The homeowner told me his mortgage belonged to some guy in Arizona

I was replacing a blower motor in a fifty year old furnace, house in a working class stretch of town, owner in his sixties. He's standing in the doorway talking the whole time the way they do.

He tells me he bought the house from the previous owner directly, no bank, and for years he mailed a check to that same guy. Then one year a letter shows up saying send it here instead, different company, and now his statements come from a servicing outfit and the guy who owns his loan lives in Arizona. He's never talked to him. He said it like it was a strange fact about his life, which it kind of is.

I've swung tools for a long time and I did not know you could buy somebody's mortgage the way you buy a truck. I asked him if anything changed and he said the payment is the same, the address is different, and the new people are actually better about sending the statement on time.

Still thinking about it two weeks later. Same house, same guy, same 640 a month, and the person collecting it swapped out and the house never noticed.