George Booth said:

I pray for the day when the forum goes back to really cool title problems instead of the every other non-pay post.

Amen, George.  I thought I would take this opportunity to share a title problem that an examiner called me about yesterday.

Homeowner was foreclosed on.  During the course of the title search this examiner found that the Homeowner's mortgage was to MERS as nominee for Lender #1.  A few years prior to the foreclosure, MERS assigned the mortgage to Lender #2.  Then, just prior to the foreclosure, MERS again assigned the mortgage to Lender #3 who filed the foreclosure.  Lender #3 was the successful bidder at the Sheriff's sale and got the property back.

So... how do you correct this problem?  It appears that Lender #3 didn't own the mortgage because MERS's assignment could not have been valid - they had perviously assigned it to Lender #2.  Thus, Lender #3 didn't have any right to foreclose on the mortgage... at best they could have sued on the note.

I am a bit perplexed by this.  Preliminary judicial reports are required on nearly all foreclosures in Ohio.  Shouldn't someone have noticed this before the foreclosure was final?  It is starting to look like title problems don't matter too much anymore.  They are just ignored.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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