Butler County, KS tax sales
How tax deed sales work in Butler County, seat of El Dorado: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how Kansas tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Next sale
- Sales are held periodically rather than on a fixed annual calendar.
- Format
- In person
- County office
- 316-322-4210
On this page
How Butler County sells delinquent taxes
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Butler County Treasurer's Office
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- Sales are held periodically rather than on a fixed annual calendar.
- Sale list
- Tax sale property map
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Registration is required before bidding opens and is taken the morning of the sale at the auction site; the county states pre-registration is not offered for its posted sale. No one may register who is the record owner of any Butler County real estate carrying delinquent ad valorem taxes or delinquent special assessments, under K.S.A. 79-2812. Each winning bidder signs an affidavit, filed with the Clerk of the District Court, that the purchase was not made directly or indirectly for a party holding a statutory right to redeem, a prior owner or lienholder, their close relatives, or an officer, director or stockholder of a corporation that held title. Call the Treasurer at 316-322-4210 to confirm the check-in time and location before you travel.
Sale format and venue
Butler County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Butler County tax sale 2026 searches, use the county-run sources below rather than a copied parcel list, and confirm the parcel, registration cutoff, deposit, and payment deadline against the county before you bid.
Get the advertised list
Use Tax sale property map for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.Sale day
Sales are held periodically rather than on a fixed annual calendar. The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the county office before you go.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Butler County Treasurer's Office as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Butler County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Tax sale property map. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
Registration is required before bidding opens and is taken the morning of the sale at the auction site; the county states pre-registration is not offered for its posted sale. No one may register who is the record owner of any Butler County real estate carrying delinquent ad valorem taxes or delinquent special assessments, under K.S.A. 79-2812. Each winning bidder signs an affidavit, filed with the Clerk of the District Court, that the purchase was not made directly or indirectly for a party holding a statutory right to redeem, a prior owner or lienholder, their close relatives, or an officer, director or stockholder of a corporation that held title. Call the Treasurer at 316-322-4210 to confirm the check-in time and location before you travel.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the Kansas due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth.Set a walk-away number
Work out what the parcel is actually worth with the rural land value estimator, then turn it into a ceiling with the tax deed max-bid calculator.
Over-the-counter (leftover) purchases
unsold properties
Kansas counties sell no tax lien certificates and keep no over-the-counter certificate list. What a county can hold is real estate it bought in at its own sheriff's sale. The commissioners keep a record of every such parcel that is open to public inspection, and the board sells them at private or public sale for cash, at a price of at least the original judgment lien plus interest, the costs in the order of sale, and every subsequent tax and special assessment. Six months after the sale to the county is confirmed the board may reduce the price and take sealed bids after advertising for three consecutive weeks, or sell at public auction to the highest cash bidder. Ask the county clerk or county counselor for the current county-owned list, and check whether the county has a land bank.
New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
County offices
Tax sale office
County notes
- Butler County publishes its tax foreclosure sale through the Treasurer's Office at 205 W. Central Ave. in El Dorado, phone 316-322-4210 or toll free 800-822-7290, open Monday through Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The parcel list goes out as an interactive map built by the county GIS department, with property photos and boundaries for each item.
- Sale notice runs in the Butler County Times-Gazette for three consecutive weeks roughly 30 days before bidding. Subscriptions are handled at 316-321-1120, and the published notice is the operative sale bill.
- The county offers an email and text notification sign-up for the next tax sale through the Notify Me service on its site, which is the most reliable way to catch a date that moves from year to year.
- Diligence is on the bidder before the gavel. The county points buyers to the Community Development Department for zoning and building limits, the County Appraiser's Office for assessed value and mill levies, and the Register of Deeds for easements and restrictive covenants.
- Butler County makes no assurance that title insurance will be available on a parcel bought at the sale, whether for resale or for a lender taking a mortgage. Talk to a local title company about a specific parcel before you bid.
