This section will outline the FORECLOSURE PROCESS to help you understand what happens in a FORECLOSURE SALE and the TIME FRAME in which the sale can proceed if not delayed by postponements of one kind or another.  The time frame presented is the quickest that the sale can proceed once the process in initiated by the TRUSTEE.

California is one of many states that has instituted a system by which a lender who has loaned the owner money with the home as security can "take over" title to the property from the owner if the loan payments are in default.  This allows a quicker way for the lender to possibly get title to the property so he can sell it to recoup some or all of this loan, plus back payments and costs.

This process is made possible by what is called a "DEED OF TRUST", a legal document in which the owner of the property, the TRUSTOR, gives what is termed a "POWER OF SALE" to a 3rd party, the TRUSTEE, who is empowered by this document to sell the property at a TRUSTEE SALE to the highest bidder, so the proceeds of the sale can go back to the lender, the BENEFICIARY, to reimburse him for what the owner owes him plus costs of the sale.

When you take out a loan in California, you sign a TRUST DEED (the document referred to above) and a PROMISORY NOTE, stating that you owe the lender the amount of the loan and agree to pay it back as specified in this NOTE with interest.