Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

Ok, I'm positive this information is around here somewhere, but there's so much information/discussion I can never find something specific. So forgive the stupid question...

Is there a way for me to tell if a specific house is in foreclosure? One house on my way to work dropped it's for sale sign and I suspect it's being foreclosed. Another has a note posted to the door a month or so after the sign disappeared, but I can't read it from the street. I suspect foreclosure as well. How do I find out?

Go to the King County website. Look up the seller's name or tax id number and search that property for a Notice of Trustee's Sale.

Lake Hills Renter,
...Or shoot me an email with the address. I'll see what I can dig up using NWMLS records.

Lots of fun info can be had by going to King County's Record search too.

parcel viewer won't show you if it's in the process of being foreclosed. you will need the owner's name and to search county records for a notice of trustee sale. you can use the parcel viewer to get the owner's name though.

parcel search = find the owners name
records search = find the NOTS

two sites to get to your goal

records search is trickier, as there are many people with the same name

or just do what Tim says below!

Thanks for the explicit instructions, Tim. And thanks everyone else for trying, but I'm really dumb apparently.

Looks like the house with the posted sign had a notice of trustee sale in November.Weird that there are 3 results for the same property and same name. Does this mean it's gone into foreclosure 3 times for the same person?

08/19/2005 NOTICE OF TRUSTEE SALE
12/26/2007 NOTICE OF TRUSTEE SALE
11/05/2008 NOTICE OF TRUSTEE SALE

Hi LHR,

Multiple NTS are not uncommon. A homeowner might receive a Notice of Trustee Sale and then gather the money together to make the loan current and deliver it to the trustee on time to cancel the sale, etc, just like The Tim mentions. Another way to delay or postpone a sale would be if a homeowner files Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which automatically gives the homeowner more time. Then, at the last minute, they could switch from Chapter 13 to Chapter 7, thereby delaying the sale even further.

Sometimes a bank will delay the sale if a bona fide offer comes in as a short sale, giving loss mitigation time to review the sale and figure out if the bank is better off financially foreclosing or accepting the short sale.

You're not dumb, it's just the "other side" of mortgage lending. The dark side; the Darth Vader side of the business that's not readily known.