C Sale for Cash

• Library: Foreclosures Guidebook (2017 Ed.)

C. Sale for Cash

The customary notice of a foreclosure sale states that it will be a sale for cash to the highest bidder. At the time of the sale itself, the trustee will usually be well-advised to stress this fact, especially if there are persons in attendance who are unknown to the trustee. Members of the general public sometimes peruse legal notices with the intent of obtaining a bargain but without understanding the procedures to be followed at the sale.

In Ryder v. Hullinger Trucking Co., 758 S.W.2d 718 (Mo. App. W.D. 1988), the court refused to honor a complaint that the sheriff accepted a personal check from the high bidder. Although this was a sheriff’s execution sale, the opinion indicates that the court considered similar rules to apply to both execution sales and foreclosure sales. The court noted that the sheriff may have been exposed to personal liability had the check not been paid but that, because the check was actually paid in due course, the question “passes out of the case.” Ryder, 758 S.W.2d at 721. Ryder and Boatmen’s Bank of Jefferson County v. Community Interiors, Inc., 721 S.W.2d 72 (Mo. App. E.D. 1986), support a conclusion that a trustee does not violate the requirement of selling for cash by accepting personal checks as long as those checks are paid when...