Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

If you are the owner, you have zero days after sale to legally be out. If you are not, they can serve you with a 3-day notice to quit, and then file and serve an unlawful detainer action against you. Whether they will do so, or offer you cash for keys, depends on the buyer.

I assume it was a notice of trustee's sale, and that you are the owner, not a tenant. In that case, you will lose your ownership and right of possession upon the sale taking place, and the buyer (which may or may not be the lender) can give you a three-day notice and follow that up with an unlawful detailer suit and an eviction. A "cash for keys" offer is possible, but unlikely. However, the vigor and timing of a foreclosing bank's efforts to remove former owners is quite variable and unpredictible. It depends upon the bank, and community where the house is located, its value, opportunities for the bank to re-sell it, and quite possibly what the bank thinks the former owner will do or not do in terms of taking good care of the property. It depends mainly, however, on the bank and how overburdened its foreclosure and real estate owned departments are.