National reference
Tax sale bidding methods by state
States run tax sales in very different ways. In some the interest rate is bid down; in others the price is bid up as a premium, or winners are drawn at random. The method decides how you compete and what your real return looks like. See bidding methods explained for how each one works.
| State | Main bidding method | How it works here | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Varies by county | Depends which system the county is running that tax year (county's annual choice, Code of Alabama Section 40-10-180). On the tax-lien-auction path: bid-down-interest, opening at 12% per annum and descending in 1% increments to a floor of 0%, ties at 0% broken by random draw (Sections 40-10-186, 40-10-197(j)). On the older tax-deed/"sale of land" path: the property itself is auctioned to the highest cash bidder (premium bid). | Code of Alabama Section 40-10-180 (Choice of Remedy), as cited by Mobile County Revenue Commission Tax Lien FAQs |
| Alaska | Varies by county | No statewide auction method is set by statute. AS 29.45.460 authorizes a municipality to sell foreclosed property it holds but does not prescribe how. Confirmed local variation: Kenai Peninsula Borough sells at public outcry auction; the Municipality of Anchorage is described (industry secondary source) as sealed bid followed by outcry auction; Matanuska-Susitna Borough runs a sealed "bid packet" process. Each municipality sets its own procedure by local ordinance. | Kenai Peninsula Borough, Tax Foreclosure Sales (agency page) |
| Arizona | Bid down interest | Bid down interest (certificate sale); no deed auction, holder forecloses to a treasurer’s deed | A.R.S. 42-18114 |
| Arkansas | Premium bid | Ascending public auction: each parcel's minimum bid equals delinquent taxes + penalties + interest + fees + costs; the highest bidder wins and must tender the full bid amount (not just the minimum). | Arkansas Commissioner of State Lands, Rules (2023 Edition), Title 2 Subtitle B "Bidding at Tax Delinquent Property Auctions"; Ark. Code Ann. Section 26-37-202 |
| California | Premium bid | Public auction (in-person or, increasingly, online e.g. via Bid4Assets) to the highest cash bidder, at or above a statutory minimum price equal to defaulted taxes + delinquent penalties + redemption penalties + costs. Some counties add an auction-platform buyer's premium (e.g., 3% at Stanislaus County) on top of the winning bid; that is a platform fee, not a statutory rate. | Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code § 3698.5 (minimum price) and State Controller's Office Chapter 7 Tax Sale FAQ |
| Colorado | Premium bid | Premium/bonus bid: bidding opens at taxes + delinquent interest + fees due; the lien goes to whoever bids the largest amount in excess. The excess ("premium" or "bonus") is credited to the county general fund, earns no interest, and is never refunded or returned on redemption -- it is not part of the investment return. The fixed statutory interest rate itself is not bid down (contrast with bid-down-interest states like FL or AZ). | C.R.S. 39-11-115 "To whom tax lien shall be sold" (premium-bid auction mechanics). OFFICIAL Colorado General Assembly OLLS publication: the 2024 C.R.S. Title 39 volume PDF (content.leg.colorado.gov). Section read verbatim in the volume 2026-07-25 (whole-title PDF; locate the section by number inside). Replaces a FindLaw mirror; leg.colorado.gov has no per-section text pages. |
| Connecticut | Premium bid | Open public auction; the property (subject to the post-sale redemption right) is sold to the highest cash bidder. If no bid covers the taxes, interest, fees and costs due, the municipality itself takes title by deed instead of a private buyer (12-157(c)). | Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-157(c) |
| Delaware | Judicial foreclosure | Court-supervised sheriff sale: tax authority files a praecipe, the prothonotary enters judgment, a 20-day monition notice issues, then (if unpaid) a writ of venditioni exponas directs the sheriff to sell at public auction to the highest bidder (full payment due sale day); the Superior Court then reviews and confirms (or sets aside) the sale. | Del. Code Ann. tit. 9, §§ 8722, 8725-8726, 8731 (Monition Method: judgment, writ of venditioni exponas, sale approval, court review) |
