What is the document name that is filed in the Recorder's Office when a [b]third party[/b] investor buys a real estate [b]promissory note[/b] from the original note holder? In the original FSBO transaction in California, the documents filed are the [b]Promissory Note[/b] and the [b]Deed of Trust[/b] between the Home Seller and Home Buyer. How is the [b]third party[/b] transaction filed in the Recorder's Office: as an amendment to the original deed; as a new document recording; or other...?
Thanks!

It probably should be called an Assignment transferring the financial interest to the new mortgagee; but many firms are often negligent in promptly doing this to protect their own interests . . . . so you get to Closing time and want to get the Pay-Off from the Lienholder of Record, and suddenly discover that they haven't had any interest in the property for years.

The Recording Authority "should" go back and append a note to the original mortgage deed to draw attention to the subsequent Assignment . . . . but sometimes it isn't done, so a title search is required to locate the current Lienholder's Name, Address, and Pay-Off.

Maybe these processes are automated where you are. It's the responsibility of the entity receiving the "Assignment" to make sure the transfer is formalized and recorded, and the easiest time to get it done is at the time the assignment is being made. If the underlying collateral isn't also being transferred, then the Recording Authority would have no reason to look for such a incoming document.

Thank you for your reply to my question Vermont (Dale). Unfortunately, I can find no correspondence in the Recorder's Office records on Assignments corresponding to previous Deeds of Trust (DOT) documents. I've also tried "Assignment DOT", "Amendment DOT", "Assumption DOT", and "Subordination DOT" - None of which corresponded either to previous DOT records.
Is it possible that perhaps the transfered Note is recorded with a new Deed of Trust document, and the original DOT doc. is "supposed" to be appended with an assignment doc. of some kind annotating the Note transfer to this new DOT?
Any other ideas?
I've asked the Recorder's Office clerk what such a document might be called but they say they just file the documents without really knowing what they mean or what they are for.

Thanks for your kind reply anyway!

Check with the entity who originally held the mortgage and see if they were compensated and then formally assigned their interests to your "third party".

Like I said above, many of these firms don't formalize the Assignment . . . . and it will cost someone to have the Assignment recorded . . . . the Recording Authority doesn't do it for free.

People shouldn't pay for such a financial instrument unless they know "how" evidence of that purchase is going to be documented. I'm not very surprised that you can't locate the Assignment that you're looking for. These are not high priority items, and they often follow a transfer by weeks or months . . . . sometimes never.

In our current environment, with so many mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, and bankruptcies in the Real Estate industry, it is not uncommon for the paperwork to get delayed or or screwed up (to put it in the vernacular).

In some instances, a mortgage may have been taken by a financial institution (A); sold on the secondary market to another party (B), and then B becomes il-liquid and is forcibly absorbed by a larger bank (C) which then sells some of B's assets to D . . . . but there never was a recording of the original "Assignment" from A to B and the transfer from B to C was done in the form of a blanket which lacks much of the specific detail that the Courts would want to see if someone questioned ownership.

I'm afraid it's not a perfect world.

O.K., thanks for all your input and suggestions. Greatly appreciated!
I'll follow up on your advice and hope for the best.

Thanks again!