in one of say, five terms, the other four establish intent without regard to the transcription mistake (often called scrivener's error). That's why the defunct S & L's names would appear on the documents you were looking at.

I would imagine nearly 100% of all mortgages and foreclosed properties were accounted for in wrapping up RTC's business. However, failed institutions sometimes have incomplete records, and it wouldn't surprise me that a few here and there fell through the cracks. Oh, they might have had someone paying taxes on them, but nobody saw them on a list of assets to be dealt with. It's possible some renters or others might have even acquired title to them, but this is probably a rare exception.

Any properties that didn't have taxes paid on them would have certainly gone to a tax sale, but in many places, tax deeds are difficult to get insured. Sometimes title companies will insure title if they can figure out how to get any possible loose ends resolved, and it's my guess that Wachovia was the successor in interest to either the original lender or perhaps a second lender that didn't get proper notice.

Quit claim deeds (occasionally erroneously called "Quick claim deeds&quot simply transfer whatever interest the grantor has in the property, if any, to the grantee. I could give you a QCD to the Chrysler building, and it would be legal, even though I don't own any interest in that property. They contain no warranty of title, and their highest use is to tie up loose ends resulting from a title search. Often family members use them to convey property interests within the group, and since they're not accompanied by the hoopla surrounding an arms-length transaction involving unrelated sellers and buyers with mortgages and title searches involved, that's how they got the nickname "quick".

It all depends on what else happened in the chain of title as to how insurable it was, and the deed recording office is only part of the story. Courts of competent jurisdiction can also render judgments that change the effect of ownership, they may or may not be referenced by deeds in the deed recorder's office.

Hope that helps!