| District of Columbia | Premium bid | Public auction to the highest cash bidder (D.C. Code section 47-1346: "All sales shall be at public auction to the purchaser who makes the highest bid"). The winning bidder pays the full bid, including any surplus/premium above the delinquent-tax amount, within 5 business days, but that surplus does not bear the statutory redemption interest, which accrues only on the non-surplus portion at the fixed 1.5%/month rate. Unsold liens are later offered over-the-counter for the District's bid-off amount plus accrued interest. | D.C. Code § 47-1346 (Sale at public auction), D.C. Law Library |
| Florida | Bid down interest | Bid down interest (lien certificates); premium/overbid (tax deed auction) | Fla. Stat. 197.432, 197.542 |
| Georgia | Premium bid | Public outcry auction (sheriff's sale, commonly first Tuesday of the month) to the highest bidder; opening bid equals delinquent taxes, costs, levy and advertising fees owed. The winning bid is paid in full in cash/certified funds; any amount bid above taxes/costs owed becomes "excess funds" payable to the former owner and other recorded interest-holders in priority order rather than kept by the county. | O.C.G.A. §§ 48-4-1 (Sales under tax executions) and 48-4-5 (Payment of excess), Official Code of Georgia Annotated via the LexisNexis-hosted free public portal (state-designated official publisher); look up the cited sections by citation (no per-section deep link). |
| Hawaii | Premium bid | Live, in-person public oral auction; the tax deed is sold to the highest bidder at or above a statutory "upset price" (delinquent taxes + penalty + interest + costs/expenses accrued to the sale date). Full payment is due the same day, typically by cashier's check; no absentee or online bidding was found for any of the 4 counties (a bidder may send a designated in-person representative). | Maui County Real Property Tax Office – Tax Sale FAQ |
| Idaho | Premium bid | Public auction, property sold to the highest cash bidder; the county sets a minimum bid covering delinquent taxes, interest, and costs, and may reject any bid below that floor (or below all bids) | Idaho Code 31-808 |
| Illinois | Bid down interest | Bid-down penalty rate: competitive public auction where the bidder willing to accept the lowest penalty percentage (ceiling 18%, no statutory floor) wins the certificate. Chronically delinquent/forfeited parcels can instead go to a "scavenger sale", highest cash bid wins (may be below the full amount owed), which still yields a redeemable certificate rather than an outright deed. | 35 ILCS 200/21-215 "Penalty bids"; 35 ILCS 200/21-260 "Collector's scavenger sale" (both read at the official ILGA full text, DocName 003502000K21-215 / 003502000K21-260, 2026-07-25). Bidding works DOWN from the 9%-per-six-month-period cap in section 21-215 (P.A. 103-555, eff. 2024) - 18% annualized first year, the figure this row states under the table's annual convention. Replaces a FindLaw mirror. |
| Indiana | Premium bid | Oral or electronic public auction; bidding opens at the statutory minimum (delinquent taxes + penalties + county costs) and the certificate of sale goes to the highest bidder (premium/overbid), not a bid-down-interest auction | Ind. Code 6-1.1-24-5. Official host iga.in.gov is JavaScript-rendered (no fetchable per-section text);. A 2026-07-25 browser pass confirmed iga.in.gov renders the Code only through a client-side app (section content served via an internal API, not a fetchable per-section URL or static PDF), so the verified FindLaw mirror is retained for this non-live state; re-verify at iga.in.gov on state launch. |
| Iowa | Bid down ownership | Bid-down on percentage of undivided ownership interest in the parcel (not on interest rate); smallest percentage bid wins, minimum bid increment is 1% of the parcel, ties broken by random selection | Iowa Code §446.16 (Bid, purchaser, bidder registration fee) |
| Kansas | Judicial foreclosure | Judicial in rem tax foreclosure: the county sues in district court, and after judgment the sheriff auctions the property (often online, e.g. GovEase) to the highest qualified bidder, subject to court confirmation before a Sheriff's Deed issues. | K.S.A. 79-2801 et seq.; Shawnee County Counselor and Sedgwick County Treasurer tax-foreclosure pages |
| Kentucky | Random selection | Certificates are not sold via a competitive bid-down or premium auction. Registered third-party purchasers submit a list of certificates they want; a random lottery drawing on sale day sets the order in which purchasers pick from their lists (in lot-size rounds), and certificates are purchased at face value plus a statutory deposit. | 103 KAR 5:180 (Procedures for Sale of Certificates of Delinquency by County Clerks) |
