Yeah, I know about loan servicers. And I know banks do not keep the loans they make but offload them quickly. But with the nutroll these guys created, how can we be sure the payments are in fact going to the right place? It only becomes _apparent_ during a foreclosure that nobody knows what is going on. This may only become apparent years later, when people go to sell. Title insurance is illegal in Iowa, but our mortgage still required it, because the bank was going to sell the loan right away and we weren’t smart enough to notice. See where I’m going with that?
I should think counties should be miffed they have been bypassed in all of this, because they are owed a TON of fees/taxes on the sales of securitized products. MERS was a worm designed to bypass proper recording procedures is what it looks like. Or at least MBS were.
I think that there could be a qui tam goldmine here, especially considering that many counties are strapped for cash and MERS has been doing things to deliberately cut county recorders (and their fees) out of the loop when notes are sold.
MBS have existed for decades, and they’re on the up and up. Bundling mortgages together and selling them as a package mortgages is why Fannie was created in the 30’s.
MERS, however, is a whole ‘nuther matter.