How to Buy Tax Lien Properties in Columbia, SC

To buy tax lien properties in Columbia, SC, you register as a bidder with the Richland County Treasurer, show up to the county’s annual tax sale with certified funds, outbid other buyers on the parcels you want, and then wait twelve months to see whether the former owner pays you back with interest or walks away and lets you take the deed. The process is governed by South Carolina Code Title 12, Chapter 51, and one procedural misstep — by you or by the county — can unwind the whole investment.

What You’re Actually Buying

South Carolina does not sell the property at a tax sale. It sells a tax sale certificate: a legal claim against the parcel for the unpaid taxes, penalties, and costs. The former owner keeps the right to redeem for twelve months after the sale by paying the county your full bid plus statutory interest.¹ If they redeem, you get your money back with interest and your involvement ends. If no one redeems, the county issues you a tax deed. Richland County estimates the full timeline at roughly fifteen months from the sale date to the deed being recorded.²

During the waiting period you cannot enter, rent, or improve the property. You are holding a piece of paper and watching the calendar.

Due Diligence Before You Bid

Richland County’s GIS department publishes a Tax Sale Parcel Viewer that is updated nightly in the weeks before the sale.³ It tells you which parcels are scheduled. It does not tell you what you are walking into. For every property you’re serious about, pull records from the Register of Deeds and the Assessor and check:

Existing mortgages and judgment liens. A tax deed generally wipes out most private liens, but the tax collector must give mortgagees at least forty-five days’ written notice before the sale. A mortgagee who was not properly notified can challenge your deed, and the lien may survive.⁴
Federal tax liens. These do not reliably disappear at a tax sale. If the IRS filed a lien more than 30 days before the sale and the government was not given at least 25 days’ written notice, the property is sold subject to the federal lien. Even with proper notice, the IRS has 120 days after the sale or the state redemption period, whichever is longer, to redeem the property itself. Search the federal lien index before you bid.⁵⁶
Condition. You will not get inside before the deed is issued. Drive by. Tax sale properties skew toward long-neglected parcels.
Environmental exposure. A contaminated site can cost more to clean than the land is worth.

Mobile Homes Are Titled Separately

In South Carolina, mobile and manufactured homes may be titled apart from the land they sit on. A listed parcel can include only the land, only the structure, or both. The tax collector’s notice procedure for mobile homes specifies the year, make, size, and serial number of the unit.⁷ Confirm with the Treasurer and the DMV what the sale actually transfers. Buying the land without the home, or the home without the land, creates a mess that is expensive to untangle.

Registering and Paying

You must register as a bidder with the Richland County Treasurer before the sale. Registration is done through the county’s online bidder application, and once you submit it, you cannot change the name on file. Deeds and refund checks will be issued in exactly the name you entered.² Registration deadlines shift year to year, so check the Treasurer’s site early.

Payment is due the day of the sale in cash, cashier’s check, or wired funds. No personal checks. No credit cards. If you win and fail to pay, you forfeit the bids, face a $500 fine per bid plus court costs, and are banned from future Richland County tax sales.² Bring more certified funds than you expect to need, broken into several denominations so you can combine them to cover whatever you win.

At the Auction

Richland County runs the sale annually, but the format has varied — in-person, online, and sealed-bid in different years.⁸ Confirm the current year’s date, format, and location on the Treasurer’s website.

Each property opens at a floor bid set by the tax collector on behalf of the Forfeited Land Commission, equal to the total unpaid taxes, penalties, assessments, and costs on the parcel.⁹ Bidding runs up from there, highest bidder wins, and you pay the full bid in approved funds that day.¹⁰ You receive a tax sale certificate. Keep the original somewhere safe; you will need it to claim the deed.

The Overbid Trap

Set a hard ceiling before you walk in. Statutory interest is capped at the amount of the Forfeited Land Commission’s floor bid, so if you bid $30,000 on a parcel where the delinquent taxes totaled $5,000, your interest is capped at $5,000 no matter what the percentage schedule would otherwise produce.¹ Any amount you bid above the floor is called an overage. If a tax deed is issued and the former owner never claims the excess, the overage escheats to the county’s general fund five years after the auction.¹¹ Overbidding inflates your out-of-pocket exposure and dilutes your return if the property gets redeemed.

