Mississippi Real Estate Laws Every Seller Should Know
Mississippi sells through a trustee, and it leaves the door open late: you can generally stop the sale up to the moment it happens, and for less than most people are told. Here is what generally applies before you sell, in plain language.
Before Any State Clock Starts: the Federal 120-Day Rule
Every state timeline on this page sits behind a federal one, and it is the single most
useful thing to know if you have missed payments. Under
Regulation
X, 12 CFR 1024.41(f)(1), a mortgage servicer generally
“shall not make the first notice or filing” required for a judicial or
non-judicial foreclosure unless the borrower's mortgage loan obligation is
more than 120 days delinquent.
That is roughly four months of missed payments before the state process is even allowed to
begin. It is why a state sequence that looks alarmingly short on paper is usually longer in
practice than the statute alone suggests.
The exceptions, because they are real. The rule does not apply where the
foreclosure is based on a violation of a due-on-sale clause, or where the servicer is joining the
action of a superior or subordinate lienholder. Small servicers are not exempt from this
particular prohibition. Loan types and servicing arrangements vary, and some loans are outside
Regulation X altogether.
So treat 120 days as the general floor rather than a guarantee, and work from the dates on your
own paperwork. If a notice has arrived and you do not believe you are past that point, that is a
question worth putting to a HUD-approved housing counselor or an attorney before you do anything
else.
In Mississippi You Can Stop The Sale Right Up To The Sale
In Mississippi the useful deadline is the auction itself, and the amount it asks for is smaller than most
people are told.
Under Miss. Code Ann. 89-1-59, where a deed of trust or mortgage secures a series of notes or
installments and the whole debt has been accelerated for a missed payment, missed interest or
unpaid taxes or insurance, then “the debtor, or any interested
party, may at any time before a sale be made” stop that sale, or
stop a court proceeding to enforce the lien.
What it costs is the part worth reading twice. The statute says you pay the
amount of the note or installment “then due or past due by its terms”,
with accrued costs and attorneys' and trustees' fees
“on the amount actually past due by the terms of such instrument or lien, rather
than the amount accelerated”, plus any taxes or insurance premiums somebody else
has had to pay.
- The figure is the arrears, not the whole loan.
- The fees are calculated on the arrears too. If a servicer quotes you attorneys'
and trustees' fees worked out on the entire accelerated balance, that is the clause to point at.
- Anyone with an interest can pay it. A relative, a co-owner or a junior
lienholder. The money does not have to come from you.
Pay it and, in the words of the section, the acceleration is reinstated
“the same as if such amount not due by its terms had not been accelerated”.
What we are not saying. We are not telling you that this covers every lien in
every circumstance. The section is written around instruments securing a series of notes or
installments that contain an acceleration clause, which is the ordinary residential mortgage, and
your own instrument is what governs. If the arrears are within reach, curing is almost certainly a
better answer than selling to anybody, including us.
The federal rule above generally sits in front of this whole sequence. Free HUD-approved housing
counseling is available before you commit to anything, including to us.
Official source: Miss. Code Ann. §89-1-59
The Advertising Rule That Cannot Be Signed Away
Mississippi is blunt about how a sale has to be advertised, and about what happens if
it is not.
Under Miss. Code Ann. 89-1-55, land sold at public outcry under a deed of trust must be sold
in the county where the land is, or in the county where the grantor lives. The sale
must be advertised for three consecutive weeks preceding it, in a newspaper
published in the county or, if there is none, one of general circulation there, and by
posting one notice at the courthouse for the same period. The notice must
disclose the name of the original mortgagor.
And then this:
“No sale of lands under a deed of trust or mortgage shall be valid unless such sale shall
have been advertised as herein provided for, regardless of any contract to the
contrary.”
That last clause matters because so much else in a mortgage can be varied by agreement. This
cannot. The section also says that an error in the mode of sale serious enough to make the sale void
“will not be cured by any statute of limitations”, except as to the ten-year
adverse possession statute.
What we are not saying, and this is important. We are not telling you that your
sale was invalid, or that you have a defence. Whether a particular advertisement complied is a
question of fact, and it is a question for a Mississippi attorney rather than for a company that
buys houses. What we are telling you is what the statute required, so that you keep the newspaper,
note the dates, and have something to take to a lawyer.
Official source: Miss. Code Ann. §89-1-55
Two Things About Who Acts, And What A Sale Costs
The first is uncomfortable, and we would rather you heard it from us. People
often assume the trustee named in a Mississippi deed of trust is a neutral referee, and that a
lender bidding at its own sale is improper. Miss. Code Ann. 89-1-63 says otherwise, in terms.
Section 89-1-63(2) provides that any person may be appointed trustee and
“shall not be disqualified” because of their relationship to another party to
the deed of trust, and that the beneficiary or mortgagee may purchase at the sale,
which is likewise not invalid because of that relationship. Section 89-1-63(3) lets the holder
appoint or substitute a trustee with or without the mortgagor's permission. None of
that is a scandal. It is simply the system you are in, and planning around a different one is how
people lose time they did not have.
The second is one of the most practical rules in the state. Under Miss. Code
Ann. 89-1-29, a conveyance, mortgage, deed of trust or other encumbrance on a
homestead “shall not be valid or binding unless signed by the
spouse of the owner if the owner is married and living with the spouse”, or by an
attorney in fact for that spouse. Even where only one of you is on the title. The
same section sets out a chancery court route where a spouse has been adjudicated incompetent. If you
are married and selling a Mississippi homestead, both signatures are part of the transaction, and
that is worth establishing on the first call rather than at closing. We have not read the sections
that define the limits of a homestead, so ask your closing attorney whether yours is one.
What a sale costs you. Mississippi does not impose a state transfer
tax on the sale, so that line simply does not appear in your arithmetic as it would in most
states, where it can be a percentage of the whole price. We state that as an absence rather than
citing a section, because we have not read one that establishes it. Recording fees and the title
work still apply, and we have not established whether any county or city charges a local fee, so
your closing agent should confirm what applies to your transaction.
Official sources: Miss. Code Ann. §89-1-63 and §89-1-29
General information, not advice. This section describes Mississippi practice in general terms and was checked in September 2026 against the 2025 Mississippi Code as published by Justia. Laws, timelines and local procedures change, and how any of it applies to your property depends on facts we have not seen. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, and it is no substitute for talking to a Mississippi attorney, accountant or HUD-approved housing counselor about your own situation.
