To explain this as simply as possible, when you buy a home and get a loan to help you purchase the home, the lender puts a lien (claim) on the real property. By doing so, the property becomes collateral for the loan. So, in the event the homeowner is unable to make payments as promised, the lender can force the sale of the home (collateral) to get paid (foreclosure). Generally speaking, the lender will not lend money to you to purchase the home if there are liens of record against the real property (thus title insurance). There can be several liens at one time on a single property, but the lender who supplies the purchase money wants to be in the first lien position?
In Texas, lien priority is based on when things get recorded. Texas is a (true) notice state. So let me give you an extreme example to illustrate lien priority. This is a lien priority situation with about
everything that you could possibly come imagine. We have a purchase-money mortgage with a current balance of $230,000 with $15,000 in arrears. The arrearage includes all back payments, late fees, attorney fees and all the other fees that have been tacked on by the mortgage lender. This lien was recorded 6-20-2010. We have another lien of record with a balance of $50,000 (used to build a pool) with $5,000 in arrears. Again this includes the back payments and fees. This was recorded 8-21-2010. As you can see, the unfortunate homeowner and her husband lost their jobs in April of 2020 when COVID struck! They have two judgment liens against them. One with Citibank for $2,000 recorded 11-11-2020, and one with Amex for $4,000 recorded 1-6-2021. We have a $6000 IRS tax lien recorded 10-20-20 for tax year 2016. And finally, we have $10,000 in delinquent ad valorem property taxes.