Bear in mind that the deed/tax information will show you the original mortgage amount, but leaves out any additional debt on the home such as HELOC's. If the owner has refinanced, or taken out additional lines of credit they may owe far more than what you will see.

These days it is not all that uncommon to find homes with twice the original mortgage worth of dept attached to them. So, if you are trying to use the deed information to help determine an appropriate offer on the property just know that you may be working with incomplete information.

Nelson County has not made their records available online yet. You would need to go to the Nelson County Courthouse in Lovingston.

Mortages and liens are filed with the Register of Deeds, associated with the County Courthouse. You may find the information online. A good starting point for Nelson County is:

http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/VA_Nelson.htm

You will be looking for the Index, which is by Owner Name. When you find it, you will see a variety of documents, such as deeds, plats, etc. Look for Deeds of Trust, Notes, etc. That is where the initial loan amounts can be found. This same process can be followed manually at the Reg of Deeds office, if the information is not on-line.

-Paul-