National reference

Buying land at a tax sale, state by state

Buying land at a tax sale means bidding at a county auction on a parcel whose owner stopped paying property taxes, and vacant rural ground is a large share of what ends up on the list.

The table below sets out, for all 28 states we map, what the auction actually hands you, how long the former owner can take it back, where the counties bid, and what happens to the parcels nobody buys.

Every legal column is read from the same sourced state records our state pages render, so the two can never disagree. The auction column is counted from the 1,989 counties whose own record names a platform.

What the auction hands a land buyer

Of the 28 states here, 14 sell the land itself at the sale and 12 sell a certificate that has to ripen first. Read the second column before anything else: it decides how long your money sits, what you can do with the parcel, and whether the former owner can take it back.

How Florida and Ohio answer it twice

Florida runs both sales in every county, the certificate first and the deed after it. In Ohio each county picks a route instead, and most go straight to a foreclosure sale of the parcel without selling a certificate at all, so check the county before you assume there is a lien to buy.

Tax sale land buying by state: what the auction sells, the redemption window, the most common auction platform, and where unsold parcels go.
State	What you win	Owner’s window to take it back	Most common platform	Parcels nobody bought
Alabama	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	Redeemable until the circuit court enters judgment. Rest of the rule The holder cannot file to foreclose until 4 years after the tax lien auction, and the certificate expires 10 years after it	GovEase33 of 51 counties on record, then In person in 16	Private Tax Lien Sale
Arizona	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	3 years from the tax lien sale before the holder can foreclose	RealAuction9 of 15 counties on record, then In person in 5	State-Held Certificates of Purchase
Arkansas	The parcel itselfTax deed	Until 4:00 p.m. Central time on the last business day before the sale date. Rest of the rule There is no redemption after the sale.	In person55 of 73 counties on record, then Online auction in 18	Unsold-Property Auction
California	The parcel itselfTax deed	Until the close of business on the last business day before the auction begins; no redemption after the sale	Bid4Assets30 of 57 counties on record, then GovEase in 15	No standing program
Colorado	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	3 years from the tax lien sale before the certificate holder can apply for the deed auction	In person21 of 60 counties on record, then SRI / ZEUS in 15	County-Held Certificates of Purchase
Florida	A certificate first, the parcel laterHybrid, both sales run	2 years before a tax deed can be applied for	RealAuction41 of 67 counties on record, then In person in 23	Lands Available for Taxes
Georgia	The parcel, subject to a buyback rightRedeemable deed	12 months from the date of the sale, and after that until the purchaser bars the right to redeem	In person83 of 84 counties on record, then GovEase in 1	No standing program
Illinois	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	3 years from the date of sale, or 1 year for vacant non-farm, commercial, industrial, and 7-or-more-unit residential property	In person72 of 79 counties on record, then Online auction in 6	County Trustee Certificates
Indiana	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	1 year from the date of sale	In person60 of 91 counties on record, then SRI / ZEUS in 29	Commissioners' Certificate Sale
Iowa	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	1 year 9 months from the sale before the notice of expiration can be served, then 90 days after service is complete	SRI / ZEUS40 of 88 counties on record, then Online auction in 21	Adjourned Tax Sale
Kansas	The parcel itselfTax deed	Runs BEFORE the sale and ends on the day of the sheriff's sale. Rest of the rule One, two, or three years from the county's September bid-off depending on the parcel, then a further right to redeem at the courthouse until the day of sale. Kansas has no redemption period after the sale.	In person92 of 93 counties on record, then GovEase in 1	County-Acquired Tax Foreclosure Real Estate
Kentucky	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	No fixed deadline while the certificate is outstanding. Rest of the rule Six months after a judicial sale that brings less than two thirds of the appraised value, and none at all when it brings two thirds or more.	In person104 of 107 counties on record, then Online auction in 2	Unsold Certificates of Delinquency
Louisiana	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	No fixed window. Rest of the rule The lien can be extinguished until 30 days after the last party is served in the enforcement suit, and the holder cannot file that suit until 3 years after the tax lien certificate is recorded	In person21 of 56 counties on record, then SRI / ZEUS in 16	Tax Liens Held by a Political Subdivision
Maryland	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	Open until the circuit court forecloses the right of redemption. Rest of the rule The holder may file that case 6 months after the sale, or 9 months for owner-occupied residential property	RealAuction15 of 24 counties on record, then In person in 5	County-Held Certificates of Sale
Michigan	The parcel itselfTax deed	Until the March 31 immediately succeeding entry of the judgment of foreclosure, or 21 days after entry in a contested case. Rest of the rule No redemption after that	Online auction77 of 83 counties on record, then In person in 4	No standing program
Minnesota	The parcel itselfTax deed	3 years from the tax judgment sale for most property	Online auction40 of 69 counties on record, then In person in 29	Tax-Forfeited Land
Mississippi	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	2 years from the day of the tax sale	GovEase67 of 70 counties on record, then In person in 3	State-Forfeited Tax Land
Missouri	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	1 year from a first or second offering sale, 90 days from a third offering sale, and none after a post third offering sale	In person105 of 106 counties on record, then GovEase in 1	Post Third Offering Sale
Nebraska	A certificate against the parcelTax lien	3 years from the tax sale before the holder may apply for a treasurer's tax deed, and the owner may redeem right up to the day that application is filed	In person85 of 86 counties on record, then RealAuction in 1	Private Tax Sale
Nevada	The parcel itselfTax deed	2 years after the trustee's certificate is issued (1 year for abandoned property), plus a reconveyance right that runs until the third business day before the sale	Bid4Assets8 of 12 counties on record, then In person in 4	No standing program
North Carolina	The parcel itselfTax deed	Until the foreclosure sale becomes final; no redemption after confirmation	In person78 of 78 counties on record	No standing program
Ohio	A certificate or the parcel, by countyHybrid, each county elects	1 year after the certificate sale before the holder can request foreclosure; redemption then stays open until confirmation of sale	RealAuction49 of 81 counties on record, then In person in 32	Forfeited Land Sale
Pennsylvania	The parcel itselfTax deed	None after the sale in the 65 Real Estate Tax Sale Law counties. Rest of the rule In Philadelphia, 9 months from acknowledgment of the sheriff's deed, and 3 months in Allegheny County and Pittsburgh	In person49 of 63 counties on record, then Bid4Assets in 7	Repository for Unsold Properties
South Carolina	The parcel, subject to a buyback rightRedeemable deed	12 months from the date of the delinquent tax sale	In person35 of 35 counties on record	Forfeited Land Commission
Tennessee	The parcel, subject to a buyback rightRedeemable deed	Up to 1 year from entry of the order confirming the sale, tiered by how long the taxes were delinquent	GovEase19 of 34 counties on record, then In person in 14	County-Held Parcel Resale
Texas	The parcel, subject to a buyback rightRedeemable deed	2 years for a residence homestead, agricultural-use land, or a mineral interest; 180 days for all other property	In person145 of 180 counties on record, then RealAuction in 23	Struck-Off Property
Virginia	The parcel itselfTax deed	Until the date set for the sale. Virginia has no post-sale redemption period.	Online auction80 of 113 counties on record, then In person in 33	No standing program
Washington	The parcel itselfTax deed	Until the close of business the day before the sale. Rest of the rule No redemption after the sale except for minors and legally incompetent persons	Bid4Assets14 of 34 counties on record, then Online auction in 10	Tax-Title Property