| Louisiana | Bid down interest | Competitive bid on the monthly interest rate that will accrue on the tax lien certificate: opens/ceiling at 1.0%/month, bid down in 0.1% increments to a statutory floor of 0.7%/month; lowest rate wins (ties go to first bidder in time). 100% of the lien goes to the single winning bidder, there is no more "least undivided ownership interest" bidding. | La. R.S. 47:2154, Tax lien auctions; time of auction; price |
| Maine | Varies by county | No investor bidding occurs on the lien itself (the municipality becomes lienholder automatically, at a municipally-fixed interest rate, not by auction). Once foreclosure is complete, the municipality's tax-acquired property is disposed of primarily by listing with a licensed real-estate broker/agent at "the highest reasonable price," not a live competitive auction; if a broker sale can't be arranged or fails within 12 months, the municipality may sell "in any manner authorized by the municipality's legislative body" (which can include sealed bid or other locally-chosen methods). | 36 M.R.S. §943-C (Sale of foreclosed properties), Maine Legislature |
| Maryland | Premium bid | Sale to the highest bidder; most counties add a "high-bid premium" (typically 20% of the amount by which the winning bid exceeds 40% of the property's assessed/full cash value, different threshold in Baltimore City and Prince George's County), refundable without interest on redemption. Some counties (e.g., Montgomery) run the auction as sealed bidding; Montgomery is statutorily exempt from the mandatory group/sealed-bid premium rule that otherwise applies. | Md. Code Ann., Tax-Prop. § 14-817 (Sale at Public Auction) |
| Massachusetts | Bid down ownership | Public auction for the smallest undivided fractional share of the parcel that will satisfy the tax debt, bidders effectively bid down the ownership share they'll accept (G.L. c.60 §43); the whole parcel is sold only if no one will take less. If no bidder appears, the common outcome for most residential parcels, the collector does not sell at all; the municipality instead takes the property directly by recording an "instrument of taking," with no auction. Large-scale/institutional investors typically acquire Massachusetts tax titles through negotiated bulk purchase of unpaid "tax receivables" from municipalities (§2C) or assignment of tax titles the town already holds (§52), not through courthouse-style bidding. | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 60, § 43 (Conduct of Sale) |
| Michigan | Premium bid | Public auction after judicial foreclosure. Minimum opening bid equals all delinquent taxes, interest, penalties and fees owed; the property is sold to the highest bidder at or above that minimum (a later round for unsold parcels may drop the minimum); the winning bidder receives a deed conveying fee-simple title. | MCL 211.78m (tax-foreclosure sale procedures) |
| Minnesota | Premium bid | Highest bidder over the county-appraised value (ascending/premium bid) at the Ch. 282 tax-forfeited land sale; some parcels may instead be sold via sealed bid or broker listing at county board discretion. No lien-interest bidding is involved since the sale conveys the property itself. | Minn. Stat. § 282.01 (Tax-forfeited land; initial sale) |
| Mississippi | Premium bid | Sold to the "highest and best bidder for cash"; bidding is on cash price, not on the interest rate or an ownership share, and the fixed statutory redemption interest/damages the purchaser can collect are unaffected by how much was bid | Miss. Code Ann. § 27-41-59 (conduct of sale; online bidding and sale), Unannotated Mississippi Code hosted by LexisNexis (state-designated official publisher); retrieve § 27-41-59 by section number (no per-section deep link). |
| Missouri | Premium bid | Highest bidder (premium bid), sold for cash. Statutory floor is the delinquent taxes, interest, penalties, and costs owed; there is no bid ceiling. The auction bids up the purchase price/premium -- it does not bid down the certificate's interest rate, which is fixed by statute at up to 10%. | RSMo § 140.250 (Missouri Revisor of Statutes) |
| Montana | Varies by county | County-run assignment of the tax lien (first-come, priority list, or lottery), not a bid-down-interest auction; a deed follows after the 3-year redemption if unredeemed. | Mont. Code Ann. 15-17-323 |
