Answer

Unless you secured the note with a mortgage against the property itself, you will not be able to recover from the property. Also, while California is a community property state liabilities are still the responsibility of the individual debtor who agrees to pay the debt. Community property assets however, may be attached (via court action) to pay a liability of one of the spouses.

Accordingly, if you son is the only signatory of the note, only he is responsible for the debt. If you want to enforce the debt you will need to obtain a judgment and then use that judgment to go after his assets (i.e. including his share of the community property assets).

If you want to pursue this I recommend you engage an attorney to handle this for you.

Because it is impossible for me to identify and consider ALL the relevant facts, this advice is not intended or written to be used for the purpose of avoiding penalties, and cannot be used for that purpose.