Solano & Delta Home Notes
My name is Warren Tate. For two stretches of my working life I sat at the intake desk of a nonprofit housing counseling office in Fairfield, from 2009 to 2012 and then again starting in 2023. The office was HUD-approved, so most of the people who walked in had been sent by a servicer or a lawyer. They sat down, set a folder on the table, and somewhere in that folder was a notice of default.
I've left the desk. This site is where I write down what I used to say across it.
It covers a narrow patch of ground on purpose: Vallejo, Fairfield, Antioch, Pittsburg and Brentwood, and the owners there who are behind on the mortgage or the property tax. Both debts run on a clock. The clocks are written into California law and the county calendars, and the most useful thing I ever did for anybody was draw the clock on a legal pad so they could see how much time they really had. Usually it was more than they feared. Once in a while it was less.
I'm not a lawyer or a real estate agent. When you need one of those I'll say so and point you at the official list. HUD keeps the directory of approved counseling agencies, and using it costs nothing. When somebody offers to save your house for a fee paid up front, I'll say that too. The FTC has been writing up the same mortgage relief scam for twenty years and it still works on tired people.
I spent years helping people keep houses. I also watched people spend the last of their savings to keep a house six more months and then lose it at the sale anyway. So I will tell you when selling is the right move. It usually isn't. When it is, the buyer who matters is the one who can close before the trustee's sale date. A service like we-buy-houses-in-bay-area.com connects Bay Area owners with local cash buyers who buy as-is with no agent commission, the seller picks the closing date, and you can turn the offer down. The point of one is the calendar.
What is here so far
Three pieces, in the order the problems tend to show up.
Notice of default in Solano County: how the clock actually runs walks a Vallejo house from the first missed payment to the trustee's sale on a real calendar, and shows what turns up in the county recorder's index.
Behind on property taxes in Contra Costa: how the timeline works is about the other clock, the slow one. It starts July 1 and runs five years, and the redemption penalty ticks the whole way.
Selling before the foreclosure auction: a cash sale on the clock is the one I wish people read earlier: payoff demands, equity, escrow, and how to tell a buyer from a scam.
Check the date on each piece. County fees change.
Warren Tate worked intake as a HUD-approved housing counselor in Fairfield. He writes for households in Vallejo, Fairfield, Antioch, Pittsburg and Brentwood who have a notice in a folder.