| Nebraska | Rotational | Round-robin purchase order set by random lot draw (no bidding on price or rate) | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 77-1807 (delinquent tax sale; how conducted) |
| Nevada | Premium bid | Highest-bidder public auction for a quitclaim deed, opening at the statutory minimum (back taxes, penalties, interest and costs); conducted by the county treasurer, traditionally in person (some counties now run it online) after the county's own trustee hold period ends. | Clark County Treasurer, Real Property Tax Auction FAQ |
| New Hampshire | Varies by county | New Hampshire is not a standard investor-auction market. In towns that adopted RSA 80:58-80:86 (apparently now the norm), there is no bidding at all -- the lien passes automatically and exclusively to the municipality/county/state, and RSA 80:87's adoption language explicitly states private-individual tax sales "shall be prohibited." In the remaining towns that never adopted that procedure, the original RSA 80:18-80:42 method still applies: a public auction where private bidders compete by bidding down the fractional undivided ownership interest they will accept in exchange for paying the delinquent tax (RSA 80:24) -- a bid-down-ownership certificate sale, not an immediate deed. I could not verify from a primary source how many towns still fall into this second group, so practically, assume no open lien-purchase opportunity unless you confirm a specific town still runs the older auction. | NH RSA 80:87, Procedure for Adoption; RSA 80:24, Conduct of Sale |
| New Jersey | Bid down interest | Interest-rate bid-down starting at 18%/year; once bids fall below 1% interest, bidding converts to a cash premium (highest premium wins) paid on top of the delinquent taxes/charges owed. | NJ Division of Local Government Services – "Elements of Tax Sales in New Jersey" |
| New Mexico | Premium bid | Oral public auction, highest bid wins; minimum bid = total delinquent taxes + penalties + interest + costs owed; full cash/certified-funds payment due before the auction concludes | NM Taxation & Revenue Dept., Terms of the Property Tax Division Public Auction Sales (Rev. 11/16/2023), items 6, 7, 13 (full text obtained directly) |
| New York | Varies by county | Varies by jurisdiction: the ~58 in rem counties/cities auction county-foreclosed real estate to the highest bidder (premium bid, deed conveyed, no post-sale redemption); Nassau and Suffolk Counties instead auction tax lien certificates by bidding the interest rate down; New York City sells its entire annual lien pool in one bulk transaction to a single authorized trust rather than via individual-investor bidding. | NY RPTL Article 11 overview (NYS Senate), Title 3 in rem foreclosure vs. Title 5 sale of tax liens; corroborated by Nassau County Treasurer's bid-down notice |
| North Carolina | Judicial foreclosure | Sale only follows a court-supervised tax lien foreclosure action: either the mortgage-style method (N.C. Gen. Stat. 105-374, filed as a civil action, commissioner-conducted courthouse-door sale) or the summary in rem method (105-375, docketed with the clerk, sheriff's execution-style sale), at the taxing unit's discretion. Either way the property is auctioned to the highest cash bidder, then held open for a mandatory statutory upset-bid period under N.C. Gen. Stat. 1-339.25: a new bid must exceed the last by at least 5% (minimum $750) within 10 days, and each successful upset bid restarts a fresh 10-day window. The court enters judgment confirming the sale, and the deed is delivered, only once a 10-day window lapses with no further upset bid. No statutory minimum opening bid applies. | N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-339.25, Article 29A of Chapter 1 (NC General Assembly, official statutes) |
| North Dakota | Premium bid | Open competitive auction (annual sale, third Tuesday of November) to the highest qualified bidder at or above a county-set minimum price; payable in cash, or 25% down with the balance financed by the county over up to 10 years at a rate the county board sets, capped at 12% per year. Bidders who owe delinquent taxes to any county are disqualified. | N.D. Cent. Code 57-28-13 through 57-28-16 |
| Ohio | Varies by county | Certificates: bid-down-interest public auction starting at 18%, in 0.25-point increments to 0% (ORC 5721.32), or negotiated/bulk sale to institutional buyers at a treasurer-set rate up to 18% (ORC 5721.33). Non-certificate parcels (most counties): judicial foreclosure ending in a sheriff's/auditor's sale of the property itself (ORC 5721.18-.19). | Ohio Rev. Code 5721.32 (public auction) and 5721.33 (negotiated sale); 5721.18-.19 (foreclosure sale) - codes.ohio.gov |
