The dates on your notice of seizure are the dates that count. The timeline below is the usual order for an uncontested home-loan case that uses executory process. Your loan papers, a court challenge, or a bankruptcy filing can change the pace. We are a home buyer, not a law firm, a lender, or a housing counselor. A Louisiana attorney can tell you what applies to your case.
Parish pages for the local day and place: how to stop or avoid a Caddo sale and how to stop or avoid a Bossier sale. The choice list is options before a Caddo or Bossier sheriff's sale.
Want a cash offer, or to have us take over the payments? Call or text Charlie at (318) 714-4321, or Get My Cash Offer. Cash is not promised on every house. No fee, no obligation.
Before anyone files
For most home loans, a federal mortgage rule generally keeps the servicer from making the first foreclosure notice or filing until the loan is more than 120 days delinquent. That rule is 12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(f). It has exceptions. It is not a promise that your servicer will wait, and it is not a defense you should try to use without a lawyer.
What you can do in this stretch: call the servicer and ask, in writing, about catching up, a repayment plan, or another workout. A HUD-approved housing counselor is free. Search the HUD counselor list. You can also sell the house in the ordinary way. None of that requires us.
Executory process
Code of Civil Procedure article 2631 describes executory proceedings: a seizure and sale of property, without a previous citation and judgment, to enforce a mortgage or privilege shown by an authentic act that imports a confession of judgment, and in other cases the law allows. Many Louisiana home loans are written so the lender can use this route. If the papers are not in the form the law requires, the lender may have to file an ordinary lawsuit, which is a longer path. A lawyer reads the mortgage and says which route you are in.
The order, the seizure, and the notice
When the court signs an order directing a writ of seizure and sale, the sheriff seizes the property. Article 2721 says the sheriff serves the defendant a written notice of seizure, by personal or domiciliary service, with the time, date, and place of the sheriff's sale, using the form in R.S. 13:3852.
R.S. 13:3852 says the initial sheriff's sale date shall not be scheduled any earlier than sixty days after the date of the signed court order commanding the issuance of the writ. That is the 60-day floor. It is not a promise that your sale will wait only 60 days, and it is not a promise that it will happen on day 60.
Article 2642 says a suspensive appeal from the order directing the writ must be taken within fifteen days of service of the notice of seizure. Whether an appeal fits your case, and what bond the article requires, is a lawyer's question. We do not file appeals.
What you can do after the notice arrives: read the date and the place, call the sheriff's office to confirm them, talk to a Louisiana attorney, and keep talking to the servicer in writing. Selling the house is one more option if a closing can be ready before the sale. We do not stop the sale by taking the call.
The advertisements
Article 2722 says that after the seizure, the sheriff advertises the sale under the first paragraph of Article 2331. Article 2331 requires notice of a sale of immovable property to be published at least twice, unless a postponed sale is being readvertised under that article's shorter rule.
R.S. 43:203 times those two ads. When two publications are required for a judicial sale by public auction, the first newspaper advertisement is published at least thirty days before the sale, and the second is published not earlier than seven days before, and not later than the day before, the sale. The statute says how to count those days. Do not count them yourself and treat your count as the deadline. Use the dates on the notice and the ads, and ask a lawyer if they do not match.
Appraisal and the opening bid
If appraisement has not been waived, the property is appraised before the sale. Article 2332 requires an appraisal prior to the sale unless the mortgage waived appraisal and the other conditions in that article are met. Article 2724 applies Article 2336 to a writ of seizure and sale unless appraisement was waived under Article 2723.
R.S. 13:4363 says the sheriff serves notice, not less than seven days before the sale, exclusive of holidays, directing the debtor and the seizing creditor each to name an appraiser. Article 2336 says the property shall not be sold if the highest bid is less than two-thirds of the appraised value. The sheriff then readvertises, and at the second offering the property is sold for whatever it will bring, except as Article 2337 provides. If your mortgage waived appraisal, those two-thirds rules may not apply. The notice or the court papers say whether the sale is with appraisement. A lawyer reads that line. We do not.
The sale itself
Caddo Parish and Bossier Parish do not sell the same way. Caddo sells in person. Bossier sells online. The steps above are the statewide process. The day, the hour, and the door are on the parish pages:
- How to stop or avoid a Caddo Parish sheriff sale
- How to stop or avoid a Bossier Parish sheriff sale
- Caddo Parish sheriff's sale
- Bossier Parish sheriff's sale
- A longer look at how long foreclosure takes
A house in Marshall, Longview, or Tyler is not on this timeline. Texas trustee sales are on before a trustee sale in East Texas.
What you can do before the sale date: keep the servicer conversation in writing, meet a HUD-approved counselor, and talk to a Louisiana attorney. A sale of the house that closes in time can pay the loan at the title company. We buy houses as they sit. You do not have to repair or clean first. Cash is not promised on every house, and we do not promise a closing will be ready before your date. Call or text Charlie at (318) 714-4321 if you want us to look.
After the sale
For a typical mortgage foreclosure in Louisiana, do not plan on a set period after the auction to pay a number and take the house back. Our guides on what happens after a sheriff's sale and foreclosure redemption cover that difference, including how a tax sale is not the same process. Ask a lawyer before you rely on any deadline you heard from someone else. The useful time is before the sale.
Sources
12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(f) (120-day delinquency rule, with exceptions). La. C.C.P. art. 2631 (executory proceedings). Art. 2721 and R.S. 13:3852 (seizure, notice, and the 60-day floor for the first sale date). Art. 2642 (fifteen-day suspensive appeal). Art. 2331, Art. 2722, and R.S. 43:203 (advertisement). Art. 2332, Art. 2336, Art. 2724, and R.S. 13:4363 (appraisal and the two-thirds bid, unless appraisal was waived).
Updated November 13, 2026