Arizona Trustee Sale Process and Timeline

By Cash Guy Nate Published October 9, 2026 6-minute read

In Arizona, a lender forecloses on a house without going to court by having the trustee record a Notice of Trustee's Sale, and the auction cannot take place until the ninety-first day after that recording. That 90-day window, set by A.R.S. § 33-807, is the whole clock. During it you can bring the loan current and cancel the sale, sell the house and pay the loan off, or negotiate with the lender. Once the gavel falls the house is gone and there is no right of redemption. This page lays out the deadlines in the order they hit, with the statute for each, and explains how to find out whether a notice has been recorded on your house or one you are thinking of buying.

Day 0: the Notice of Trustee's Sale is recorded

The process starts when the trustee named in your deed of trust records a notice of sale with the county recorder where the property sits. A.R.S. § 33-808 requires that recording, and it fixes the sale date: the date shall be no sooner than the ninety-first day after the date the notice was recorded. The notice states the date, time and place of the auction, the property, and the trustee's contact information. Nothing in the statute requires the lender to sue you first or get a judge's signature. By the time most owners get this notice they have already missed several payments and received demand letters; the recorded notice is the point where the calendar becomes fixed. If you are at that point, our foreclosure page covers the selling options, and the behind on payments page covers the ones before notice is recorded.

Within 5 business days: mailed notice to the borrower

Under A.R.S. § 33-809, the trustee must mail a copy of the notice to the trustor (you), the beneficiary (the lender) and the original trustee within five business days after recording. Anyone else with a recorded interest, and anyone who recorded a request for notice, gets a mailed copy within thirty days. For a residence, a copy also goes to the property address itself. So if the first you hear of a sale is a letter, check the recording date on the notice; the 90 days run from recording, not from when the letter arrived.

Posting and publication: at least 20 days before the sale

A.R.S. § 33-808 also requires the notice to be posted on the property and at the courthouse at least twenty days before the sale date, and published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county once a week for four consecutive weeks, with the last publication at least ten days before the sale. That is why trustee sale notices show up in the legal section of local papers and on the paid aggregator sites. The sale itself must be held on a day other than a Saturday or legal holiday, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Arizona time.

Until 5 p.m. the business day before the sale: your right to reinstate

This is the deadline that matters most. A.R.S. § 33-813 lets the borrower, a successor, or a junior lienholder reinstate the loan by paying everything that is past due, plus the lender's enforcement costs, up to 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on the last day other than a Saturday or legal holiday before the date of sale. Reinstating means paying the missed payments, late charges and costs, not the whole loan balance. The trustee's fee on reinstatement is capped at the greater of $600 or one-half of one percent of the unpaid principal. Once you reinstate, the trustee has to record a cancellation of the notice of sale, and is liable for actual damages if that cancellation is not recorded within 30 days.

The same 5 p.m. deadline applies to legal objections. Under A.R.S. § 33-811, defenses and objections to the sale are waived unless you get a court order stopping it before 5 p.m. the last business day before the sale and deliver it to the trustee within 24 hours. If you think the lender has made an error, a lawyer has to move before that hour, not after.

The auction, postponements, and the $10,000 deposit

On the sale date the trustee sells the property at public auction for cash to the highest bidder (A.R.S. § 33-810). Only the lender may credit-bid the debt; everyone else must bid cash, and the trustee must require every bidder except the lender to put up a $10,000 deposit. Sales get postponed constantly, often because a loan modification or a sale is in process; the trustee can postpone by announcement at the sale, with the new date fixed within ninety calendar days. Under A.R.S. § 33-811, the winning bidder must pay the full price by 5 p.m. the next business day, and the trustee then has seven business days to execute and submit the trustee's deed for recording. That deed is absolute, with no right of redemption, and wipes out every lien junior to the deed of trust.

