Simulation: a fictional property for practice.

A Utah trustee’s sale: which loan is foreclosing?

A Utah trustee is auctioning a house at the courthouse. The opening bid looks low. Read the notice before you bid.

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

• Sale: Trustee’s sale at a courthouse, Utah
• Loan being foreclosed: A $45,000 second mortgage
• Older first mortgage: $260,000
• Value as-is: About $380,000

Mission 1: The first mortgage

The second mortgage is foreclosing. What happens to the older $260,000 first mortgage?

• It stays: I’d take the house subject to it
• It’s wiped out by the sale

Get a title report. If a second loan is foreclosing, the first loan stays, and your real price is your bid plus that loan.

Mission 2: At the auction

What’s true about bidding in Utah?

• Every bid is an irrevocable offer, so I set my maximum before I arrive
• I pay as the trustee directs, and confirm the deposit and payment method with the trustee’s office first
• After the sale, the owner has a year to redeem

The trustee records your deed within five business days after you pay (57-1-28).

Would you bid?

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