Fictitious Deed of Trust, Subordination Agreement, and Amended Deed of Trust

Foreclosure Investing
1

Hi all,

I have personally gone to the county recorder’s office to research a property that I’m interested in purchasing at an auction, however I am a little bit confused regarding the fictitious deed of trust, subordination agreement, and amended deed of trust.

  1. Document 3987 is a Fictitious Deed of Trust recorded on 9/5/1995, which is a blank document.
  2. Document 0393 is a Deed of Trust with BofA recorded on 4/22/1997 for $25,000 (This document was a short form deed of trust which used the Fictitious Deed of Trust as reference).
  3. Document 5985’s Deed of Trust with TNFC recorded on 06/16/1998 for $227,150.
  4. Document 5984 is a Subordination Agreement to make Document 0393 junior to Document 5985:
  5. However, Document 8257 is an amended deed of trust that increased Document 0393’s credit increase from $25,000 to $100,000.
  6. The loan being auctioned is Document 5985 for $227,150.

If number 4 is correct, would that make Document 5985 the most senior loan regardless of the fictitious deed of trust or amended deed of trust? Or does the amended deed of trust affect the seniority of the loan from Document 0393? OR does the fictitious deed of trust impact any of these issues? I really don’t want to bid for the $227k loan knowing that the newly-100k loan is more senior.

Thank you all; I greatly appreciate your help and response!

2

Hi Monica,
I would pay to have a title officer look at this one. Even if they cannot give you any title guarantee you need to have a second set of eyes review this information. I find it peculiar that you are seeing a blank document. That alone deserves additional research since a recorder would not record a blank document. Incidentally, it is the research on peculiar situations like this that can be your best deal since other investors may not want to take the risk or do the research.

3

Michelle - ALL short form Deeds of Trust make reference to a fictitious Deed of Trust recorded in the past. Those short forms normally list all counties (or at least major ones) and the recording info of said fictitious Deed of Trust. They are blank in that they don’t, of course, contain the name of a Trustor, beneficiary or an amount or legal description.

4

Forgot to add to above - that the “legal fine print” is usually on the back side of the short form D of T - altho now is often on a separate page because now some (all?) recorders will insist on recording (more $) the back side even though it says “Do Not Record”.