The California Foreclosure Process Explained

Finally, a Notice of Sale must be posted in at least 1 public place in the county where the property is to be sold, such as a local newspaper’s real estate section.

A California foreclosure notice of sale must contain the time and location of the foreclosure sale, the property address, the trustee's name, address and phone number, and a statement that the property will be sold at auction.

The borrower in a California foreclosure process has up until five (5) days before the foreclosure sale takes place to pay (or cure) the debt and stop the process. After the 5th day before the sale, there is no way to stop it.

Further, the sale must be held on a business day (no bank holidays) between the hours of 9:00am and 5:00pm and must take place at the location specified in the Notice of Sale. (If they get this stuff wrong, they will have to do it over another day!)

At the auction, the state trustee may require proof of the bidder’s ability to pay their full bid amount before the auction begins. Anyone present may bid at this public auction, and of course the highest bidder wins the property.

If no bidders show up, the sale may be postponed by a simple announcement.

What if the borrower was upside-down at the time of closing?

California law states that lenders may NOT seek a deficiency judgment after a non-judicial foreclosure sale, so the lender is at risk for loss. However, after the sale the borrower has no rights of redemption, either.

So basically, the California real estate foreclosure process takes at least four months from the time of the first missed payment, but is usually stretched out longer due to paperwork delays and lender’s inability to keep up with their workload.