Stage 4 of 4 · The Sale and What Follows

Deficiency Judgment

A court order making a borrower personally liable for the balance still owed after the sale falls short.

In plain English
If the house sells for less than the debt, the gap does not always disappear. In some states the lender may sue for it and then collect through wage garnishment or bank levies.
Example
A loan of three hundred thousand dollars, a sale at two hundred and forty thousand, and a lender pursuing the sixty thousand difference.
Why it matters
Many nonjudicial states bar it entirely after a trustee's sale, which is one reason the choice of route matters so much.
Remember it as
The house is gone. The debt may not be.

Where it lands in the timeline

An emptied living room at dusk, pale rectangles on the wall where frames once hung, one lamp glowing on a small side table and a few taped boxes by the door, Temecula CA.

Stage 4: The Sale and What Follows

The gavel falls in minutes, but the money, the move and even the tax bill keep arriving long after, so this phase covers what the sale leaves behind.

Every term in the Foreclosure Glossary →

Learning the words is step one. Beating the date is step two.

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