My client has a mail in audit for Schedule A Home Mortgage Interest. He has 2 houses and 1,627,472 in Principal Balances on 4 original loans on the house - none ever refinanced - one is a home equity loan of about 180K. He paid 57,000 in interest and we did the exclusion - he ended up with about 38,000 on Schedule A. He purchased the houses in the early 90's and has no clue about where (1) the original loan documents and (2) copies of the escrow closing statements are. He is also heavily into AMT 8,278 for the year of the audit. Questions (1) do we really need to provide them with the original loan documents and copies of the escrow from the early 90's - he doesn't even recall who the Broker, Real Estate Agent and Escrow Company were. (2) are there public records he can search to find out who the real estate broker and escrow company were (3) anyone had any experience calling lenders for loans that far back and asking for original loan documents?
-
-
Public Records
The exact nature of the public records varies a bit from state to state. In general:
The county recorder should have an image of the deed and the mortgage.
The deed will probably identify the title company or closing service somewhere in the margin or in the corner of the first or last page.
The mortgage instrument is not the promissory note. But it will identify the lender.
That should help him get started. The title company or closing service should be able to provide most or all of the original documents. The lender can provide a copy of the promissory note.
In many, but not all jurisdictions, the deed and the mortgage instrument are available online as PDF files. Start by looking at the website of the county recorder. You may be able to search by the name of the property owner or by the address.
BMKBurton M. Koss
koss@usakoss.net
____________________________________
The map is not the territory...
and the instruction book is not the process.
Comment