The Texas foreclosure timeline

Default and demand

After you fall behind, the servicer sends a notice of default and gives you an opportunity to cure — commonly at least twenty days for an owner-occupied homestead under the standard deed-of-trust and statutory framework. This is still a pre-foreclosure stage.

Notice of sale

If the default is not cured, a notice of sale is posted at the courthouse, filed with the county clerk, and mailed to the borrower's last known address — typically at least twenty-one days before the sale date. That mailing is why so many people never find out about the surplus: it goes to the address on file, which is usually the property they are losing.

The first-Tuesday sale

Texas foreclosure sales are held on the first Tuesday of the month, in a designated area at or near the county courthouse, during a stated three-hour window. A substitute trustee conducts a public auction. The lender may credit-bid the debt; third parties bid cash.

This is where a surplus is born. If a third party outbids the payoff, the excess exists from that moment.

The trustee's deed

Within weeks, a Substitute Trustee's Deed is recorded conveying the property to the buyer. It recites the bid. That recorded document is the public proof of what the property brought.

Where the excess goes

The trustee applies the proceeds to the debt and costs, and holds the excess. If no one entitled to it comes forward, it is deposited into the registry of the court in the county where the sale occurred, and it sits there until a court orders it released.

Why the mail never reaches you

By the time the excess exists, the borrower has typically moved. Notice, correspondence and any check are addressed to a house someone else now owns. Mail forwarding expires. The money stays in the registry, and the file goes quiet.