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Tax Sale Atlas

Horry County, SC tax sales

How tax deed sales work in Horry County, seat of Conway: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.

New to tax sales? Read how South Carolina tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.

Next sale
Annual sale held in early December, with advertising in November.
Format
In person
Registration
Registration is required and carries a fee.
County office
(843) 915-5472
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 6, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Horry County sells delinquent taxes

No tax lien certificate sale

South Carolina counties sell the property itself under a tax execution. There is no tax lien certificate auction.

Tax deed sale

In person
Run by
Horry County Delinquent Tax Department, a division of the Horry County Treasurer's Office
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
Annual sale held in early December, with advertising in November.
Registration
Registration is required and carries a fee.
Sale list
Forfeited Land Commission property lists by year (parcels that drew no bid at the annual tax sale)
When it runs
Annual sale held in early December, with advertising in November. The county's delinquent tax page states: "Advertisement of delinquent real estate and mobile homes will be listed in a paper of general circulation within the county for three consecutive Thursdays prior to the tax sale" and "Tax Sale time, date and location will be listed in newspaper advertisement in November." The Treasurer's bidder information sheet for the most recently posted sale gives the day and time as "Tuesday, December 3, 2024 beginning at 9:00 a.m.", which is the first Tuesday in December. Confirm the current year's date with the Delinquent Tax Department, since the county posts it each fall.
Registration and deposit

Registration is required and carries a fee. The bidder information sheet states: "You must register in order to bid. Registration fee is $25.00, applications will be on our website. You may also register the day of the sale beginning at 7:30 a.m. Online pre-registration is encouraged. Once the sale starts a bidder will not be allowed to participate in the sale until they have completed their registration and have been issued a bidder number." Bidding is by numbered bidder card. Payment terms are "cash or certified funds only", with no personal or business checks and no wire transfers, and "All bids must be paid at the close of the sale." A defaulting bidder is liable for up to $500 in damages under S.C. Code 12-51-70.

Sale format and venue
The sale is conducted in person by the Delinquent Tax Collector at the Horry County Government and Judicial Building, 1301 2nd Ave, Conway. No online auction platform is named on any Horry County page, so treat the sale as a live courthouse-style auction and verify with the office before travelling. The county states plainly that it sells redeemable deeds and not liens: "We do not issue tax lien certificates at the sale or at any time during the year." The Delinquent Tax Collector opens each parcel with a bid on behalf of the Forfeited Land Commission covering all delinquent taxes, penalties and costs plus the current year's taxes, and "A $450.00 title search and deed prep charge will be added to each property sold." Properties are called in alphabetical order matching the newspaper advertisement. The sale list is advertised in The Horry Independent, The Carolina Forest Chronicle, The Loris Scene and/or The Sun News three Thursdays before the sale, is posted on horrycountysc.gov in October, and a printed copy sells for $10.00 at the Treasurer's Office. Redemption runs twelve months from the sale day and pays the bidder interest on the bid amount at 3% in the first quarter, 6% in the second, 9% in the third and 12% in the final quarter, capped at the amount of the opening bid. During the redemption period the winning bidder has no ownership rights and may not enter the property or contact the owner. Unredeemed life estate interests convey only the life estate. Parcels drawing no bid go to the Forfeited Land Commission, whose members are the County Treasurer, Auditor and Register of Deeds under S.C. Code Title 12 Chapter 59. The FLC sells by sealed bid rather than auction: bids go on the FLC Bid Form in a sealed envelope, are "accepted until 4:00 PM Daily (Monday-Friday)", the minimum covers all delinquent and current taxes plus penalties, costs and a 15% administrative fee, the deed is a quit claim on an "AS IS, WHERE IS" basis, and a defaulting bidder owes $500.00 plus court costs. FLC bid assignments can be bought during the redemption period, and FLC-owned parcels can be deeded once the one year and one day redemption period has run. Two cautions for buyers: the bidder registration form PDF hosted on the county site belongs to the Master in Equity foreclosure sale, not the tax sale, so use the Delinquent Tax Department's own tax sale registration application instead; and third-party lien listing sites that republish Horry County parcels do not run this sale and are not a registration route. In person, live open bid auction at the Horry County Government and Judicial Building, 1301 2nd Ave, Conway, SC 29526
Source: Horry County Delinquent Tax Department, Tax Sale Bidder Information sheet (PDF)· Verified Aug 6, 2026

Horry County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Horry County tax sale 2026 searches, use the county-run sources below rather than a copied parcel list, and confirm the parcel, registration cutoff, deposit, and payment deadline against the county before you bid.

  1. Get the advertised list

    Use Forfeited Land Commission property lists by year (parcels that drew no bid at the annual tax sale) for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.

  2. Register to bid

    Registration is required and carries a fee. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    Annual sale held in early December, with advertising in November. The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the county office before you go.

  4. Confirm with the office

    If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Horry County Delinquent Tax Department, a division of the Horry County Treasurer's Office as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Horry County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Forfeited Land Commission property lists by year (parcels that drew no bid at the annual tax sale). Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Registration is required and carries a fee. The bidder information sheet states: "You must register in order to bid. Registration fee is $25.00, applications will be on our website. You may also register the day of the sale beginning at 7:30 a.m. Online pre-registration is encouraged. Once the sale starts a bidder will not be allowed to participate in the sale until they have completed their registration and have been issued a bidder number." Bidding is by numbered bidder card. Payment terms are "cash or certified funds only", with no personal or business checks and no wire transfers, and "All bids must be paid at the close of the sale." A defaulting bidder is liable for up to $500 in damages under S.C. Code 12-51-70.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the South Carolina due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth.

  4. Set a walk-away number

    Work out what the parcel is actually worth with the rural land value estimator, then turn it into a ceiling with the tax deed max-bid calculator.

