Charleston Delinquent Tax Sale In a Nutshell

Every county has costs for keeping the it running for its citizens every day - police, fire, etc.  These costs are paid for out of property taxes and sometimes people don't pay their property taxes; the costs don't go away when taxes aren't there to cover them, though.  Every county in South Carolina is allowed by law to hold a Tax Sale to cover those costs.  Each year, on the first Monday of October or November (alternating annually), Charleston County holds a Delinquent Tax Sale, essentially an auction of liens.  The annual sale is for Real Property, either homes or bare land; Mobile Home Tax Sales are held throughout the year. We bid exclusively on bare land, w/ rare exception; we have no desire to take anyone's home out from under them or become unwilling landlords.  (I don't think people who owned a house but now are forced to pay rent on it to a stranger are going to be the best renters one could ask for, putting myself in their shoes.)
Bids start at an amount slightly more than 2 years' worth of taxes and fees on a property whose taxes have gone unpaid from the previous fiscal year.  The winning bid can be whatever someone decides the property's worth to them; sometimes the winning bid is in the millions.  
The owner of the property now has a whole other year to pay their taxes and late fees, (or 'redeem the property', as it's called) and more than 90% do, regardless of how the economy's doing.  Should the property's owners not redeem in the time allowed, the property is conveyed to the winning bidder.  This can wind up taking up to 6 months and include more fees for the bidder in the way of deed processing and paperwork delivery fees but in the end the property's yours for typically far less than market value.  You can build on it, sell it, take out an equity loan against, etc.  It's yours, and of course so are the property taxes on it.  You'll owe a year's taxes as soon as it's conveyed to you.
If the property is redeemed the bidder gets their bid amount back plus 3, 6, 9 or 12% back depending on when it was redeemed; 1-3 months after the Tax Sale, 3-6, 6-9 or 9-12.  However, the interest will not exceed the original bid amount, so if any of those percents are more than the bid amount only the bid amount will come back to the bidder on top of their original bid.  See page 3 here for a clear explanation of what took me three Tax Sales to get straight in my head. 
The Sale itself can take several days, at least three if not a fourth depending on the number of properties to be bid on.  That number changes as the sale goes on, as often there are folks who owe on more than one property but a winning bid may cover all the outstanding costs for all their properties; in that case the remaining properties are taken off the bidding list.  Likewise, at the end of the Sale there are properties no one bid on  from the year before that are put up for bid yet again.
The main reason we participate in the Tax Sale is for the interest; there's not a savings account or certificate of deposit out there that will return 3% in a year (much less 12%) w/ no fees and be guaranteed by law.  There are several people who deliberately win bids at the Charleston sale knowing they'll be paid off within a few weeks at 3% return; then those same people go to the Dorchester County Tax Sale w/ even more money in their pocket.
The only downside is one you'd run into w/ a certificate of deposit; your money's tied up and untouchable.  Still, you can 'assign' your winning bid, basically sell it to someone else who thinks it will pay off even later for more money if you need your cash quicker.
Our first year (2007) we had a winning bid of $4000, all the money we could scrape together; it paid off nearly a year later and we made $480.  Last year, 4 of the 7 winning bids from 2009's sale didn't redeem their properties and we're in the process of getting those 4 pieces of  bare land, several acres in total, conveyed to us.  We don't know yet what we'll do w/ them but since we intend to move to Charleston sooner than later we have several options available to us.
How you pay a winning bid - certified funds, including cash.  Also, if you have a winning bid from the previous sale that redeems within a month or so of the next sale you can ask to have that money be held as a voucher for the next sale. 
On the one hand I always hate to call the Delinquent Tax Office b/c I know they're very busy people; on the other hand I've had nothing but great attitudes and help when speaking w/ them.  If I thought they'd accept it I'd send them flowers and chocolate!

Keeping busy, keeping sane, looking ahead

A challenge for spouses of deployed persons is keeping it together by keeping busy.  With no kids or outside job to occupy me at the moment (looking forward to the latter once I know what hours my Handsome Man [hereafter HM] will have), I have only the cats and personal well-being to look after on a day to day basis.  Not that there isn't a temptation to get a bag of baby clothes from Goodwill and dress the cats up, Lord knows, sometimes those bags are only a dollar and the entertainment value is beyond measure.  And who knows, gentle reader, perhaps that day will come.

There would be photos, have no fear.  I'd never leave you out of that.

Hobbies are a great way to keep the mind distracted.  One thing that went from my hobby to a full-on trait is frugality, sometimes even austerity (as austere as an American with every utility they could want at their disposal, save cable TV).  Our goal is to return to Charleston, SC, from whence I came when I married HM.  No matter if we get stationed there and never leave or if we have to wait until retirement, it's where we'll wind up.  I have a pinky-swear to hold him to, on pain of having to listen to me endlessly kvetch.  Once in Charleston we hope to have a salvage and demolition business; this will take a substantial initial outlay.  This is the end of my frugal means - to lay our financial foundation as best we can for the second half of our lives.  Efforts must be made now, it's too easy to put off preparing; suddenly you find you're reacting to your circumstances rather than creating them.  Luckily, many small efforts over several years adds up; that's what I aim to do.  With this blog you'll be along for the ride.