“How is this possible?” you ask. There are several ways. Let’s assume that you have a judgment lien on the real estate being foreclosed on. If your judgment lien was recorded prior to the recording of the mortgage or deed of trust, your lien has a superior position to the mortgage or trust deed. That means that if the judgment debtor’s property does indeed go to sale in a foreclosure auction, any superior lien must be paid off from the proceeds of the sale first. Only after superior liens are paid, can the foreclosing mortgagee get any money from the auction of the property. This means you will be paid for your court judgment.

Now let’s assume that your judgment lien was not recorded until after the mortgage or trust deed was recorded. What could happen? First of all, it is necessary to remind you that the overwhelming majority of real estate property that goes into the foreclosure process, never actually ends up being sold at a foreclosure auction. Sometimes the debtor is able to borrow money from a conventional lending source. This not only allows the foreclosure to stop, it probably will get your judgment paid and satisfied. The reason is that most banks or other conventional lenders will require that any prior liens get paid off, so that the new money loan they fund will not be in an inferior position vis-a-vis other lien holders.

Sometimes a debtor will be able to totally refinance the entire debt on their property. When this happens, all prior loans and liens that exist at that time will be paid off. In this case, your court judgment will be paid.

Frequently the mortgagor (your judgment debtor) will be able to find enough money from friends, family, or by liquidating some assets to bring the real estate loan current and thereby stop the foreclosure. If this happens, you won’t lose your judgment or lien position, but you are not likely to get your judgment paid through this process of bring the loan current. Be patient, you are no worse off, you just have to keep trying.

If your judgment lien is in a junior position and the property actually sells at auction, what can happen? First, if the sale price is sufficient for all liens superior to yours to be more than satisfied, any additional funds from the sale will be applied to your judgment lien. Once again, you will be paid.

What if the sale price is not sufficient to cover all property liens superior to your and yours also? In that case your judgment lien on the property is said to be wiped out at the sale. This means the lien will expire. However, it does not mean that your judgment expires. Your judgment still exists and can be collected through whatever legal means you can employ. It only means that you no longer have a lien against the particular property that sold at the foreclosure auction. You still can have judgment liens against any other real estate that the judgment debtor owns.

Please note, in some states and jurisdictions you may still possess a right of redemption to buy the foreclosed real estate after the sale, up until the right of redemption runs out. In my state this right of redemption lasts for a full year after the sale. In this case if the sale price is insufficient for me to get paid from the sale proceeds, I have a right to buy the property for the same price as it sold for at the courthouse auction. Of course I would only exercise my right of redemption if there would be substantial enough instant equity in the property if I bought it at that price. If buying the property makes sense, I can buy it with sufficient equity and the virtual effect of doing so is that my judgment gets paid!

You can see by these examples that when your judgment debtor’s property is in foreclosure, there are real concrete possibilities of getting your judgment paid in full. Basically there are no judgment collecting activities for you to have to perform to make it happen. It is pretty much automatic when you get paid this way. You don’t want to delay in getting a judgment lien put in place on any real estate that your debtor owns. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to get paid because of the debtor’s mortgage difficulties. Getting your judgment satisfied in these situations is easier than taking candy from a baby!