If the Owner Redeems: What You Earn

The former owner, any mortgage holder, judgment creditor, or grantee has twelve months — “one year and one day” in Richland County’s phrasing — to redeem by paying the county your bid plus a lump-sum interest amount keyed to when they pay:²

Months 1 through 3: 3% of the bid
Months 4 through 6: 6% of the bid
Months 7 through 9: 9% of the bid
Months 10 through 12: 12% of the bid

These are lump sums, not annualized rates. An owner who redeems on day 32 pays the same 3% as one who redeems on day 89.¹ Later redemption produces a better return, up to a 12% maximum. Remember the cap on overbids when you model your yield.

If the owner redeems, your money comes back from the county with the applicable interest, and you are done.

If Nobody Redeems: Getting the Deed

When the twelve months end without a redemption, the delinquent tax collector prepares a tax deed and delivers it to the Register of Deeds within thirty days, or as soon as possible after.¹¹ You pay the actual cost of deed preparation, documentary stamps, and the recording fee before the county files it. The deed names the former owner and any grantee of record and documents the dates of posting and certified notice, including whether notices were received.

Recording establishes you as the legal owner. The deed is prima facie evidence of good title, meaning procedure is presumed to have been followed.¹² Presumption is not immunity. The former owner can still sue, and any defect in the county’s notice process gives them a foothold.

The Two-Year Clock

Any action to recover the property must be filed within two years of the sale.¹² Twelve months after the redemption period expires — twenty-four months total from the sale — the tax deed becomes incontestable on procedural or any other grounds.¹ Until that window closes, your title is defensible but not settled.

After You Have the Deed

Quiet Title and Insurance

A tax deed is not marketable title. Most title insurance companies will not insure a tax sale property without either a quiet title action or a specialized title certification. A quiet title action is a lawsuit that clears competing claims and produces a court judgment confirming your ownership. In South Carolina these typically run six to twelve months and cost several thousand dollars in attorney fees. Build that time and expense into your plan from the start if you intend to sell or refinance.

Removing Occupants

A deed does not empty the house. If the former owner or someone with no lease is still there, you file an ejectment action asking the court to confirm your ownership and order them out. If a pre-sale tenant with a lease is in the property, the path runs through magistrate court, which can issue a rule requiring the tenant to vacate or show cause within ten days.¹³ Using the wrong procedure wastes time and legal fees; an attorney who handles tax deed properties can route you correctly.

Federal Redemption Still Looms

Even after state redemption expires, an IRS lien that survived the sale carries its own federal redemption right separate from the state’s. The federal window runs 120 days after the sale or the state redemption period, whichever is longer, which in South Carolina means the twelve-month state period controls.⁶ This is where new investors most often underestimate exposure.

Taxes on What You Earn

Interest paid by the county on a redeemed certificate is ordinary income in the year you receive it. Report it on your federal return for that tax year.

If you take the deed, your basis in the property is generally what you paid: your winning bid plus purchase-related costs such as deed preparation fees, documentary stamps, and the recording fee.¹⁴ A quiet title action and subsequent improvements increase your adjusted basis. Because tax sale properties are usually acquired well below market, the eventual gain on sale can be sizable. Holding more than a year qualifies the gain for long-term capital gains rates; a year or less is taxed at ordinary income rates.

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 12-51-90 – Redemption of Real Property; Assignment of Purchaser’s Interest
2
Richland County. Richland County Tax Sale Bidder Application
3
Richland County GIS Department. RCGeo Tax Sale Parcel Viewer
4
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 12-49-1120 – Notice to Mortgagee of Tax Sale
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 7425 – Discharge of Liens
6
IRS. Internal Revenue Manual 5.17.2 – Federal Tax Liens – Section 5.17.2.8.2.3
7
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 12-49-1190 – Tax Sale of Mobile or Manufactured Home; Service of Notice
8
Richland County. Tax Sale – Richland County SC
9
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 12-51-55 – Required Bid on Behalf of Forfeited Land Commission
10
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 12-51-60 – Payment by Successful Bidder; Receipt; Disposition of Proceeds
11
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 12 Chapter 51 – Alternate Procedure for Collection of Property Taxes – Section 12-51-130
12
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 12 Chapter 51 – Alternate Procedure for Collection of Property Taxes – Section 12-51-160
13
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 27-37-20 – Ejectment of Tenant
14
IRS. Topic No. 703, Basis of Assets