In most cases of foreclosure, it is the first mortgage company that initiates the process. The second mortgage may file its own foreclosure in order to protect its interest in the property, but even this is somewhat uncommon. The second lender would much rather work with the homeowners to find a solution to avoid foreclosure entirely, if possible. However, if the homeowners are simply too far behind on the second mortgage but up to date on the first, there is a good chance that the second lender will declare foreclosure on the house.
Any lienholder can try to force a sale of the property through foreclosure, but usually only the first mortgage will get paid off through the proceeds of the sale. This is because there usually just are not enough proceeds at all for even the first lien to be paid in full, let alone extra ones after that. It just makes more sense for the second mortgage to try to work with the debtors to find a solution, since they would most likely not get anything from a sheriff sale. Especially with the declining real estate market right now, second mortgages may have loaned tens of thousands of dollars more than the home is currently worth, which guarantees they will not receive anything from a sheriff sale. County foreclosure auctions usually consist of very low bid amounts and few bidders, resulting in properties selling for far less than their current market values.
If a participant at the foreclosure auction placed a bid and won, the proceeds of the sale would be distributed like any other foreclosure, regardless of which mortgage company actually began the foreclosure process in the courts. The property taxes would be paid first, since the bureaucrats need to get their hands on the money as quickly as possible. Then the first mortgage would be paid off with as much of the proceeds as are left. Unfortunately for second mortgage companies and other junior lienholders, the winning bid at auction is usually not even enough to cover the entire first mortgage. In fact, most of the time it is one of the banks that bids on the property to ensure that they will be able to sell it after the foreclosure if there are no other bidders.
After the first mortgage is paid off in full, though, then any other liens, including the second mortgage, would be paid in order of when the lien was filed with the county recorder. If there is enough money to pay all of the second mortgage, then they get all of the rest of the money until their lien is paid in full. Then anything remaining goes to other liens or to the homeowners as their gain from the sheriff sale. If there is not enough to pay off the second mortgage (or even all of the first mortgage), then the second will not be paid off at all or in full. It will be up to the mortgage company to sue afterwards for a deficiency judgment after the foreclosure has ended (an unlikely occurrence).
Thus, just because it is a second mortgage who begins the process of foreclosure, it will not really change the order of how the liens are paid off through the foreclosure auction. Any bidder at sheriff sale, whether the bank or a third party, will still end up with a title that has had the liens on it discharged through the county foreclosure auction. And the homeowners will have to move out of the property at the appropriate time or be faced with the possibility of a forced eviction. No matter which mortgage company initiates the foreclosure, the process will move through the court system in exactly the same way.
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