My wife and I sold our first house in 1976 because we needed a little more space following the birth of our third child. It was a slow market in Reno, then. The broker asked me if I'd carry a second.

I didn't know what that was. Even after I found out, I still didn't quite get it, and it took me a while to understand it all.  Fast forward to 2009, when we're not only in a slow market but in a foreclosure crisis with people having a tough time with mortgage payments, and it's a whole new world of vocabulary, of words bandied about all of a sudden that somehow, we're all supposed to know the meaning of.

I've tried my best to define terms as simply as possible on this site.  Still, some definitions are in order now and then.

Trustee (on a trust deed)--This person carries out the terms of the trust deed.  When you bought your house, you signed two instruments for your mortgage--the Promissory Note and the Deed of Trust (aka Trust Deed). The promissory note is your promise to pay, and it states the amount, interest rate and due date.  The Deed of Trust states the special terms, such as Acceleration Clauses (saying the note is due on sale or refinance), Interest Rate Adjustments, and that sort of thing.

But the trust deed also contains language saying what happens if you get too far behind on your mortgage payments. If a lender forecloses, it does so on the trust deed, not the promissory note (see more below).  If the lender takes this action, it is instructing the Trustee to enforce the  default provisions in the trust deed.

What if the lender pursues the borrower under the promissory note instead of the trust deed? In that case, it's called a Judicial Foreclosure, because the lender has to sue, go to court and have a judge rule against the borrower. In Oregon, lenders can't do that in most cases--they have to go after the property securing the note. 

That's why trust deed foreclosures are called Non-judicial foreclosures.  No judge is involved. The trustee, a neutral party, does the work.