- The buyer handles possession, including filing any eviction proceeding. The former owner also has twelve months from the recording of the deed to challenge the county's sale procedures in court, and a successful challenge can return the property with the purchase price refunded. Price that as a title risk on the front end; it is not a right to redeem the property after the sale.
- Reselling to a party who held a redemption right before the sale carries a penalty. Anyone who conveys a tract to such a person within 10 years of the auction is personally liable for the original judgment lien plus interest from the auction date.
Kansas rules
- Redemption
- Kansas redemption has two stages, and both close before the auction. Stage one is K.S.A. 79-2401a: once the treasurer bids the parcel off to the county in September, the county holds it for three years for a homestead under section 9 of article 15 of the Kansas Constitution and for all real estate not described in K.S.A. 79-2401a(a), two years where the parcel was bid off for both delinquent taxes and special assessments, and one year for an abandoned building or structure and the land accommodating it, meaning one that has been unoccupied for at least a year with a failure to perform reasonable maintenance. During that window the owner pays the county treasurer directly. On the three-year track a PARTIAL redemption is allowed: paying the taxes for one or more years, starting with the earliest year the parcel was carried on the tax-sale book, plus interest at the K.S.A. 79-2004 rate, pushes back the date a foreclosure sale may be commenced by the number of years paid. The Johnson County paragraph applies the same partial payment to the most recent year instead of the earliest, and it does not carry the extension sentence. Stage two is K.S.A. 79-2803: after the petition is filed the treasurer may no longer take ordinary payments, but the owner or holder of record title, their heirs, devisees, executors, administrators, assigns, or any mortgagee or mortgagee's assigns may still redeem at any time BEFORE THE DAY OF SALE by filing an application to redeem with the clerk of the district court and paying the clerk a share of the costs, being whatever the court orders or, absent an order, 5 percent of the lien amount stated in the petition for that parcel plus any charges chargeable separately against it. The treasurer then computes the full taxes, charges, interest, and penalties, issues a redemption certificate in triplicate, and the sheriff strikes the parcel from the order of sale. Once the sale happens the right is gone. Kansas gives no post-sale redemption period and no right to buy the property back after the sheriff's deed. What exists after the sale is a twelve-month window under K.S.A. 79-2804b to open, vacate, modify, or set aside the judgment, the order of sale, or the sale. That is a title challenge, not redemption: it is available to parties attacking the proceedings, it requires grounds, and it does not let a former owner simply pay the taxes and take the parcel back.
- Deed deposit
- Kansas fixes no statewide deposit percentage and no statutory bidder registration. K.S.A. 79-2804 is silent on deposits, so the terms are whatever the sheriff publishes for that sale. The statute does require one payment at the auction itself: the register of deeds filing fee for the sheriff's deed is collected from the successful bidder at the time of sale and deposited with the register of deeds at recording. Confirm the county's accepted funds, any registration step, and the payment deadline before bidding, and expect certified funds.
- Surplus proceeds
- If a parcel sells for more than the judgment lien for taxes, interest, penalty, and charges plus its share of the costs, charges, and expenses of the proceedings and sale, the court orders the excess paid, upon due proof, to the owner or the party entitled to it. The court apportions costs across the parcels sold as soon as practicable after the sale, deducts the total costs from the gross proceeds, and equitably apportions the balance to each parcel that sold for more than its share. The clerk pays that balance to the county treasurer, who prorates it among the state, city, township, school district, and other taxing units in proportion to their interest in the lien, and cancels the taxes charged against the parcel. Tax liens on every parcel sold or redeemed in the action are satisfied and discharged of record.
A tax deed does not convey marketable title. Most buyers file a quiet title action before they can resell or insure the property. See the due diligence guide.
Frequently asked questions
Does Butler County, Kansas sell tax liens or tax deeds?
How often does Butler County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Butler County tax sale list?
Verified Aug 24, 2026 against official county and state sources.
Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.
Browse all 105 Kansas counties
Compare sale calendars, platforms, and rules across the state, or read the guides before you bid.