County to Foreclose - Hard Money for Auction?

If you buy via a foreclosure sale in NC and you are the high bidder, you will need to deposit 5% of your bid with the clerk of court in the county where the property is located. Your bid will be subject to a 10-day "upset bid" period where any buyer can bid up your price by the greater of $750 or 5% and then deposit 5% of that new price. That restarts the upset bid period for another 10 days. That process continues until no upset bids are filed for 10 days.

As others have mentioned, if you purchase through an online auction, you will have to abide by the auctioneer's rules but you are going to need funds to make an initial deposit. A hard money loan may be an option to secure purchase monies for the property but it will be difficult for the initial deposit unless you have some other acceptable collateral to pledge as security for that loan before you take title to the property.