HI. My friend's parents sold a house and the buyer stopped paying. The parents carry the note and no banks involved. The buyer was paying the parents then stopped a while ago. the parents want to foreclose and are not really interested in getting deficiency... just want the house back.

The paperwork says there is a power of trustee sale and that they should send notice of default to the trustee. The question is that the trustee is the title company. Does the title company do the foreclosure? That doesn't sound right.

DEED OF TRUST

TRUSTEE: TITLE CO.

TRUSTOR: Buyer

BENEFICIARY: Seller as successor trustee of XXX trust

There is an acceleration clause and ...

... upon default ... beneficiary essentially notifies trustee with demand for sale...

... after notices, blah blah blah, trustee shall sell said property.

So, it sounds like they are supposed notify the title company (trustee) of the default and the title company (trustee) does the sale. They called the title company and the title company says they don't have a foreclosure department.

OK, I did some reading and found that the title company usually does a Substitution of Trustee. So, who would be the new trustee typically?

Also, I think the parents want the house back. and may not want it to go up for public auction. Is that an option?

The beneficiary (being the note holder) has to assign a trustee (check the deed of trust as you point out a title company is most likely want to have a substitution of trustee to someone else). The trustee will take care of the rest being the requisite notices which include a 30 day notice prior to recording a notice of default then either 90 days (or in some cases 180 days) to record a notice of sale for a sale date after 21 days.

Thanks. Who normally is substituted in as trustee to foreclose then?