Selling a house in Richland County

Where the paperwork happens, what the deadlines are, and what actually slows a sale down here.

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Richland County is unusual among the counties we buy in for a reason that matters most when you are under time pressure: it does not publish a fixed tax sale date. Deeds and estates are convenient, both at 2020 Hampton Street in the same Administration Building, which is not true of Kershaw or Aiken. But where Lexington will tell you November the second a year in advance, Richland says the sale runs in the fall and leaves it there. That single difference changes how you plan. In Lexington you count backwards from a date. In Richland you call 803-576-2250 and get told. The other thing worth knowing here is the split personality of the county's housing. The median lands near two hundred seventy-six thousand at about forty days to contract, but that number averages downtown and Northwest Columbia against North Columbia and the Southeastern side, and those are not the same market in any sense that helps you. A house that draws six offers in Shandon will sit for a season three miles away. We buy across all of it, which is the practical reason we can put a number on a house an agent would rather not list.

The three offices that decide your timeline

Deeds. Richland County Register of Deeds, Administration Building, 2020 Hampton Street, Columbia, SC 29204. Every transfer of Richland County property is recorded here. Until it is recorded, it has not really happened.

Estates. Richland County Probate Court, Administration Building, 2020 Hampton Street, Columbia, SC 29204. If the owner has died, this office appoints whoever has authority to sign. No appointment, no sale.

Delinquent taxes. The county's tax sale runs in the fall. If you are behind, that date sets your real deadline regardless of what anyone else tells you.

What the Richland County market is actually doing

Around $276,000 median and roughly 40 days to contract (trailing 3 months to September 2026, Redfin, retrieved 2026-09-05). Read that days-on-market number carefully: it is time to a signed contract, not time to money in your account. Financing, appraisal and repair negotiation come after it.

What slows sales down here

In our experience the three that recur in Richland County are an estate nobody has opened, a deed on record that is a generation out of date, and a house that will not pass an appraisal because of the roof or the septic. All three are survivable. All three take longer than people expect, which is why it is worth starting before you are under pressure.