Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Assuming you have a note and deed of trust to secure the note, you have two options. Since this was a purchase money loan, however, you only have one real one. You could sue on the debt and to foreclose, but due to rampant land speculation in California going all the way back to the 1800's, you can't get a deficiency judgment for a purchase money loan. This was to prevent land speculators from running up the price of a property by loaning the money to buy it, then foreclosing on it, selling it for less, and suing the buyer for the deficiency.

I haven't researched this, but I think you could just sue on the debt, but that means you'd have to let them keep the property and try to recover against other assets.

So realistically all you can do is go to a Trustee's Sale (foreclosure) on the Deed of Trust. There are lots of companies that provide trustee sale services, from Lender Processing Services, Inc., which is a NYSE traded public company, to local outfits that only serve one or two counties. Your best bet is probably to contact one of the local ones and get the sale process going.

You should also contact a tax advisor on how you should handle bidding at the sale. If a third party doesn't offer more than you're owed, you will have to decide whether to bid in the full amount of debt, unpaid interest, taxes owed, etc., (called a "full credit bid") or bid in less. That decision has tax consequences to you and the defaulting buyer.

Foreclose. Hire an experienced foreclosure service or attorney to do so.