Foreclosure advertisement by the bank

In foreclosure by advertisement, the bank generally advertises by:

• Sending a notice of default to you. A notice of default is required in some states, but most banks do this even if they aren’t required to do so by law.
• Posting a notice on or near your property.
• Publishing a notice in a local newspaper (in the county where the property is located) and/or in a legal newspaper. The advertisement will include your name, the bank’s name, the property’s legal description, the sale date, the name of the foreclosing attorney, the amount claimed due, the interest rate, the redemption period (if any), and other relevant information.

The advertisement may also be called an insertion, and depending on where the property is located, the bank may be required to publish the insertion for several consecutive weeks before it can sell the property. If the foreclosure notice contains errors, you may be able to challenge the foreclosure for failure of process, which means failing to adhere to the statutes in your area.
In some states, homeowners can redeem a property they’ve lost in foreclosure even after someone has bought the property at auction.

Ask your county’s register of deeds whether your area has a redemption period and, if it does, how many days or months you have to redeem. After the advertising, notices, and postings are completed, the bank will try to sell your property at auction as soon as possible. (Auctions are commonly referred to as sheriff’s sales, because the county sheriff usually conducts the auction.) If your property is going up for auction, here are a few key points to keep in mind:

• The person conducting the auction varies by state. In Oregon, for example, the lender’s representative conducts the auction in nonjudicial foreclosures, while the sheriff conducts sales in judicial foreclosures.
• A sale may be adjourned (delayed) and possibly canceled if you can work out something with the bank prior to the sale, or if something goes wrong.
• If you’re told that the sale will be adjourned, go to the sale and make sure it actually is adjourned.
• Keep in mind that if your state has a redemption period, the clock begins ticking from the date of sale.

Just like that, the house is sold. This is why banks prefer to foreclose via advertisement — it’s quick, easy, relatively hassle-free, and inexpensive. The fact that foreclosure can happen so quickly is the very reason that we encourage you, throughout this book, to act quickly. Doing nothing always results in the loss of the home and any equity that you have in it. (Equity is the amount of cash you have in the house — the amount you can sell the house for minus what you owe on it.)