Received a Notice of Default? Trustee sale on the calendar? In California you can still sell — often until days before the auction. We stop the clock, negotiate with your lender, and get you out with your equity protected.
Listing your home can legally postpone your auction 45 days under California’s AB 2424 — and if a short sale is needed, the lender pays our commission.
Prefer to talk? Call or text (424) 239-5209 — free, confidential, no judgment.
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DRE #02016456 · Beverly & Company · SFR® Short Sales & Foreclosure Resource · ★★★★★ Zillow Rating · $60M+ in Closed Sales
By the time a Notice of Trustee Sale shows up, most homeowners assume the house is already gone. It isn’t. California gives you real, enforceable rights at every stage — the right to reinstate, the right to sell, and since 2025, the right to postpone the auction itself just by listing your home with an agent.
I’m Nick Hedberg, founder of We Sell Houses LA. We work with — and have stopped auctions from — most major lenders and servicers, from PennyMac to Fannie Mae, including FHA and VA loans. My team has postponed many sales with days to spare and helped families walk away with money in hand instead of a foreclosure on their record. The sooner you call, the more options we can protect — but late is still not too late.
We pull your exact timeline — Notice of Default date, sale date, loan payoff — and map every option you still have. Ten minutes, no judgment.
Listing your home triggers AB 2424’s 45-day auction postponement; a signed purchase agreement adds 45 more. We use that time to negotiate with your lender.
Have equity? You keep what’s left after payoff. Underwater? We negotiate a short sale and the lender pays our commission. Either way — no auction on your record.
Out of pocket. Everything is paid from the sale at closing — and in a short sale, the lender pays our commission.
California AB 2424: listing your home with an agent legally postpones your foreclosure auction 45 days — plus 45 more with a signed purchase agreement.
Under California law you can reinstate your loan until five business days before the auction — and we’ve gotten sales done with even less runway.
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.
Yes. Until the trustee sale actually happens, you still own the home and have the legal right to sell it. A foreclosure filing — even a recorded Notice of Trustee Sale — does not transfer ownership. The practical questions are timing and payoff: the sale needs to close (or qualify for a postponement) before the auction date, and the loan, fees, and any liens are paid from the proceeds at closing. We have closed sales for homeowners who called with less than a week on the clock, so even a late start is worth a phone call.
California foreclosures are usually nonjudicial and follow a set timeline: the lender records a Notice of Default (NOD), waits a minimum of three months, then records a Notice of Trustee Sale (NTS) at least 21 days before the auction. That is roughly 111 days minimum from NOD to sale — but in practice most Los Angeles foreclosures take longer, often five to seven months or more, especially when postponements happen. Every stage leaves you room to act, and the earlier you start, the more leverage you have.
AB 2424 is a California law, effective January 1, 2025, that gives homeowners a powerful tool: deliver a listing agreement to the foreclosure trustee at least five business days before the scheduled sale, and the auction must be postponed 45 days. Deliver a signed purchase agreement afterward and you can obtain an additional 45-day postponement. In plain English: listing your home with an agent can legally buy you up to 90 days — which is usually all the time we need to close a sale or finish a short-sale approval.
Nothing good. At a trustee sale the home typically goes to investors bidding at a discount; the lender takes what it is owed plus fees and costs, junior liens take their cut, and any surplus owed to you can take months to claim. Selling before the auction on the open market almost always nets you more: the home is marketed properly, buyers compete, and your equity comes back to you at closing like any normal sale.
Then a short sale is usually the answer. We negotiate with your lender to accept the sale proceeds as full payoff. Under California Code of Civil Procedure §580e, once your lender approves a short sale of a one-to-four-unit residence, it cannot pursue you for the remaining balance — and the lender pays our commission, so the short sale costs you nothing. See our Los Angeles short sale guide for the full process.
Good news — both have formal programs designed for exactly this situation. FHA loans use HUD’s Pre-Foreclosure Sale program, which pauses the foreclosure while the home is marketed and can include seller relocation assistance. VA loans have the VA Compromise Sale, where the VA covers the approved shortfall for an eligible sale. We handle both — see our FHA short sale guide and VA compromise sale guide, or call and we will confirm which program your loan qualifies for.
Same day. One of the families on this page called us the night before their auction — we got the sale postponed and later closed a fully approved short sale. The first call takes about ten minutes: we verify the sale date with the trustee, check your reinstatement and postponement options, and start the paperwork immediately. The only thing that makes a foreclosure unfixable is waiting until after the auction.
Yes — you own the home until it sells, and you are entitled to live in it through the listing and escrow. Most families stay right up to closing and use the proceeds, or lender-paid relocation assistance where a program offers it, to fund the move. We plan the timing with you so you are never rushed out.
Free, confidential options review — no obligation, no judgment.
Or call/text (424) 239-5209
