Simulation: a fictional property for practice.

An Arizona trustee’s sale: are you ready by 5 p.m. tomorrow?

An Arizona trustee is auctioning a house. You need $10,000 to bid and the rest by the next business day.

A fictional house at a trustee’s sale in Arizona.

• Sale: Trustee’s sale, Arizona
• Loan being foreclosed: The first deed of trust
• Your maximum bid: $300,000
• Your money: $40,000 in savings and a hard-money lender who needs 10 days to fund

Mission 1: Paying for it

If you win at $300,000, when is the rest due?

• By 5 p.m. Arizona time the next business day, after a $10,000 deposit to bid
• Within 30 days, like a normal closing

With a lender who needs 10 days, you can’t meet the deadline. Have cash or funding confirmed before you bid.

Mission 2: After you pay

What’s true once you’ve paid?

• The sale is final: the owner can’t redeem
• Liens older than the deed of trust stay with the house
• The trustee hands over the keys and removes any occupants

The trustee submits your deed for recording within 7 business days after payment. Work only with the trustee; never contact the homeowner.

Mission 3: The day before

Why call the trustee the day before and the morning of the sale?

• The owner can reinstate the loan until 5 p.m. the last business day before, and the trustee can postpone the sale
• To ask the trustee to hold the house for me

Confirm the sale is still on, the deposit amount and the payment forms the trustee accepts.

With funding that takes 10 days, do you bid?

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