Simulation: a fictional property for practice.

A Utah HOA trustee sale: is the sale even valid?

A Utah HOA is selling a townhome by trustee’s sale for $6,500 of unpaid assessments. Check the sale before you check the price.

A fictional townhome at an HOA trustee’s sale in Utah.

• Sale: HOA trustee’s sale, Utah
• HOA lien: $6,500 of assessments, more than 180 days overdue
• Value as-is: About $390,000
• First mortgage: $270,000, recorded before the HOA’s notice of lien

Mission 1: Is this sale set up properly?

Pick everything you’d confirm.

• The trustee is a Utah attorney or law firm, or a title insurance company or agency with a Utah office, appointed by the association
• The association is registered with the Utah Department of Commerce
• The lien isn’t for fines
• Nothing: if the notice was published, the sale is fine

The owner also gets 30 days’ warning and can demand a court case instead of a trustee sale.

Mission 2: What do you get if you win?

Pick the right answer.

• The townhome subject to the $270,000 first mortgage, with no redemption period after a trustee sale
• The townhome free of the mortgage, after a 180-day wait

Your real price is the bid plus the $270,000 loan.

Would you bid?

Buy, investigate or pass? Work through the drill to see what an experienced investor would weigh.