I am in the same situation as original poster however, I would still like to clarify my situation. My loan was also sold mid year, my orginal lender gave a balance in box 2 for outstanding balance as of 1/1/18 but no ending balance as of 12/31/18 I’m guessing because it was sold to mid year. And as for my current lender, I have the ending principal balance as of 12/31/18 but not the outstanding balance as of 1/1/18 in box 2 because it is left blank which I’m guessing because it was bought mid year.
So this is what I attempted to do on TT. For the original lender’s 1098, I input the given amount that is in box 2 (outstanding balance) and $0 for ending balance as of 12/31/2018 because i do not have or been given that information. Then I added my current lender and input their 1098 information which I input $0 for outstanding balance as of 1/1/18 because box 2 is blank, then I input the ending balance amount as of 12/31/18 because I do have that information from them.
However, at the end when I do the TT smart check it is flagging both of my $0 input for each 1098 from the separate lenders. So my question is, for my original lender’s 1098 what do I put for the ending balance amount? Do I put the $ amount at the time it was sold to the new lender? And as for the 1098 for the new lender, do input the $ amount at the time it was purchased from the original lender? Please help because I’m really not sure what to do since TT is flagging both 1098 which I inputted separately.