Sell Your Arkansas Home Before the Trustee's Sale, and Keep What You've Built

Arkansas is one of the few states where lenders can choose between two foreclosure paths: a non-judicial "statutory foreclosure" carried out by a trustee, or a judicial foreclosure filed through the county circuit court. Most residential mortgages in Arkansas today authorize the faster, non-judicial route, so that's what most homeowners run into, though judicial foreclosure is still used, especially when a loan document doesn't include a valid power-of-sale clause or when a lender chooses to sue.

Under the non-judicial process, once a homeowner falls behind, the servicer typically records a notice of default and then a notice of sale, which by statute must be published and mailed to the borrower before the sale date. In practice, the stretch from a missed payment to a scheduled trustee's sale often runs four to eight months, though it can be shorter or considerably longer depending on the servicer, whether the loan is federally backed, and how quickly paperwork moves. Judicial foreclosures generally take longer, often six months to a year or more, because they follow the circuit court's docket and require a lawsuit, a judgment, and a sale conducted by a court-appointed commissioner.

Arkansas is somewhat unusual on redemption: many mortgages signed after 2007 include a borrower waiver of the statutory right of redemption, and the non-judicial statutory foreclosure process generally doesn't carry a post-sale redemption period at all. Some older loans, or foreclosures pursued judicially, may still involve limited redemption rights depending on how the mortgage was written. That's exactly the kind of detail worth confirming with someone who has read your specific documents. Deficiency judgments are also possible in Arkansas; state law includes some protections tied to the property's appraised value that can limit what a lender can collect after a low-priced sale, but a deficiency isn't ruled out simply because the house sold at auction.

One thing stays true through nearly the entire process, whichever path applies: as long as the sale hasn't been held, the home is generally still yours to sell. A completed private sale that pays off the loan in full satisfies the debt, which is what causes the scheduled trustee's or commissioner's sale to be canceled. Nothing more mysterious than that.

Questions Arkansas homeowners ask us

Is foreclosure in Arkansas judicial or non-judicial?

Both exist under Arkansas law. Most lenders use the faster non-judicial "statutory foreclosure" process, which is carried out by a trustee rather than a court, but some loans are foreclosed judicially through a lawsuit in circuit court. Your mortgage or deed of trust (and the notice you received) will tell you which path applies to your file.

How much warning will I get before an Arkansas trustee's sale?

By statute, notice of the sale generally has to be published and mailed to you before the sale date, but the exact number of weeks can vary by servicer and by how the notice period is calculated. Your notice of default or notice of sale letter should list the actual date. Treat that printed date as authoritative rather than any general timeline, and check with an attorney if the paperwork is unclear.

Can I still sell my house after I've received a notice of default?

Generally, yes. In Arkansas, receiving a notice of default or even a scheduled trustee's sale date doesn't take away your right to sell the property up until the sale actually happens. A completed sale pays off the mortgage, which satisfies the debt behind the scheduled auction and is why the sale gets called off. That's the option AuctionProof offers to move quickly on.