Steve, I was a corporate banker and never had much to do with personal banking or home mortgages. I've always been under the impression that if a lender took possession of property used to secure a loan, by foreclosure as an example, he kept the proceeds of the sale of the property and the loan was extinguished. I'm pretty sure that if the proceeds were greater than the amount of the outstanding indebtedness (including accrued interest and fees), that balance would have to be returned to the borrower. But I've always assumed that if the lender foreclosed and took title to the property, that the underlying indebtedness of the borrower was extinguished.