Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

The lender can only foreclose on the property put up as a security for the loan. Normally, if you borrow money on your house the loan is only secured by your house, so the lender can not go against your other property . But if you have a home equity loan, a loan not used entirely to purchase the home, a junior deed of trust in which they obtained additional security against other property, or any other loan not used solely for the purchase of the home, then that other property used as security can be gone after directly or via a deficiency judgment.

It is the bank, not the homeowner, which forecloses. In California, a lender has two choices: foreclosure by having the trustee auction off the collateral, or by going to court for a judgment. A trustee sale is relatively quick, cheap and easy, and lenders go that way probably 99.8% of the time. If it chooses a trustee sale, the lender must accept the proceeds of that sale as the most its going to get, with two minor exceptions that probably don't apply to you. The first is that very rarely the note specifies additional collateral, and a lender can pursue that as well. The other possibility is that the lender can sue the borrower for something else the borrower did wrong, such as spitefully leaving the house a mess upon moving out after the foreclosure sale. In the typical case, a foreclosing lender will be all done and you'll be clear of the debt when the auction is completed.