Reviewed October 5, 2026 · 16 states · 88 rules, each quoted from its statute
What each deed-of-trust state requires before a trustee can sell: how much notice, how it must be published, how long a borrower can still cure, and whether the lender can come after the balance. Every line is quoted from the state’s own code, with the link, and re-checked on a schedule.
Across the 16 deed-of-trust states covered here, statutory notice before a trustee sale runs from 20 to 120 days where the law counts days, while California and Nevada instead require three months to pass after the notice of default is recorded.
| State | Minimum notice | Observed median | Rules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska foreclosure laws | Notice of default recorded at least 90 days before the sale | 85 days | 4 |
| Arizona foreclosure laws | No sooner than the 91st day after the notice of sale is recorded | 77 days | 7 |
| California foreclosure laws | Three months must pass after the notice of default is recorded | 22 days | 7 |
| Colorado foreclosure laws | Combined notice mailed 45 to 60 days before the first scheduled sale | 54 days | 6 |
| Idaho foreclosure laws | Mailed at least 120 days before the sale | 113 days | 6 |
| Missouri foreclosure laws | Not less than 20 days’ notice, in the county where the land sits | 21 days | 4 |
| Montana foreclosure laws | Mailed at least 120 days before the sale | 115 days | 4 |
| Nebraska foreclosure laws | Five times, once a week for 5 consecutive weeks, the last 10–30 days before the sale | 45 days | 5 |
| Nevada foreclosure laws | Three months must pass after the notice of default is recorded | 34 days | 6 |
| North Carolina foreclosure laws | Once a week for at least 2 successive weeks; posted 20 days before | 12 days | 4 |
| Oregon foreclosure laws | Served or mailed at least 120 days before the sale | 104 days | 6 |
| Texas foreclosure laws | At least 21 days before the sale: posted at the courthouse door, filed with the county clerk and sent by certified mail to each debtor | 40 days | 8 |
| Utah foreclosure laws | Three times, once a week for 3 consecutive weeks, the last 10–30 days before the sale | 33 days | 4 |
| Virginia foreclosure laws | Written notice to the owner at least 60 days before the sale for an owner-occupied home, 14 days otherwise | 35 days | 6 |
| Washington foreclosure laws | At least 90 days before the sale, or 120 where a referral letter is required | 127 days | 7 |
| West Virginia foreclosure laws | Served on the borrower by certified mail; on a subordinate lienholder at least 20 days before the sale | 21 days | 4 |
“Observed median” is the number of days between a notice first appearing in a newspaper (in Texas, which requires no newspaper notice, its filing with the county clerk) and the sale it announces, measured across the notices we hold in that state and shown from 10 sales. Trustee sale statistics sets out how it is computed.
Data as of · statutes reviewed on this date; observed figures recomputed nightly
A notice period is the part of the timeline that is easiest to compare and the least useful on its own. Three things change what it means.
What the clock runs from. Arizona’s 91 days run from the recording of the notice of sale. Oregon’s 120 run from service on the borrower. California and Nevada do not count days to the sale at all — they require three months to pass after the notice of default, and the sale is scheduled after that.
When publication has to finish. Idaho’s last newspaper insertion must run 30 days before the auction; Nebraska’s between 10 and 30 days before; Washington publishes twice on a fixed schedule tied to the sale date. The published notice is usually the last step, not the first, which is why the dates we observe are shorter than the statutory minimums.
What happens after the hammer. North Carolina keeps bidding open for ten more days, and every upset bid restarts it. Missouri allows redemption in narrow circumstances. Most of these states allow none at all.
A federal rule sits above all of them: a servicer generally cannot start the process until the loan is more than 120 days delinquent. How to buy at a trustee sale walks the bidder’s side of the same statutes, and what happens after a trustee sale follows the surplus, the deficiency and the eviction.
It quotes, it does not interpret. Each row gives the sentence the rule comes from and a link to the section. Statutes carry exceptions that a table cannot — bankruptcy stays, military service, mediation programs, commercial loans, amended notices — and any of them can change the answer in a particular case. Read the section before relying on it, and take advice for a decision that matters.
A state appears only once we can quote it. A state needs at least 4 verified rules before it gets a page here. Tennessee publishes its official code only through LexisNexis's access-controlled portal, so we cannot quote it from the state's own page. We do not cite a republisher in its place.
Nothing here is legal advice. TrusteeSaleData is not a law firm, not a trustee and not a government agency.
It depends on the state and on what the clock runs from. 10 of the 16 states here fix it as a count of days before the sale, from 20 to 120. Others run it from the notice of default instead — California and Nevada require three months to pass after that notice is recorded — and several set no single deadline at all, only a publication schedule the sale must follow.
In most deed-of-trust states, yes, up to a deadline set by statute: Arizona allows reinstatement until 5:00 p.m. on the last business day before the sale, Oregon until five days before, Washington until the eleventh day before, and Montana right up to the hour fixed for the auction. The amount due is the arrears plus the costs the statute lists, not the whole loan.
That is the sharpest split between these states. Alaska, Montana, Washington and California bar a deficiency after a sale under the power of sale, and Arizona bars it for a home on two and a half acres or less. Idaho, Nebraska and Utah allow an action within three months of the sale, and Nevada within six.
Each rule is quoted verbatim from the state's official code at the link beside it, and the quotes are re-fetched and checked by script. They were last reviewed on October 5, 2026. Statutes carry exceptions a table cannot, so the statute itself is the authority, not this page.
TrusteeSaleData. "Trustee sale laws by state." Reviewed October 5, 2026. https://www.trusteesaledata.com/trustee-sale-laws
Quote any line with a link to the state’s page, and cite the statute itself where you can — every row names it. Corrections: support@trusteesaledata.com. For volumes, balances and timings, see trustee sale statistics, and for what is scheduled now, trustee sale coverage by state.