Sheriff's Sales of real property are held on Friday mornings at 10:00 a.m. in the 2nd floor entry plaza of the County-City Building. If the time set for sale is other than 10:00 a.m. it will not be conducted by the Sheriff and you should contact your information source for questions. Other persons also conduct real property sales in this manner, and they may take place at the same time and place.
Sheriff's Sales are 'judicial foreclosures' and the order to sell comes from the Superior Court Clerk. We are selling only the judgment debtor's interest in the real estate. It is subject to all existing liens and encumbrances. To find out any lien information, you may need to do a title search through a company authorized to do this. We have limited information about the sale property since we do not need to know any information other than the address and legal description to conduct our sales. It is not possible for potential purchasers to view the interior of the structure prior to the sale.
The property sold may have a Redemption Period from eight months to one year. Redemption means that the owner may pay back the amount bid at the sale plus interest, taxes, etc. in order to 'redeem' the property and become the owner again. If you have legal questions about this procedure, you should contact your attorney for direction, or read the Revised Code of the State of Washington pertaining to Redemption.
The sales of real property conducted by the Sheriff are usually published in the Tacoma Daily Index newspaper for four consecutive weeks prior to any sale. Sometimes, we publish in another newspaper at the request of the creditor's attorney.
If you bid at the sale, you must provide cash or cashier's check made payable to the court clerk's office issuing the Writ of Execution or Order of Sale by 2:00 p.m. or the property will go to the next highest bidder. NO EXCEPTIONS. There is usually an opening bid from the judgment creditor; however this figure is not available until a day or two before the sale date.