| Oklahoma | Premium bid | Ascending public auction (in person, or online at county option) to the highest bidder for cash or certified funds, held annually on the second Monday of June ("the resale"). Minimum/reserve bid = the LESSER of two-thirds (2/3) of the property's current assessed value or the total delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and costs owed. If no bid meets that minimum, the county treasurer bids the property off in the name of the county itself (no personal county liability), and it is later disposed of through a separate county-owned-property sale process. | 68 O.S. § 3129 (Sale - Property bid off in name of county - County liability), Oklahoma Statutes Citationized, Oklahoma State Courts Network (OSCN), the state's official free public code (verified: property "bid off in the name of the county"). |
| Oregon | Premium bid | County-owned tax-foreclosed property sold to the "highest and best bidder" at public auction (cash or 10%-down installment contract up to 20 years), with sealed/private bid used instead for low-value or unbuildable parcels | ORS 275.190 (Cash or installment sale; highest and best bidder) & ORS 275.140 (public auction) |
| Pennsylvania | Premium bid | Public outcry auction to the highest bidder. Upset Sale requires a bid at or above the county's published "upset price" (delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and costs; 72 P.S. Sec. 5860.605-.607). If unsold, the county may petition for Judicial Sale, which drops the price floor to a cost-only minimum and conveys the property free and clear of mortgages/liens (72 P.S. Sec. 5860.610-.612). Properties still unsold go to the county's Repository of Unsold Properties, filled through open minimum-bid offers rather than a live auction. Philadelphia/Allegheny sheriff sales under MCTLA are likewise highest-bidder auctions. | 72 P.S. § 5860.612 (Real Estate Tax Sale Law); §§ 610-612 within the Pennsylvania General Assembly's official full-text PDF of the Real Estate Tax Sale Law (Act of July 7, 1947, P.L. 1368, No. 542); corroborated by Northumberland County Tax Claim Bureau Upset Sale notice. Locate § 612 within the act PDF (the official site has no per-section HTML deep link). |
| Rhode Island | Bid down ownership | Bid-down of fractional ownership: the collector auctions the smallest undivided share of the property (floor of 1%) that will cover the taxes/charges owed; if nobody bids under 100%, the whole property is sold | R.I. Gen. Laws § 44-9-8 (Sale of undivided part or whole of land) |
| South Carolina | Premium bid | Public auction to the highest bidder (premium bid). The opening bid is submitted on behalf of the county's Forfeited Land Commission and equals delinquent taxes, penalties, assessments, and costs (S.C. Code 12-51-55). The winner pays the full bid in cash/certified funds at the sale in exchange for a receipt (12-51-60), not an immediate deed or certificate. Any amount bid above the opening bid ("overage") is held and becomes payable to the record owner as of the end of the redemption period (12-51-130). | S.C. Code Ann. 12-51-50, 12-51-55, 12-51-130; corroborated by Spartanburg County Delinquent Tax Office |
| South Dakota | Bid down interest | Lowest-interest-rate bid wins at the annual public certificate sale; purchase price is fixed (delinquent tax + interest + costs), only the interest rate is bid down, capped at 10%/year | SDCL 10-23-7; 10-23-8 (South Dakota Legislature) |
| Tennessee | Premium bid | Open competitive cash auction (in person or, increasingly, online/electronic) to the highest bidder in Chancery Court, opened by a mandatory floor bid the court clerk places on behalf of the county/city equal to the total taxes, penalties, interest and costs owed (Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-2501). Not a bid-down-interest or bid-down-ownership mechanism; bidders compete upward on cash price for the deed. | Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-2501, "Notice of sale of land", Tennessee Code Annotated free public access hosted by LexisNexis (the publisher capitol.tn.gov directs the public to); look up § 67-5-2501 by citation (no per-section deep link). |
| Texas | Premium bid | Public auction (in-person or county-authorized online) to the highest bidder, subject to a statutory minimum bid tied to the judgment/market value | Tex. Tax Code § 34.01 (Sale of Property) |