The redemption column is the statutory rule for the state as a whole, in its shortest form. Where a state qualifies that rule, the qualifier is one tap away in the same cell.

Several states run more than one track, so the full sentence and the payoff figures sit on each state’s redemption period comparison and on its own state page.

Land that nobody bid on is still for sale

22 of the 28 states let you buy an unsold parcel after the auction with no bidding at all, and a lot of cheap rural land changes hands that way rather than on sale day.

The reason buyers miss it is vocabulary. No two states call the mechanism the same thing, so searching one state’s term returns nothing in the next state.

These five names cover five of the busiest markets we map, and each one links to that state’s program. Every state’s term, with the statute behind it, is on state-held and forfeited land by state.

Florida: Lands Available for Taxes
South Carolina: Forfeited Land Commission
Texas: Struck-Off Property
Pennsylvania: Repository for Unsold Properties
Minnesota: Tax-Forfeited Land

A parcel on one of these lists went to auction and came out the other side with no buyer. Sometimes the county advertised it badly. More often the parcel is landlocked, unbuildable, or under water for part of the year, which is what the pre-bid work is for.

Where the long version of one state lives

The table above is one row per state, and a row cannot hold a state that answers the question four different ways. Buying land at a Pennsylvania tax sale is the first state page to carry the long version: which rung of the sale ladder conveys a clean title and which does not, how its coal counties sell a mineral interest as its own parcel, and what four county repositories charge for ground nobody bid on.

Where the land auctions actually run

14 of the 28 states have an in-person courthouse sale as their most common format, and in 14 the most common format is an online auction house. That split is a travel budget and a funding deadline, not a detail.

What each format asks of you before sale day

An in-person state means being in the county on sale day with certified funds. An online state means registering and wiring a deposit days ahead, often to a platform you have never used. The count beside each platform in the table shows how lopsided the split is inside that state, because several states are mixed county by county rather than settled one way.

The platform also decides what you can see before you bid. Online sales publish a parcel list you can work through at your desk. In-person sales often publish a newspaper list and nothing else, which puts more weight on the county GIS parcel map and on reading the legal description yourself.

The sale date and the platform for a specific county are on that county’s page in our county directory.

