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Who Owns Your Mortgage (and Why It Suddenly Matters)

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Homeowners looking for mortgage relief due to COVID-19 may notice a recurring caveat: the program available depends on the owner of the mortgage.

If you’re like many homeowners, your first thought might be: Huh?

That’s understandable. Normally, knowing who owns your mortgage isn’t particularly important. The pandemic has changed that. That’s because mortgage relief programs — such as payment deferral, forbearance, etc. — are decided by the owner of the mortgage. So, depending on who owns your mortgage, you may be eligible for one program and not another.

If that just raises even more questions, keep reading.

Doesn’t Mr. Cooper own my mortgage?

Short answer: No. Mr. Cooper is your mortgage servicer. That means we take care of the day-to-day stuff — things like escrow, taxes, insurance, and most importantly, processing your monthly payment. While we don’t decide which relief options are offered, we are here to help you understand what’s available to you.

How did I end up with my mortgage owner?

After a mortgage is created, it’s usually bundled up with other mortgages and sold as an investment. The process is a little complicated (okay, it’s very complicated), but in the end your mortgage ends up being owned by an investor. That means you are technically paying that investor back for the money you used to buy your house. You’ve probably heard of the largest mortgage investors, entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (these are called Government Sponsored Enterprises, or GSEs for short).

How do I find out who owns my mortgage and what assistance I qualify for?

When your mortgage was funded, you probably got a letter explaining who owns your loan. If you didn’t save that letter and can’t remember what it said (completely understandable!), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both have a simple online tool you can use to search for your loan. Since the majority of Mr. Cooper loans are owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, there’s a good chance your loan is owned by one of these investors:

Click here to see if your loan is owned by Fannie Mae.

Click here to see if your loan is owned by Freddie Mac.

The real question, though, is what assistance you may qualify for. For that, we’ve created an online assistance application that makes it easy to find out. Just visit our Pandemic Relief Plans page and click “Apply.” It only takes a minute to find out which program you’re eligible for (based on the owner of your loan) and if you qualify.