Charleston County ran a public tax-sale auction in which county staff and auctioneers called hundreds of parcels and mobile-home lots, selling dozens of properties across a wide price range. Speaker 1, the auctioneer, opened with procedural guidance for new bidders and explained how the county’s one-year redemption period and interest calculations work.

The auctioneer told attendees that the one-year redemption period is divided into four quarters and that interest accrues at about 3% per quarter but is capped at the amount of tax shown on the sale list. He also warned bidders there is a $500 fee to withdraw from a winning bid and said payments must be made at the Charleston County Public Service Building on Leeds Avenue. "All payments will need to be done at at the Charleston County, Public Service Building," Speaker 1 said during the opening remarks.

Most of the day consisted of the auctioneer calling item numbers, announcing starting bids and calling for increments; incoming bids were acknowledged by bidder card numbers and the auctioneer declared parcels "sold" as the highest bid was reached. Prices varied widely during the sale. Several individual parcels reached six- and seven-figure totals: a parcel sold for $720,000 (announced during the mid-portion of the auction), another reached $610,000, and one parcel sold for $1,200,000 later in the session. The auctioneer noted staffing and health challenges during the previous year and thanked staff and attendees for their patience.

Near the end of the session, Speaker 4 announced the start of the mobile-home sequence and ran the mobile-home lots (sequence numbers beginning at 249). Those lots were offered with lower starting bids and smaller incremental increases; the mobile-home sequence was handled distinctly from the parcel sales but followed the same public-bidding format.

The auction closed after dozens of items were sold. The auctioneer reiterated that bidders should verify their lists and bidder numbers after the sale and complete payments promptly to avoid forfeiture or placement of parcels into a sealed-bid process managed by the county’s Forfeited Land Commission.