After the sale: deficiency, and Arizona's anti-deficiency rule

A.R.S. § 33-814 gives the lender 90 days after the sale to sue for any shortfall between what it was owed and the higher of the sale price or the property's fair market value. But for most homes, that lawsuit is barred. The statute says that if trust property of two and one-half acres or less, limited to and used as a single one-family or single two-family dwelling, is sold at trustee's sale, no action may be maintained to recover the difference. In plain terms, on an ordinary Arizona house or duplex on a normal lot, the lender takes the house and the debt is done. There are exceptions for construction loans and homes never actually lived in, so check with a lawyer if the loan was unusual. Second mortgages and HELOCs are a separate question; see our liens page.

How to look up a Notice of Trustee's Sale in Arizona

Every notice is a public record at the county recorder. In Maricopa County, the Recorder's document search lets you search by name or by document type; the notice is indexed under the trustor's name, so searching the owner's name pulls it up with the recording date and the trustee. Pinal County (Florence) and Pima County run their own online searches. For Yavapai, Navajo, Gila and the other counties, each recorder's site has a document search, and the fee to record a notice, a cancellation or a deed is $30 per instrument under A.R.S. § 11-475. If you are the owner and cannot find it, call the trustee named on your mailed notice and ask for the recording date and sale date; they are required to tell you.

Selling the house before the sale date

A sale that closes before the auction pays the lender in full through escrow and the notice is cancelled. That is doable inside 90 days, but only if the buyer is ready. A financed buyer needs 30 to 45 days plus an appraisal; a cash buyer can close in two to three weeks. Title will order a payoff from the lender that includes the arrears, trustee fees and attorney fees, and those come out of the price. If the house is worth less than the loan, the lender has to approve a short sale, which takes longer than the window usually allows, so start that conversation the week the notice arrives. We pay the normal closing costs on a cash sale; see the closing cost breakdown. Say a Glendale owner gets a notice recorded on March 1 with a sale set for June 2; a cash contract signed by mid-April closes in early May with three weeks to spare, while a listing that goes up in April is still waiting on an appraisal when the auction date arrives. This page is general information, not legal advice; a foreclosure attorney can review your deed of trust and the notice.

Common questions

How long does a trustee sale take in Arizona?

At least 91 days from the day the Notice of Trustee's Sale is recorded (A.R.S. § 33-807 and § 33-808). Postponements can stretch it, each one up to 90 more days. Counting the missed payments before the notice, most Arizona foreclosures run four to six months from first default.

Can I stop a trustee sale in Arizona?

Yes, by reinstating the loan (paying the arrears and costs) up to 5 p.m. on the last business day before the sale under A.R.S. § 33-813, by paying the loan off through a sale that closes before the auction, or by getting a court order before the same 5 p.m. deadline under § 33-811.

What is the difference between a trustee sale and a foreclosure in Arizona?

A trustee sale is the non-judicial kind of foreclosure, run by the trustee under the deed of trust with no court case. Almost all Arizona home loans use a deed of trust, so almost all Arizona foreclosures are trustee sales. A judicial foreclosure goes through superior court and is rare for houses.

Will I owe money after a trustee sale?

On a single-family house or duplex on 2.5 acres or less, generally no. A.R.S. § 33-814 bars the lender from suing for a deficiency on that kind of property. Exceptions exist for construction loans and homes never occupied, and a second lender may have separate rights.

If you want to talk

If a notice has been recorded on your house and you want a cash number that can close before the sale date, call Cash Guy Nate at (928) 928-4109 or send the address through the form. We buy as-is and close through an Arizona title company. Our offer is below open-market price, and if you can reinstate or list in time, we will say so. Or use the short form below.

Sources: A.R.S. § 33-807 - Sale of trust property; power of trustee; 91st day · A.R.S. § 33-808 - Notice of trustee's sale; recording, posting, publication · A.R.S. § 33-809 - Request for copies of notice; mailing · A.R.S. § 33-810 - Sale by public auction; postponement; bidder deposit · A.R.S. § 33-811 - Payment of bid; trustee's deed; waiver of objections · A.R.S. § 33-813 - Default; reinstatement; cancellation of notice · A.R.S. § 33-814 - Deficiency judgment; anti-deficiency protection · A.R.S. § 11-475 - County recorder fees ($30 per instrument) · Maricopa County Recorder - recorded document search