On this page
The site is for the owner of a Los Angeles County building of two or more units whose loan has gone wrong: payments behind, a notice of default in the mail, or a maturity date no lender will refinance. It is built around the calendar. Until the trustee's sale the building is still yours to sell, and nearly every decision turns on how many days are left before that sale.
What the guide covers
It starts with dates, and the foreclosure timeline sets out each statutory step with a tool that turns the recording date on a notice of default into the earliest dates the law allows. The first week after a notice of default arrives has its own plan, built around asking the lender for its figures in writing.
The rest follows the choices that fit inside those dates. They include reinstating the loan, postponing a sale under AB 2424 on one to four units, dealing with a special servicer on five or more, a short sale or a deed in lieu, clearing second loans, judgments and tax liens, catching up unpaid property taxes, and what happens at a trustee's sale and to any money left over after it.
How each page is researched
Every rule on the site is tied to the statute, court decision or agency page it comes from. The foreclosure steps link to the Civil Code sections that create them, the property tax dates to the Los Angeles County Treasurer and Tax Collector, the federal lien process to the IRS, and possession after an auction to the Code of Civil Procedure and the California Supreme Court. Wherever a page states a rule, you or your attorney can open the text it came from and read it for yourselves.
The research notes are kept claim by claim and grouped by page, each entry giving the source's address and a note of what it says. Anything a search could not confirm stayed off the page, which is why some pages state a rule and then say that a detail is for the trustee, the Tax Collector or an attorney to confirm. Law firm and industry pages appear only to describe how something is done in practice. None of them is the only support for what the law requires.
Worked examples use made-up numbers, are labelled that way, and have their arithmetic checked. You will find no prices, cap rates or other market statistics on the site, since no source you could check reports them for your building.
How it is kept current
A page is reviewed when a law it cites changes, and each page shows the date it last changed. Foreclosure law does move. AB 2424 took effect on January 1, 2025, and section 2924m, the bidder rules for one to four units, runs until January 1, 2031. No review calendar sits behind the dates and no attorney signs off on the pages. Compare a page's date with the recording date on your own notice, and open the statute it links before you rely on it.
Who writes it
The author is Shaya Lowenstein, whose title is Multifamily Real Estate Advisor. He is licensed by the California Department of Real Estate as DRE #01942326, a number anyone can search on the Department's public license lookup, and Lyon Stahl Investment Real Estate is his responsible broker. His office is at 830 S Pacific Coast Hwy, Suite D-200, El Segundo, CA 90245.
Shaya started in the industry in 2011, and his work since then has run through brokerage, operations and development. He concentrates on apartment buildings and land in Southern California. Within that, his work is planning how a building can add value or be repositioned, analyzing what land use and zoning rules permit on a site, and helping owners, investors and developers plan what they hold over the long run.
What he does, and what he does not
Shaya is a real estate agent who lists apartment buildings for the owners selling them, on the open market or quietly to buyers he finds. For an owner behind on a loan, his part is a price drawn from the rent roll and nearby sales, a buyer who can close before the sale date, and an escrow that pays the liens and sends you what is left. He works on the seller's side. He does not buy buildings, and he does not make loans.
Shaya is not a lawyer, a CPA or a tax advisor, so the legal and tax questions in a default belong to your own professionals. They include whether a notice was properly given, what a guaranty or a forbearance agreement commits you to, whether bankruptcy fits, and what forgiven debt means for your return. The pages name the right one where each question comes up.