Texas Non-Judicial Foreclosure: Notice of Sale to First-Tuesday Auction
Texas Non-Judicial Foreclosure: Notice of Sale to First-Tuesday Auction
Information, not legal advice. Laws change; check the current statute or rule and talk to a Texas attorney before you act.
Most Texas home loans are secured by a deed of trust that contains a power of sale. That clause lets the lender sell the house through a trustee at a public auction without filing a lawsuit. This is called non-judicial foreclosure, and it is fast. In many states a foreclosure takes a year or more in court. In Texas, a sale can happen roughly two months after the borrower falls behind far enough for the servicer to act.
For investors, the key point is that almost every step leaves a public record with a date on it. If you know the steps, you know how much time an owner has left.
The steps, in order
| Step | What happens | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Default | The borrower misses payments. Federal servicing rules generally bar a servicer from making the first foreclosure notice or filing until the loan is more than 120 days delinquent. | 12 C.F.R. §1024.41(f) |
| 2. Notice of default | For a home the debtor lives in, the servicer must send a certified-mail notice saying the loan is in default and giving at least 20 days to cure before a notice of sale can go out. | Prop. Code §51.002(d) |
| 3. Notice of sale | At least 21 days before the sale, the notice of sale is posted at the courthouse door (or the place the county designates), filed with the county clerk, and sent by certified mail to each debtor. | Prop. Code §51.002(b) |
| 4. Online posting | The county must post each notice of sale filed with the clerk on its website, on the page where it posts other auction information, free and without registration, with the date, time and place of the sale. | Prop. Code §51.002(f-1) (added 2023 by SB 62) |
| 5. Sale | A public auction on the first Tuesday of the month, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., at the county courthouse or an area the commissioners court has designated. | Prop. Code §51.002(a), (h) |
| 6. After the sale | The trustee's deed is recorded. Any surplus goes to the debtor and junior lienholders; occupants are removed through an eviction suit if they don't leave. | Prop. Code §51.002, ch. 24 |
A few details matter in practice:
- Earliest start time. The notice must say the earliest time the sale will begin, and the sale must start at that time or within three hours after it (§51.002(b), (c)).
- Holiday rule. If the first Tuesday is January 1 or July 4, the sale moves to the first Wednesday of that month (§51.002(a-1)).
- Mail is complete when mailed. Certified-mail service of the notice of sale is complete when it is deposited in the mail (§51.002(e)). The owner may say they never got it. That does not stop the clock.
- Day counting. The whole calendar day the notice is given counts toward the 21 days; the sale day itself does not (§51.002(g)).
- Military notice. The notice to the debtor must carry a boldface or underlined statement about the rights of service members on active duty (§51.002(i)).
Who runs the sale
The trustee named in the deed of trust, or a substitute trustee appointed by the lender or servicer, runs the auction. The notice must give the trustee's name and street address (§51.0075(e)). The trustee may set reasonable conditions for the sale if they are announced before bidding opens, and the price is due without delay on acceptance of the bid or within the time agreed (§51.0075(a), (f)). Bring certified funds and read the posted terms. Many trustees postpone or cancel sales right up to the day; a posted notice is not a promise that the sale will happen.
What a buyer at the sale gets
A trustee's deed conveys whatever the borrower had, subject to liens that were senior to the deed of trust being foreclosed. That usually includes property taxes. It often includes an HOA lien only if the declaration makes it senior (usually it doesn't). Junior liens are generally wiped out. Sales are "as is." Most trustee sales give no right to inspect the inside. Title work before the sale is the bidder's job.
There is no statutory right of redemption after a Texas mortgage foreclosure. (HOA foreclosures and tax sales are different; see HOA foreclosures and redemption rights.)
Tenants and occupants
If the house is rented, the buyer inherits a tenant problem, not an empty house.
- Federal. The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act generally gives a bona fide tenant at least 90 days' notice before having to leave after a foreclosure.
- Texas. A residential tenant who keeps paying rent is entitled to at least 30 days' written notice to vacate if the buyer won't continue the lease (Prop. Code §24.005(b)). Texas rewrote much of its eviction law effective January 1, 2026 (SB 38 and new Rule 510), so check the current text before you serve notices. See Texas evictions.
Deficiency claims
If the sale brings less than the debt, the lender has two years to sue for the shortfall. The borrower can ask the court to set the property's fair market value on the sale date. If that value is higher than the sale price, the deficiency is reduced by the difference (Prop. Code §51.003).
Exceptions you will see
- Home-equity loans, reverse mortgages and HELOCs need a court order first, usually through the expedited Rule 736 process. See home-equity foreclosures.
- HOA assessment liens on subdivision homes also need a court order (Prop. Code §209.0092). Condominium liens can generally go non-judicially (Prop. Code §82.113).
- Bankruptcy stops the sale while the automatic stay is in effect. See bankruptcy and the automatic stay.
Working the timeline
From an investor's side, the notice of sale is the moment the clock becomes visible. Once it is posted, an owner typically has three weeks or a little more before the auction. That is enough time to sell, to refinance, to negotiate a reinstatement or loan modification with the servicer, or to file bankruptcy. Many sales are postponed and re-posted for a later month, so a notice that drops off the list may come back. Track each notice by property, not by month.
How this shows up in Agentix Data
We read the posted foreclosure-sale notices for Kaufman and Rockwall counties from the clerks' scanned postings each morning. Fields such as borrower names, address, legal description, lender, trustee and deed of trust date are captured on a best-effort basis, and HOA lien sales are labeled. We don't yet carry posted notices from other counties. Where a lender files a foreclosure suit instead (for example a home-equity or HOA case), Harris County District Clerk filings appear as "pre-foreclosure suit." We do not carry mortgage balances or deed-of-trust data.
Sources
- Texas Property Code §51.002 (sale procedure, notice, cure period, online posting): https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.51.htm and https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_51.002
- Texas Property Code §51.003 (deficiency judgment): https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_51.003
- Texas Property Code §51.0075 (trustee authority): https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_51.0075
- SB 62 (2023), county website posting of notices of sale: https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/html/SB00062F.htm
- Texas Property Code §24.005 (notice to vacate, tenants after foreclosure): https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm
- Texas Property Code §82.113 (condominium assessment lien and power of sale): https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.82.htm
- 12 C.F.R. §1024.41 (Regulation X, 120-day rule): https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/12/1024.41
- Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (90-day notice), 12 U.S.C. §5220 note: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/5220
General information, not legal or financial advice.