I have reason to believe this was a deal between family members (but with different last names).  Just how long would it take a mortgage company to find out a property they've mortgaged has been sold?  How do they ever find out unless and until there's a request to pay it off?  This is an area I've not really thought about.  I understand notifying banks of a property tax foreclosure and the process we go thru regarding that....  even if the credit reporting agencies report a sale of the property, how does the mortgage company know unless they are specifically notified? 

Makes me wonder if this goes on a lot more than we know and maybe we shouldn't be doing "just one owner searches" at all!