We are the buyer in these sales, not your agent: Dorman Capital LLC (NCREC #C38617) buys houses for cash for its own account, including houses with a foreclosure already filed, and never charges a seller a fee, deposit, or advance payment. Titus Dorman, who runs the company, is a licensed NC real estate broker (#282463); there is more about us here.
This is general information from a real estate company, not a law firm, and it is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Talk to a HUD-approved housing counselor, and ideally an attorney, before you talk to any buyer, us included, and confirm your own dates with the Clerk of Superior Court.
One process, two possible courthouses
Most home foreclosures in this state are power-of-sale foreclosures. The Clerk of Superior Court holds a hearing and authorizes a sale, a trustee auctions the house, and a 10-day upset bid period follows before anything is final. You can generally pay the loan off, including through a sale, until that period runs out. The full timeline, every notice, and the federal servicer rules are on our North Carolina foreclosure guide.
The Clerk who handles yours is the one in the county where the house is. Not where the lender is, and not where you live now. For Concord, Harrisburg, Mount Pleasant, Midland and the Cabarrus side of Kannapolis, that is the Cabarrus Clerk, at the courthouse at 61 Union Street South, (704) 262-5500 (hours and mailing address). For the Rowan side of Kannapolis, it is the Rowan Clerk in Salisbury, (704) 797-3001. Either office can tell you what has been filed in your case and when, at no charge, though it cannot give legal advice.
Reading your file on the eCourts Portal
You don’t have to drive to Union Street to see where your case stands. Both counties’ court records are searchable on the state’s eCourts Portal, linked from nccourts.gov/portal. Search by your own name. A mortgage foreclosure before the Clerk is filed as a special proceeding, and the papers that matter usually appear in this order:
- Notice of hearing. The date and time you can appear before the Clerk. Go, and bring your counselor if you have one.
- Order authorizing the sale. The Clerk’s findings. The 10-day window to appeal runs from this order.
- Notice of sale. The date, time and place of the auction.
- Report of sale. Filed after the auction. The 10-day upset bid period runs from the filing of this report, not from the auction, so this is the date to watch.
If a paper you expect isn’t showing, call the Clerk rather than assume it was never filed.
Where the notice posts, and where the sale happens
State law requires the notice of sale to be posted where the Clerk designates for at least 20 days, published weekly for two consecutive weeks in a qualified newspaper circulating in the county, and mailed to you at least 20 days ahead (G.S. 45-21.17). The sale must fall between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on a day the Clerk’s office is open (G.S. 45-21.23). What the statutes do not do is name a spot: the place is whatever your notice of sale states, consistent with the deed of trust. People assume “the courthouse steps,” and they are often right, but read your notice rather than assume.
County sales are a separate thing. The Cabarrus Sheriff’s public auction site says its real-property auctions are held on the front steps of the courthouse at 61 Union Street South, and the county lists its tax-foreclosure sales at the same address, on the date and at the time the court assigns. Neither is a mortgage foreclosure.
A Cabarrus tax foreclosure runs on a different track
Unpaid property taxes can end in foreclosure too, and in Cabarrus the county’s Tax Collections office brings those cases, under deadlines and notices that are not the mortgage rules above; our statewide guide explains the two tax-foreclosure procedures North Carolina allows. By the county’s own description, a 10-day upset bid period follows its sale, and upset bids are filed in person at the Clerk of Superior Court’s office, Room 104, each raising the last bid by 5 percent, with a minimum increase of $750.
This comes up more than it used to. Even after the rate cut that came with the 2024 revaluation, a house that rose by the county average carries a county bill roughly 30 percent higher than before (the revaluation figures). If you are behind on county taxes, call Tax Collections well before the case reaches court and ask what your options are.
HOA dues can end in foreclosure
The subdivision belt out toward Poplar Tent and the airport is association country, and North Carolina lets an HOA foreclose. Under G.S. 47F-3-116, once an assessment has gone 30 days unpaid, and after mailing you a statement at least 15 days in advance, the association can file a claim of lien with the Clerk of Superior Court. When the assessment is 90 days or more past due, the board can vote to foreclose that lien by power of sale, the same kind of sale a mortgage lender uses.
There are limits. A lien made up only of fines, and the interest and attorney fees tied to those fines, cannot be foreclosed by power of sale; that takes a court case. In an uncontested case, the association’s attorney fees and trustee commission together are capped at $1,200, not counting costs. A lien the association does not act on within three years of filing is extinguished. And these rules reach subdivisions created before 1999, for anything that happened on or after January 1, 1999 (G.S. 47F-1-102).
An HOA balance is usually small next to a mortgage, so it gets ignored. Ask the association for the balance in writing, and have an attorney look at any claim of lien before the 90-day mark.
Free help in this county, before you call any buyer
Call a counselor first. It costs nothing, and it is the one call where nobody has an interest but you.
- Prosperity Unlimited, Inc., 1660 Garnet Street, Kannapolis, (704) 933-7405. A HUD-approved housing counseling agency that lists mortgage delinquency and default resolution counseling, and the only approved agency HUD’s North Carolina list shows in Cabarrus.
- State Home Foreclosure Prevention Project, through the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, at 1-888-442-8188. Callers are connected to a housing counselor at no charge, at any stage of foreclosure, and counselors can work with your servicer for you and refer income-eligible homeowners to free legal help.
- Legal Aid of North Carolina, Charlotte office, 5525 Albemarle Road, Suite 100, Charlotte, (704) 594-8662, weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It serves eligible low-income clients in Cabarrus, Stanly and Union counties; Legal Aid’s current office list does not show a separate Concord location. The statewide intake line, 1-866-219-5262, takes calls weekdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bring every paper you have been served or mailed.
- Rowan side of Kannapolis. Legal Aid’s office list puts Rowan County under its Greensboro office, toll-free at 1-800-951-2257.
- In Charlotte. HUD’s list also shows approved agencies offering foreclosure counseling in Charlotte, including Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, (704) 376-1600, and DreamKey Partners, (704) 342-0933.
A counselor can call your servicer, help you put together a complete loss-mitigation application, and tell you what a modification or repayment plan might look like. We can’t do any of that. If the house is worth less than the payoff and a short payoff is the only way a sale could close, that negotiation belongs to you, your attorney, or your HUD-approved counselor. Anyone who wants money up front to deal with your lender for you is a warning sign.
Selling before the sale, and the lines we hold
A sale that closes before the foreclosure is final pays the loan off through the closing, and whatever is left after the payoff and closing costs is yours, but only if the closing funds before the last upset bid period runs out, so your calendar matters more than anything we say. If a cash sale fits, we walk the house once, send a written cash offer within 48 hours at no cost and no obligation, and close in our own name through a licensed North Carolina closing attorney, who orders the written payoff; there is no fee of any kind to you. A cash as-is price is below retail, and if you have equity and time, listing with a broker will usually net you more than any cash offer, ours included. Nobody can promise to stop a foreclosure, us included.
We do not contact your lender or servicer on your behalf. Nor do we arrange or negotiate short sales, rent the house back to you, offer you a buy-back option, or let you stay on after closing; if you need time to move, we move the closing date instead, and our statewide guide explains why North Carolina law draws these lines.
How it works — three steps.
Reach out
Call or text (704) 706-0124, or use the form below. Two minutes, no obligation.
Get your cash offer
A fair, no-pressure cash offer within 48 hours — often the same day.
Close on your timeline
As little as 14 days, or whatever date works for you. We handle the paperwork.