Real Estate Law

	Property		Mortgage		Home Equity Loan

Mortgage is a document in which the owner guarantees a title to real estate to a lender as security for a loan described in a promissory note. To be enforceable the mortgage must be signed by the owner (borrower), acknowledged before a notary public, and recorded with the County Recorder or Recorder of Deeds. If the owner fails to make payments on the promissory note then the lender can foreclose on the mortgage to force a sale of the real estate to obtain payment from the proceeds, or obtain the property itself at a sheriff's sale upon foreclosure.

A purchase-money mortgage is one given by a purchaser to a seller of real estate as partial payment. A mortgagor may sell the property either "subject to a mortgage" in which the property is still security and the seller is still liable for payment, or the buyer "assumes the mortgage" and becomes personally responsible for payment of the loan. California is one of 14 states that use a "deed of trust" as a mortgage, in which the title is technically given to a trustee to hold for a beneficiary.