I don’t know anything about the trustee sale you mentioned in Carlsbad or where the info came from but often times the extremely low recorded numbers from trustees sales are missing some information or that it was only the second loan that you saw. The vast majority of trustee sales or “courthouse steps” sales today are far from a bargain and just a legal step in the foreclosure process. If the actual loan was lower than the market value it would have sold before the trustee sale, almost all trustee sales are upside down. The whole concept of the “short sale” is to stop wasting time and just jump to the new low, rather than go through the waste of time that trustee sales are, and time is money. That is why nobody here talks about them. After the required trustee sale fails, the bank gets it back and determines the true market value, which will be far below what they loaned, how much lower is up to the market. It isn’t the lack of warranty or inspection that keeps us away, it’s the fact that the loan is higher than the value and trustee sales are not auctions, they don’t go to the highest bidder, they go the person that will pay off the debt. I guess if you missed out on being an FB in 2006 and really want to get in on the action, you can buy one at the courthouse.

There are exceptions, but too few to warrant consideration.