The best foreclosure auction websites, free and paid
Where to find upcoming foreclosure auctions in 2026: the free official sources, trustee sale trackers and broad foreclosure databases, with prices.
Blog · Investing
$0
is what the official notices cost. A website charges for putting them in one place, on time.
Key takeaways
- Every trustee sale is announced for free somewhere official: the county records, the newspaper, the courthouse posting or the trustee's own list. A paid site saves the county-by-county search.
- Pick by coverage first. A tracker that covers eight western states is no help in Texas or Virginia, and a nationwide lead database is not an auction calendar.
- For bidding, what matters is the sale date, the trustee to call and postponements, more than owner phone numbers or marketing tools.
What to look for in a foreclosure auction website
Choose a foreclosure auction website by three things: whether it covers the states you buy in, how early it shows a sale, and whether it keeps up with postponements.
Most sites mix several kinds of record: notices of default, notices of trustee's sale, sheriff's sales, tax sales and bank-owned homes for sale. For buying at a trustee's sale, the record that matters is the notice of trustee's sale, which gives the date, the place and the trustee to call, two to four weeks or more before the auction. Then check:
- Coverage. Which states and counties, and whether those are complete or a sample.
- Lead time. A site that shows a sale only when it reaches an auction platform shows it late.
- Status. Sales are postponed often. A list that does not update dates is a list of wasted trips.
- The numbers. Whether it carries the unpaid balance or opening bid where the notice prints one.
- Price and format. Monthly cost, per-county add-ons, exports and API.
Free: the official sources
Every trustee sale is announced free somewhere official: the county recorder or clerk, the newspaper that carries legal notices, and the trustee's own sale list.
The notices are public by law. A California notice of sale is published once a week for three weeks [1] and recorded with the county [2]. A Texas county must post every notice of sale filed with its clerk on its own website, free and without registration [3]. California requires trustees to make a good-faith effort to give current sale dates to anyone who asks [4], and many trustees post their full sale lists.
The catch is that each county and each trustee keeps its own list, in its own format, on its own schedule. Searching them works for one county; it does not scale to ten. How to check if a house is in foreclosure walks through the free route step by step.
TrusteeSaleData (this site)
TrusteeSaleData is a database of notices of trustee's sale and trustee sale records, from 21 deed-of-trust states, updated daily, with each value checked against the notice it came from.
We are biased, so here is what it is and is not. It holds 43,507 notices across 811 counties, with 13,959 sales scheduled in the next 30 days. Each record carries the address, sale date and place, the trustee and its sale line, the lender, and the unpaid balance where the notice prints one, with postponements and re-notices followed. The first five sales in every county are open to anyone; the rest open with a plan: Starter at $29 a month for one state, Pro at $49 for every state with exports and an API, after a three-day free trial, or a 7-Day Pass for $15 once.
It covers trustee's sales only: no sheriff's or tax sales, no bank-owned homes for sale and no owner phone numbers. See how this data is collected and see the plans.
ForeclosureRadar and PropertyRadar
ForeclosureRadar, a service of PropertyRadar, tracks trustee sales live in eight western states, priced per county; PropertyRadar adds property, owner and marketing tools at a higher price.
As of October 23, 2026, ForeclosureRadar's pricing is $49 a month for nationwide foreclosure search ($39 billed yearly), and $89 a month for search with trustee sale tracking in one county ($72.33 billed yearly). More counties cost $400 a year for one, $800 for two and $1,600 for three or more. Trustee sale tracking covers Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington, and on the day of a sale it updates every 15 minutes, according to PropertyRadar's help center. PropertyRadar's Solo plan is $119 a month ($99 billed yearly). Both offer a five-day free trial.
If you are looking for a PropertyRadar alternative
Look elsewhere when you buy outside its eight tracking states, when per-county pricing adds up across many counties, or when you need the notices rather than marketing tools.
Texas, Tennessee and Virginia, all busy trustee sale states, are not on that tracking list. Inside it, tracking five counties comes to about $2,470 a year billed yearly: $868 for the plan with one county and $1,600 for the other four. A plan priced per state or nationwide costs less at that size.
Broad foreclosure and lead databases
Nationwide databases such as PropStream, RealtyTrac and Foreclosure.com mix pre-foreclosures, auctions and bank-owned homes across all states, and suit marketing to owners more than planning a day at the courthouse.