What to check before you bid on a parcel

This page answers where and what. The work of judging one specific parcel sits in our land due diligence series, and it runs in this order.

Confirm legal access to a public road, or price the parcel as landlocked.
Test whether anything can be built on it, since zoning and soils decide the resale market.
Find out which liens survive the sale in that state, because some of them follow the parcel to you. The state-by-state answer for mortgages, IRS liens, municipal assessments, association dues and easements is in what survives a tax deed by state.
Check whether the minerals were severed from the surface, because a handful of states settle that in statute and most leave it to case law, and a severed mineral owner can still use your surface.
Value the land from sold comparables rather than the assessed value, which is not a market number.
Set a maximum bid that already carries the clearing costs, and stop when the room passes it.

If you are still deciding between the certificate side and the deed side of this market, tax lien versus tax deed covers the trade.

The tax deed state list narrows it to the states that sell the land itself, and the tax lien state list to the states that sell a certificate instead. On the certificate side the numbers to compare are the statutory interest rates, and the yield calculator turns a bid at one of them into a real return.

Questions land buyers ask

Can you buy land at a tax sale?

Yes. Counties auction delinquent parcels every year, and raw land is a large share of what nobody bids on. What the auction hands you depends on the state, and there are three answers. A tax deed state sells the parcel itself. A tax lien state sells a certificate against the parcel, which you hold through the redemption period and then foreclose before the land is yours. A redeemable deed state sells the parcel but lets the former owner buy it back for a statutory penalty during a set window. The table on this page names which of the three every state we map runs.

Do you own the land as soon as you win a tax deed sale?

You hold a deed, which is not the same as holding clean title. A tax deed conveys whatever interest the county could sell, and in a redeemable deed state the former owner can still buy the parcel back for a statutory penalty during the redemption window. Most title companies will not insure a raw tax deed, so a resale to a financed buyer usually waits on a quiet title action.

Where do county land auctions actually happen?

In 14 of the 28 states we map, the format the largest number of counties named is an in-person courthouse sale. In 14 it is an online auction house. That count is read from the 1,989 county records that name a platform, not from a vendor list. It splits by state rather than by county size: some states run nearly every sale through one platform, and a few are mixed county by county, which is why the table shows the runner-up beside the leader.

What happens to land that gets no bid at the auction?

22 of the 28 states we map let you buy it later with no auction and no bidding, and each one calls that inventory something different. The vocabulary gap is why buyers miss it, because a search using one state’s term returns nothing in the next state. The table on this page names the program for every state that runs one and links to how it works. The parcels are cheap because nobody bid, which is a reason to research harder rather than less.

Which states sell the land with no redemption period at all?

Several of the deed states close redemption before the auction rather than after it, so the former owner has no post-sale right to buy the parcel back. Arkansas ends it at 4:00 p.m. Central time on the last business day before the sale date. California ends it at the close of business on the last business day before the auction begins. Virginia ends it on the date set for the sale. Washington closes it the day before the sale too, with a narrow exception for owners who are minors or legally incompetent. The redemption column in the table carries each state’s own rule with the statute behind it.

What deposit do the online platforms take, and when?

The deposit is set county by county rather than nationally, and it is collected by whichever platform runs that county’s sale. What is consistent is the shape of it. Registration closes days before the auction, the money has to clear before that cutoff, and a bidder who has not funded by then cannot bid at all. Our county pages record the registration step and the platform for each sale, so read the funding deadline there and treat it as the date that governs your trip, not the sale date.

Can an out-of-state buyer bid in an in-person state?

Usually yes, and the obstacle is practical rather than legal. A county selling at the courthouse takes bids from anyone who registers and arrives with the funds its notice asks for, which normally means certified funds or a cashier’s check on the day. The difficulty is that inspecting a parcel, registering and standing in the room all take a trip, so out-of-state buyers often send someone local or concentrate on the online states instead. Read the county’s own registration notice first, because some counties close registration in person a day or more ahead of the sale.

What should you check before bidding on a rural parcel?

Legal access first, because a landlocked parcel with no recorded easement can be close to unsellable and no later diligence fixes it. Then confirm the legal description matches a real mapped parcel, price the land from sold comps rather than the assessed value, and find out which liens survive the sale in that state. Set a walk-away number before the bidding starts.

How do you find a land tax sale near you?

Start at the county, because that is where a sale is actually run and advertised. A county office sets the date, publishes the parcel list and takes the bids, so the sale you can reach is the one in a county you can get to in person or register with online. Our county directory carries the office, the platform, the registration step and the published date for each of the 2,410 counties we map, across 28 states. Any national list of land for sale for back taxes is a repackaging of those same county lists, so go to the county record first and use it to check whatever else you are reading.

Find the next land sale near you

Sale dates, platforms and parcel lists for 2,410 counties across 28 states.

Browse the county directory Land due diligence series