A Notice of Default is not an eviction and not a sale — it is the start of a minimum three-month window in which you still hold every important card: reinstate, refinance, sell, or short sale.
What you do in the next few weeks determines whether you keep your equity. Doing nothing is the only losing move.
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DRE #02016456 · Beverly & Company · SFR® Short Sales & Foreclosure Resource · ★★★★★ Zillow Rating · $60M+ in Closed Sales
In California, the lender must record a Notice of Default and then wait at least three months before it can even schedule an auction. Add the 21-day Notice of Trustee Sale period and you typically have 110+ days — often more — from the day that letter arrives. That is enough time to sell a home properly in Los Angeles, and usually enough to complete a short sale if you start promptly.
I’m Nick Hedberg, founder of We Sell Houses LA. The families who come out of an NOD whole are the ones who use the window. Let’s map yours — free, confidential, ten minutes.
Get the exact reinstatement amount, the payoff, and a real market value for the home. We pull all three with you — no obligation.
Equity? List and sell on your timeline. Underwater? Start the short sale now — lender reviews take weeks, and early files get approved before auctions get scheduled.
If a sale needs more time, AB 2424 postpones a scheduled auction 45 days once your home is listed — plus 45 more with a signed purchase agreement.
Minimum wait after the NOD before a Notice of Trustee Sale can even be recorded in California.
Minimum notice period between the Notice of Trustee Sale and the auction itself.
You can reinstate the loan until five business days before the sale — the window stays open longer than most people think.
Mid-divorce and newly out of work, Nicole and John had run out of money to finish the projects around the house — and the foreclosure auction was almost here when they reached us. We got the auction stopped and completed their short sale with PennyMac. They walked away with a lender-paid relocation fee and no foreclosure on their credit.
Antonio called us the night before his home was set to go to auction. He had lost his job twice and couldn’t catch up on payments — and his wife and two kids were living in the house. We got the foreclosure postponed, worked with Fannie Mae, and got his short sale approved. No foreclosure on his record, and his family moved forward on their own terms.
It is a recorded public document that formally starts California’s nonjudicial foreclosure process after you fall behind on payments. It states what you owe in arrears and starts a minimum three-month waiting period before the lender can schedule a trustee sale. It is serious — but it is the starting gun, not the finish line.
No. You own the home through the entire process, and most NODs in California never end in an auction — they end in reinstatement, workout, or a sale. The outcome is decided by what the homeowner does during the window, which is why acting in the first few weeks matters so much.
It depends on one honest question: is the monthly payment sustainable going forward? If yes, reinstating (or a loan modification) may make sense. If the payment was already a struggle, paying the arrears often just delays the same problem — selling while you control the timeline usually protects more of your equity. We run both sets of numbers with you, free.
Typically 110+ days before an auction could even occur: the three-month NOD period plus the 21-day Notice of Trustee Sale window — and in practice, usually longer. A well-priced Los Angeles home can sell and close comfortably inside that window, and AB 2424 can add up to 90 more days once the home is listed and under contract.
Start a short sale now — the NOD period is the ideal time, because lender reviews take weeks and an early file gets approved before an auction is ever scheduled. Under California’s Code of Civil Procedure §580e an approved short sale ends the debt, and the lender pays our commission. See the full short sale process.
The missed payments behind it are already reporting, and the NOD itself is a public record. What does the deep, lasting damage is a completed foreclosure — which is exactly what selling in time prevents. Most clients’ credit begins recovering far sooner after a sale or short sale than it would after an auction.
More guides: Sell a house in foreclosure · AB 2424 postponement · Behind on payments? · Short sale help
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