Thank you for your interest in foreclosure sales. This page was prepared in an effort to answer the most frequently asked questions about this process. If you have further questions, please contact the Master-in-Equity Office at (843) 958-5070.

If you are interested in bidding on a piece of property in Charleston County, SC, which has been foreclosed upon and is scheduled to be auctioned for sale in the near future, the following are some things you may find helpful to know:

When real property is ordered to be foreclosed in Charleston County, a judge called the Master-in-Equity will issue an order directing the mortgaged premises (or part thereof as required to satisfy the claims established) be sold by or under direction of the Master.

The judgment (often called a Master's Decree of Foreclosure) will contain a legal description of the property being sold, a provision for the necessary legal advertisement, the time and location of the sale, and notice of any senior liens, taxes or other rights to which the property to be sold is subject.

All Master’s Decrees and related documents can be viewed on the county's home page, www.charlestoncounty.org, click on Clerk of Court, , click on Online Case Search, Click on CONTINUE, type in the characters and click SUBMIT, click on CIVIL CASES AND LIS PENDENS, enter Defendant’s name or TMS#, click on SEARCH, case will come up, click on DOCKET, look for MASTERS ORDER & JUDGMENT OF FORECLOSURE & SALE, click on page icon and the document will appear. If the document does not appear you need to download Active X (http://www3.charlestoncounty.org/docs/CoC/newhelp.html).  All legal ads in the newspaper also will have the terms of the sale and are run for three consecutive weeks in a local newspaper, usually the Post and Courier.

Sales are held the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at 11 a.m. at the front entrance of the Charleston County Judicial Center located at 100 Broad Street in downtown Charleston.

The judgment also will specify the amount of good faith deposit necessary at the time of the sale, which is usually five percent of the successful bid at the sale. Compliance must be made with the bid by 4 p.m. that same day. This deposit is required to be in cash or certified funds and is not refundable. The plaintiff or any other party may be a purchaser on such sale. You have 30 days to comply with the balance of the bid with cash or certified funds.

Some Plaintiffs seek a deficiency judgment against the Defendant. This means the Plaintiff is not only foreclosing its mortgage but is seeking a money judgment too. Unless the pleadings state that no personal or deficiency judgment is demanded or any right to such judgment is expressly waived in writing, the bidding will not be closed upon the day of sale but remains open until the thirtieth day after such sale exclusive of the day of the sale. When the sale is re-opened for final bidding, the highest bid is accepted. The Plaintiff can only bid at the first sale.

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