| Utah | Premium bid | Public auction (in person at the courthouse or electronically), sold to the highest bidder for cash; a bid below the full amount of taxes, tax notice charges, interest, penalty, and administrative costs owed on the parcel is not accepted. | Utah Code § 59-2-1351 (Sales by county) and § 59-2-1351.1 (Tax sale -- combining certain parcels -- acceptable bids -- deeds) |
| Vermont | Premium bid | Live public auction sold to the highest cash bidder. Bidding opens at the total taxes, interest, penalties, and costs owed to the municipality, not fair-market value, and any winning bid above that amount ("overbid"/surplus) must be refunded to the delinquent taxpayer if the property is not later redeemed (Vermont Supreme Court: Bogie v. Town of Barnet, 129 Vt. 46 (1970); Ran-Mar, Inc. v. Town of Berlin (2006)). If no bidder meets the amount owed, the municipality itself may purchase the property (32 V.S.A. § 5259). | 32 V.S.A. § 5255 (Report of sale; form) |
| Virginia | Judicial foreclosure | Court-supervised judicial sale: the treasurer/locality's attorney files a complaint (bill in equity) in circuit court; the court appoints a special commissioner to conduct the sale after required notice, and the property is sold at public auction (ascending bid, in person or increasingly online through firms such as TACS, Virginia Auction Company, or ForSaleAtAuction) to the highest bidder, subject to court confirmation before a Special Commissioner's Deed conveys title. | Code of Virginia §§ 58.1-3967 (proceedings, title acquired) and 58.1-3969 (special commissioner to make sale); Roanoke County Judicial Sales FAQ |
| Washington | Premium bid | Public auction to the highest and best bidder for cash, at or above a statutory minimum bid equal to all delinquent taxes, interest, and foreclosure costs; sold "as is" with a tax deed executed to the winner. Several counties (e.g. Thurston) now run this as an online public auction (e.g. via Bid4Assets) rather than an in-person cry sale, but the highest-bidder mechanic is set statewide by statute. | RCW 84.64.080, Wash. Rev. Code |
| West Virginia | Premium bid | Premium bid / highest bidder: minimum bid = delinquent taxes + interest + charges due, price is bid up from that floor, and the high bidder receives a certificate/receipt (not a deed). One consolidated annual public auction per county, run by the State Auditor at the county courthouse (§ 11A-3-45), replacing the pre-2022 two-tier system of a county sheriff's sale (Oct. 14-Nov. 23) plus a separate later State Auditor's sale of unsold parcels. Unsold liens then go, without further auction, in a set priority order: adjacent landowner, then municipality, then county, then the WV Land Stewardship Corporation land bank, then the general public (§ 11A-3-48). | W. Va. Code § 11A-3-45(a) (Auditor to hold annual auction; sale to "the highest eligible bidder") |
| Wisconsin | Varies by county | There is no statewide public auction of the delinquent property or of a lien/certificate on it. The county treasurer holds the tax certificate for the county, not for sale to investors (§ 74.57(1)); after the 2-year redemption period the county itself forecloses or takes a tax deed (§§ 74.57(2), 75.14, 75.521). Only afterward, in a separate and later step, does the county resell the now county-owned ("tax-deeded") land -- and that resale method varies by county: competitive public auction (e.g., Rock County), sealed/qualified bid above appraised value (e.g., Dane County), or ordinary open-market listing at fair market value through a broker (e.g., Dunn County). | Dane County Treasurer, Tax Deed Details / Auction; Rock County Treasurer, Tax Lien Auction; Dunn County Tax-Foreclosed Property Sales FAQ |
| Wyoming | Random selection | Random computerized drawing among registered bidders. The statute awards the certificate to "any person who offers to pay" the fixed taxes+interest+penalties+costs due (W.S. § 39-13-108(e)(iii)(B)), there is no competitive bid on rate or price. Because more people often want a given parcel than the fixed-price rule can adjudicate, essentially all Wyoming counties allocate demand via a lottery-style random-number draw (confirmed on official 2026 pages for Platte, Sweetwater, Campbell, Lincoln, Sheridan, Teton, and Uinta counties). | Platte County, WY Treasurer, Tax Lien Sale page (countywide random-drawing practice) |
Model your bid before the auction
Run a certificate through the yield calculator or a deed through the max-bid calculator to set your ceiling.