If you want information about your mortgage loan, such as your monthly payment amount, or to apply for an alternative to foreclosure, you need to know who your servicer is and how to contact them. You might also need to know who owns or backs (guarantees) your mortgage loan. But figuring out who owns the loan can be tricky. The loan might have been sold several times since you got it from the original lender, and the company you send your mortgage payments to might be different from the loan owner.
Here’s how to learn who services your mortgage loan, which company owns it, and why you might need this information.
What Is a Mortgage Servicer?
Before you learn how to find the company that services your loan, you need to understand the difference between a servicer and a loan owner.
The Mortgage Servicer Is the Hands-On Manager of Your Loan
A servicer handles the day-to-day management duties associated with mortgage loan accounts.
These duties include collecting payments, sending billing statements, managing escrow accounts, communicating with borrowers, reviewing borrowers’ applications for loss mitigation (foreclosure avoidance) options, and overseeing foreclosures when borrowers stop making payments.
The Loan Owner Might Be Different Than the Servicer
The servicer might be the loan owner, but more likely, a separate company receives a fee to manage the loan. The loan owner is also called the "holder" or "investor."
Why Do I Need to Know the Servicer?
You need to know who services your loan and how to contact them if, for example:
- You want specific information about your account, like how much your payment is, when your next payment is due, or what late fees you owe.
- You’re having trouble making your payments and want to work out a short-term solution, such as a forbearance or repayment plan.
- You’re having trouble making your payments and want to apply for a long-term solution, like a modification, short sale, or deed in lieu of foreclosure.
How to Find Out Who Services Your Loan
It’s pretty easy to find out the name of your loan servicer. You can get this information, along with the servicer’s phone number and other contact information, on the billing statement you get each month or from your payment coupon book if you have one.
Or you can check the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) Servicer ID system. Borrowers with a MERS loan can find their servicer's name in the MERS system.
Who Owns or Backs My Mortgage Loan?
The loan owner is sometimes called the "note holder," "holder," or "investor." The holder has the legal right to collect the mortgage debt and foreclose the home if the borrower doesn’t make the loan payments.
A guarantor, or mortgage backer, is an entity, like the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or Veterans Administration (VA), that guarantees the holder will get paid if the borrower defaults.
How to Find Out Who Owns or Backs Your Mortgage Loan
To learn who owns or guarantees your loan, you can:
- Call your servicer and ask.
- Send an official letter, called a "request for information," to your servicer asking who owns or guarantees the loan.
- Check to see if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owns your loan by using the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan-lookup tools online. (Many loans are sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).
- Go to the MERS website.
- Look for an FHA case number on your mortgage contract. But loans sometimes lose their FHA-insured status, so call your servicer or HUD's National Servicing Center at 877-622-8525 to find out about your loan's status. You can also look at your billing statement to see if you pay a mortgage insurance premium (MIP). "MIP" is what FHA calls its mortgage insurance. If you're paying MIP, then you have an FHA-insured loan.
- A VA-guaranteed loan contains specific language in the note and mortgage that identifies it as a VA loan. Also, you should see fees paid to the VA in your loan closing documents.
- Borrowers with mortgages directly made by the USDA's Rural Housing Service (RHS) should know they have this type of loan. But homeowners with privately serviced RHS-guaranteed loans might not know about their loan's status. So, to determine if you have an RHS-guaranteed loan, ask the servicer or check your closing documents from when you got the loan.
Why Do I Need to Know Who Owns or Backs My Mortgage Loan?
If you’re in foreclosure, you might want to find out who owns your loan. You could potentially have a defense to the foreclosure if the foreclosing party doesn’t actually own your loan or can’t prove that it owns your loan through a proper chain of promissory note endorsements and mortgage assignments. To find out if you can raise this kind of defense, called "standing," talk to an attorney. The law varies from state to state.
You might also want to find out what entity, like the FHA or VA, if any, guarantees (backs) your loan. Different investors and backers offer different loss mitigation alternatives to borrowers. So, you need to find out what entity owns or guarantees your loan to know what possibilities might be available.
Getting Help
Consider talking to a foreclosure attorney if you're facing a foreclosure and want to learn about potential defenses.
If you want to work out a loss mitigation option, like a loan modification, short sale, or deed in lieu of foreclosure, it’s also a good idea to contact a HUD-approved housing counselor.