Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You and the realtor are overlooking the more important issue. You must be given notice of the lender proceeding forward with the foreclosure and the first date that the foreclosure sale is set. Failure by the lender to do so invalidates the foreclosure. That the lender was still dealing with the modification request after having taken title supposedly might give you a basis to argue they are estopped from claiming a valid foreclosure. were there other things that occurred or did not occur that made you think you still owned the property, such as your paying property taxes, the monthly mortgage payments to the lender, etc?

You need to immediately inform the lender, realtor, and buyer that there is a problem with the sale of the property and that it is very possible that the foreclosure sale can be set aside so they should, at the very least, not allow escrow to close until the legal issues are sorted out. In the meantime, they should let you take back your personal property since you had no notice before of the foreclosure so no opportunity to pick it up. since the refrigator is not affixed to the floor or house, it is personal movable property and is not part of what the lender would get even had it properly obtained the house.

A question will be what damages you suffered. If the house is underwater, you actually might save money by being foreclosed on. But if you had stopped paying the loan and were just collecting the rent, then there is a cash loss. Also the foreclosure damages your credit, ability to get credit cards and higher limits on the cards you have, etc.

If escrow has already been opened, then there may not be enough time to file a suit before the sale goes through. A lis pendes can only be filed once there is a lawsuit filed. A notification in writing to all parties should be sufficient. You need to decide if you want the property back or a sum representing the damages you suffered.

The most effective things might be a letter from an attorney detailing what is wrong with the sale of the house. I charge $100 per hour as I am semi-retired. Nothing prevents you from switching to another attorney later.