PlotHow to Determine Whether a Texas Foreclosure Actually Sold
A posting is not a sale. The trustee's deed is the record that settles it, and it appears weeks later.
A notice of substitute trustee sale is filed weeks before the sale date and is never amended. Postponed, reinstated, withdrawn, sold: the notice reads the same in every case. The only record that says a sale happened is the trustee's deed.
The trustee's deed
When a property sells at auction, the substitute trustee signs a trustee's deed conveying it to the winning bidder, which may be the foreclosing lender. It is recorded in the clerk's real property index, usually within one to four weeks of the sale, with the trustee as grantor and the buyer as grantee. Its recitals describe the deed of trust foreclosed, the notice, the sale date and the bid.
When there is no trustee's deed
If a month passes after the sale date with no trustee's deed recorded against the parcel, the sale did not happen or has not closed. The common reasons are a reinstatement (the borrower caught up), a payoff or a sale by the owner, a bankruptcy filing that stayed the sale, or a postponement announced at the venue. None of these are recorded.
In the records PlotCipher has reviewed, a substitute trustee appointment followed by nothing is the most common shape of a foreclosure that did not complete.
The repeat notice
A new notice for the same property a few months later is the strongest sign the first attempt was cured and the loan defaulted again. PlotCipher's research counts foreclosure steps recorded against a parcel and flags repeat filings; a property with two notices and no trustee's deed is in a different situation from one with a single fresh posting.
Checking the morning of the sale
For a sale you intend to attend, check the county's posting the morning of the first Tuesday. In Dallas County the notice will still be in the clerk's Foreclosures department whether or not it is going forward; the trustee's own posting site, if named on the notice, usually shows postponements. In Collin County the notice app is the reference.
After the sale
Search the parcel in the real property index a few weeks later for a trustee's deed. If the buyer is the lender, expect a later deed from the lender to a buyer once the property is resold. The Dallas County and Collin County pages list current postings; a PlotCipher research on any address shows every prior foreclosure step and whether a trustee's deed followed.
Your Foreclosure Agent checks Dallas, Collin, Tarrant, Bexar and Johnson County every morning and emails only the properties that match what you buy.
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