PropStream is a lead-list tool: its Essentials plan is $99 a month ($81 billed yearly) with a seven-day free trial, as of October 23, 2026. Its pre-foreclosure list combines notices of default, lis pendens, notices of trustee's sale and notices of sheriff's sale. RealtyTrac and Foreclosure.com list pre-foreclosure, auction and bank-owned homes nationwide by subscription; check each site for its current price, which we could not confirm for this article.
These are strong for finding owners to contact. For bidding, check how each handles sale dates and postponements in your county before you rely on it.
Online auction platforms
Many trustees now list or hold their sales on large online auction platforms, which are free to browse but show only the sales placed with them.
They are useful for the sales they carry, with photos and bidding tools, but no single platform carries every trustee's sales, and a sale often appears there later than its notice.
Side by side
| Option | What it covers | Status tracking | Price, Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| County records, newspaper, trustee lists | Every sale, one county or trustee at a time | Call the trustee's sale line | Free |
| TrusteeSaleData | Notices of trustee's sale and sale records, 21 deed-of-trust states | Postponements and re-notices; results where published | $29 a month for one state, $49 for all; $15 for 7 days |
| ForeclosureRadar | Nationwide foreclosure search; trustee sale tracking in 8 western states | Every 15 minutes on sale day, in tracked counties | $49 a month; $89 with one tracked county, more per added county |
| PropertyRadar | Property, owner and foreclosure data with marketing tools | Trustee sale tracking as an add-on | From $119 a month |
| PropStream | Nationwide lead lists, including pre-foreclosures and auctions | Not its focus | From $99 a month |
| RealtyTrac, Foreclosure.com | Nationwide pre-foreclosure, auction and bank-owned listings | Varies | Subscription; see each site |
Whichever you use, confirm the sale with the trustee on the day: no website is a substitute for the sale line. When you find one worth bidding on, how to buy at a trustee sale covers the deposit, the payment and the deed.
Sources
4 primary- [1]Cal. Civ. Code § 2924f(b)(1) — California Legislature“publishing a copy once a week for three consecutive calendar weeks”
- [2]Cal. Civ. Code § 2924f(b)(4) — California Legislature“be recorded with the county recorder of the county in which the property or some part thereof is situated at least 20 days prior to the date of sale”
- [3]Tex. Prop. Code § 51.002(f-1) — Texas Legislature“A county shall prominently post a notice of sale filed with the county clerk under Subsection (b)(2) on the county's Internet website on a page where the county posts other auction information and that is publicly available for viewing without charge or registration.”
- [4]Cal. Civ. Code § 2924f(b)(8)(B) — California Legislature“A mortgagee, beneficiary, trustee, or authorized agent shall make a good faith effort to provide up-to-date information regarding sale dates and postponements to persons who wish this information.”
Questions
What is the best website for foreclosure auctions?
It depends on where you buy and what you need. For trustee sales across deed-of-trust states, a database of the notices themselves gives the earliest view. For tracking auctions live in the eight western states it covers, ForeclosureRadar is long-established. For marketing to owners before the sale, broad lead tools such as PropStream fit better. The county's own records are free everywhere.
Can I find foreclosure auctions for free?
Yes. Trustee sales are announced in public: recorded or filed with the county, published in a newspaper and posted at the courthouse or on the property. Texas counties must post filed notices of sale on their websites, free. The cost of the free route is time, because every county and trustee keeps its own list.
What is a cheaper alternative to PropertyRadar for trustee sales?
PropertyRadar's own ForeclosureRadar plan starts at $49 a month for search, and $89 a month with trustee sale tracking for one county, as of October 2026, with more for each added county. Outside its eight states, or across many counties, a notice database priced per plan rather than per county costs less; ours starts at $29 a month for one state.
Are paid foreclosure websites worth it?
They are worth it when your time is worth more than the subscription: when you watch several counties, need postponements tracked, or want the list as data. If you buy in one county now and then, the county's free records and the trustee's sale line are enough.
How to cite this article
Quote freely with a link. Where a claim rests on a statute, the source above is the authority; cite it alongside this page.
TrusteeSaleData. "The best foreclosure auction websites, free and paid." Published October 23, 2026. https://www.trusteesaledata.com/blog/best-foreclosure-auction-websites
Related
- Tracking sales without missing anyTrustee sale notices appear across hundreds of newspapers with only a two-to-four-week runway. Build a monitoring routine that catches changes before auction.
- Where trustee sales are concentratedSee how trustee sale volume is distributed across deed-of-trust states and counties, based on the published notices in the TrusteeSaleData corpus.
- Reverted to beneficiary: the lender won the auction"Reverted to beneficiary" means no bidder beat the lender's credit bid, so the property went back to the lender. How often that happens, and what comes next.