<prompt> Human: Hi friendsSo this happened about 10 minutes ago.Quick profile of the subjects:- Both 60- Married- No savings that I know of- Meagre earnings attempting to bootstrap a new business- No dependents- Only known asset was their very large house- Three married kids, all live in different citiesMy dads business went bust when I was 10. My mom was a stay at home mom - a librarian by qualification. Loving as can be, but not exactly a provider. Fast forward 18 years, and my parents finances have never recovered, but none of us kids know the full picture. Theyre incredibly secretive and defensive. Theyve lurched from one short term job or stuttering business to the next.The one thing they still have from the time when they were well off is a huge, 5000 square metre property in a wealthy suburb. The house has four bedrooms, a pool, a tennis court, a sprawling garden, you name it.Obviously, they cant afford to maintain it, but they refuse to leave because theyve been there for literally 33 years. Its where all of their best memories are.Their most recent business is actually fairly promising. Theyre leveraging my dads genuine inventiveness and engineering training to produce new retail pet products in a country where people tend to care a little too much for their dogs.They produce all of their stock in their garage, at home.Theyve gotten interest and demand from fairly large retailers, to the point that they need to be able to ramp up production considerably to get to the level where they could hold a meaningful negotiation with a large retailer or pet products group.Because theyre bootstrapping, they spend a lot of time on the road, fulfilling individual stock orders, or selling to pet stores and vets.Because of their poor finances, they stay with my sister whenever they travel to the largest city in our country. This city is the densest, wealthiest, and best market in the country for their business. This city is 600km370m from their home and production centre. They make the drive literally every two weeks, staying for a week at a time.My sister has a husband, a toddler, and one on the way. You can imagine that this scenario is hard on her and her family.Because of their need for business capital to scale up production, their putting pressure on my sister and her family, they fact that they cant maintain their home, and that their largest market opportunity is in a different city, Ive been hammering them pretty hard for the last 18 months to sell up, and move.Well, it turns out they took out a new mortgage on their home to finance their business, and they havent been making payments.While trying to figure out the value of properties in their neighbourhood online, I stumbled on a high court judgment in favour of a home loan lender. My mom was the plaintiff. The order reads that pursuant to the judgment, their house is to be auctioned for the purposes of settling the home loan companys unspecified claim amount.The auction date was 10 August - its already happened. The auction notice was published in a government gazette.I havent spoken to my parents yet. Ive only just alerted my siblings.I was at my dads 60th birthday party this weekend. Neither he nor my mom said anything, or gave any indication that anything more than the usual struggles were up.Us three kids are all recently married. We all have promising careers, but were young adults. Were at the time of our lives where we were getting ready to take our own risks to start our own businesses, buy our own properties, etc. None of us is anywhere near being in the position to singlehandedly house and support my parents on our own.But my parents being homeless is not an option. Wed do anything for them, and obviously were willing to here.Anyone whos ever gone through something like this, what the hell happens now? Does anyone have the vaguest sense of an action plan?Im going to sleep now, and hope I have some clarity in the morning.Edit:Im calling the auctioneers and the sherif today to establish the following:- If their property has definitely been auctioned.- If yes, if the auction included the contents of their house, and how long they have before and eviction notice is posted, and how long they have to get out after the eviction notice is posted. - If no, if they have any right of redemption, the value of of the house versus the value of the amount owed with a view to finding an investor. While I wait on that info, Im hunting rental prices. Thanks for the great advice, everyone. Its good to see it on paper. Ones brain can scramble in a moment like this.  <response>: Maybe all the kids could get together and pay equal amounts to get them a reasonable rental in the city their biggest market is in.Unfortunately, its likely that the uncomfortable conversations are going to have to happen and the longer it is delayed the worse its going to be. 