Zillow est. remaining mortgage (properties, borrower, deeds, loan)

[Nasudesu]

I was very surprised to see Zillow est remaining mortgage on two homes we own. It shows zero amount and that is correct. Are yours accurate too? Where is this info coming from?

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by Nasudesu

I was very surprised to see Zillow est remaining mortgage on two homes we own. It shows zero amount and that is correct. Are yours accurate too? Where is this info coming from?

It's very easy to show ZERO if your lender records a cancelation of your mortgage at the Registration Of Deeds office.
Now, a $10,000 balance would be much more difficult to establish from public records, particularly if the borrower pays off extra principal along the way.

[Seattleareanative]

Hi Nasudesu - the data typically comes from the county recorder/auditor's website. When a property is paid off, a "deed of reconveyance" is recorded with county recorder showing the property has been paid in full and there is no longer a mortgage lien. It's fairly easy for Zillow and other property websites to pull reconveyance data from county records since it's all public information. What they can't easily determine is the outstanding mortgage on a property. The original mortgage lien document will show the loan amount borrowed against the property but Zillow and other websites don't have a way to figure out the outstanding balance from county data.

[Seattleareanative]

Great minds think alike Mike!

[Nasudesu]

But they are showing outstanding balance as well on other properties. They are going by amount of down, how many years since, etc? It is the right est for one of our relative who purchased 2 years ago.

[Seattleareanative]

I'm speculating here but the borrowed amount and term of the loan (15 years, 30 years, etc) is public record. It's possible they are deducing the the balance from that information. As Mike said, they can't really know the balance as a borrower could be making additional principle payments. I'm not aware of other ways Zillow could be getting that information but it's certainly possible that information is out there somewhere....

[Seattleareanative]

The estimated remaining mortgage on my house is not correct - I do think they take the borrowed amount then assume a 30 year loan to come up with the estimate.

[1ondoner]

It's correct for the houses that we have paid off or bought cash. Must be pulling the info from the recorder of deed using the lien records. No lien, no mortgage. Just paid off our primary home and the balance is reflecting what I would have owed if I still had the mortgage. The deed just got updated at the recorder of deeds so it will be interesting to see how long before zillow updates this info.

Originally Posted by Nasudesu

I was very surprised to see Zillow est remaining mortgage on two homes we own. It shows zero amount and that is correct. Are yours accurate too? Where is this info coming from?

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by Nasudesu

But they are showing outstanding balance as well on other properties. They are going by amount of down, how many years since, etc? It is the right est for one of our relative who purchased 2 years ago.

A broken clock is right twice a day.

One thought...
Did your relative buy with an agency that uses DotLoop for paperwork?

[wherewhatwho]

Our estimated remaining mortgage on Zillow is over $200,000 higher than our actual remaining mortgage. I think they must have assumed a 20% downpayment and a 30 year loan. We put down a MUCH larger downpayment, so it can't be using the actual borrowed amount or it would be much closer.