Over-the-counter (leftover) purchases

South Carolina has no over-the-counter certificate list. Parcels that draw no bid above the mandatory forfeited land commission bid are struck to that county commission, which is made up of the treasurer, the auditor, and the clerk of court or register of deeds. The commission may assign its bid at any time before the title deed is made, for no less than the taxes, penalties, and costs the property sold for. The chairman or a designee may accept sealed bids for assignments for a designated period, after which assignments go first come, first served, and each county keeps a list of available forfeited land commission properties. Several counties run that as a scheduled second sale rather than a standing counter: Charleston County puts the parcels left over from the annual tax sale into a sealed-bid silent auction about a month later and publishes the list only while that sale is open. Ask the delinquent tax office where the list lives and what the commission's current terms are.

New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work.

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County offices

Tax sale office

Horry County Delinquent Tax Department (Horry County Treasurer's Office)

(843) 915-5472

1301 Second Avenue, Conway, SC 29526. Mailing: P.O. Box 1828, Conway, SC 29528

Official website

County notes

  • The Delinquent Tax Department is a sub-department of the Horry County Treasurer's Office and handles collection of past due taxes under S.C. Code 12-51-40.
  • County-stated delinquency calendar: taxes are delinquent March 17, delinquent notices mail April 1 or soon after, certified notices follow 30 days later, and levy notices are posted from roughly May through October.
  • Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm, at 1301 Second Avenue in Conway.
  • Main Treasurer's Office line is (843) 915-5470 with a mailing address of P.O. Box 1237, Conway, SC 29528. The Delinquent Tax line (843) 915-5472 is the one to use for tax sale questions.
  • Forfeited Land Commission members listed by the county: Tina Hardee (Auditor), Marion D. Foxworth III (Register of Deeds, Chair), Angie Jones (Treasurer), and Larry Roscoe (Assessor's Office, Secretary). FLC bid submissions are addressed to the Horry County Assessor, 1301 Second Avenue Suite 1C08, Conway, SC 29526.
  • The FLC publishes annual property lists as spreadsheets covering 2020 through 2025, plus an interactive FLC Bid Map hosted on the county GIS portal.
  • The bidder information sheet currently posted by the county is written for the December 3, 2024 sale. The procedures it describes are the county's standing rules, but the sale date, time and location for the current year are published fresh each fall in the newspaper advertisement.
  • Horry County directs bidders to its GIS Online Mapping and Property Search for due diligence and states that each property is sold as is with no warranty of value, title or liens.

South Carolina rules

Redemption
The redemption clock runs twelve months from the date of the sale. Neither more than forty-five days nor less than twenty days before it ends, the delinquent tax officer must mail a notice by certified mail, return receipt requested and restricted delivery, to the defaulting taxpayer and to any grantee, mortgagee, or lessee of record, stating the amount needed to redeem and the date the tax title passes. Certified mail returned undelivered is not grounds to withhold the tax title. If nobody redeems, the officer makes a tax title to the purchaser within thirty days or as soon after that as possible. Personal property sold at a delinquent tax sale has no redemption period at all. A mobile or manufactured home runs on the same twelve-month clock, but it must not be moved from its location during that year without notice to the purchaser and the delinquent tax collector, and the redeeming owner or lienholder also owes the purchaser rent of up to one twelfth of the last completed tax year's taxes for each month between sale and redemption, with a ten dollar monthly minimum. If the official in charge discovers before the tax title passes that a required step was not properly performed, the official may void the sale and refund the bidder the amount paid plus the interest the county actually earned on it.
Deed deposit
South Carolina fixes no percentage deposit. The successful bidder pays the full amount of the bid on the day of the sale in legal tender, meaning cash, a cashier's check, a certified check, or a money order. If a defaulting taxpayer has more than one item advertised, the officer stops selling once enough has been raised to cover the delinquent taxes, assessments, penalties, and costs.
Surplus proceeds
If the sale produces more cash than the taxes, assessments, penalties, and costs, the overage first pays any outstanding municipal tax liens on the property. What remains belongs to the owner of record immediately before the end of the redemption period, to be claimed or assigned according to law. Those sums are payable ninety days after execution of the deed unless another claimant files a judicial action inside that window, and they escheat to the general fund of the governing body if neither claimed nor assigned within five years of the sale. Once a tax deed has been issued, Section 12-51-60 requires the delinquent tax collector to notify the defaulting taxpayer and that owner of record in writing that an excess is due, mailed the same certified way the officer took possession, and the cost of that notice counts as a cost of the sale.
Governing statute
S.C. Code Ann. Title 12, Chapter 51

A tax deed does not convey marketable title. Most buyers file a quiet title action before they can resell or insure the property. See the due diligence guide.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Horry County, South Carolina sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Tax deeds. South Carolina sells no tax lien certificates to investors; the county sells the property itself at a public tax sale.

How often does Horry County hold tax deed sales?

Horry County holds its tax deed sale once a year. Annual sale held in early December, with advertising in November. Each sale is scheduled and advertised in advance, so check the county's tax deed calendar for the next posted date.

I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?

Often yes, by paying the overdue taxes, interest, and costs before the deadline. South Carolina's redemption rule: 12 months from the date of the delinquent tax sale. Call the Horry County Delinquent Tax Department, a division of the Horry County Treasurer's Office as early as possible for your exact payoff and options; deadlines are strict. Free help: lawhelp.org lists legal aid programs, and consumerfinance.gov lists HUD-approved housing counselors.

Where can I find the Horry County tax sale list?

Horry County posts its tax sale list at horrycountysc.gov. Lists go up ahead of each sale and keep changing until the sale date, so confirm every parcel against the county's legal advertisement before you bid.

Verified Aug 6, 2026 against official county and state sources.

Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.

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