You can buy any property listed for sale. The Notice of Default mere begins the foreclosure process. However, it is common practice for the foreclosure to be postponed if the property is being sold. You cannot determine the auction price of the property until a few days before the auction. If a property is foreclosed upon, the bank has to pay all outstanding property taxes before selling the property. So, as a buyer, you would not need to be concerned about that.

A house with a Notice of Default is not "listed" for sale. The Notice of Default is just a notice that the homeowner is in default on their mortgage. Websites like Realty Trac (And in turn Trulia) post those homes but they are not actually Listings. I wrote a short blog about this topic here: http://www.trulia.com/blog/dave_osborne/

Foreclosed homes are listed on the MLS through Realtors and can be found here:
http://www.TheOCmls.com

Tthe default is usually paid off when it is sold but that has to be done though title to be sure there are no liens left. As for the price you can't tell what it will be. that notice of default and $100K is what the property is in default for, not what it will sell for. As for taxes it depends on how it is sold, Auction, REO or seller or what is owed on it and the selling price. Get an agent that knows how to deal with this type of property

Lm, You might want to read thru this..... http://www.sco.ca.gov/ardtax_public_auction.html

http://egov.ocgov.com/ocgov/Info%20OC/Departments%20&%20…

http://www.bid4assets.com/help/index.cfm?fuseAction=TaxSale

Good luck, Dunes