Each step below is drawn from Kansas statute, not general advice. The exact sale dates, platform, and deposit amounts are set county by county, so confirm the specifics on your county page before you register.
New here? Most beginners start with a certificate (the lien path). The deed steps below apply once you hold a certificate long enough to force a sale, or you bid directly at a tax deed auction. Not sure which is for you? Start with tax lien vs tax deed.
Learn the timeline and lien priority
Kansas real property taxes may be paid in full on or before December 20, or in halves, with the first half due December 20 and the second half due May 10 of the following year. A tax bill of $10 or less is due in full by December 20. A first half left unpaid after December 20 draws interest at the rate prescribed by K.S.A. 79-2968 plus five percentage points per year, and everything still unpaid on May 11 draws that same rate from May 10 until it is paid or until the property is sold by foreclosure. The K.S.A. 79-2968 rate is the federal Internal Revenue Code section 6621(a)(2) underpayment rate in effect on July 1 of the preceding year plus one percentage point, and for a property tax delinquency of $10,000 or more it is that figure or 10 percent per year, whichever is greater. All of that interest is credited to the county general fund. No investor ever earns it, because Kansas issues no certificate against it. Any real estate whose taxes are unpaid on May 10 becomes subject to sale, which in Kansas means the treasurer will bid it off to the county that September. Understand this before you commit any money.
Collect interest or wait out redemption
Not applicable to investors. The delinquency interest under K.S.A. 79-2004, the K.S.A. 79-2968 rate plus five percentage points, is collected by the county treasurer for the county general fund. A buyer at a Kansas tax sale holds no certificate and earns no statutory interest. The return comes from the property itself. The one place an interest rate runs in a buyer's favor is K.S.A. 79-2804c: if the foreclosure sale is later adjudged invalid or void, the county refunds the purchase money plus subsequent taxes and charges the buyer paid, with interest at the K.S.A. 79-2004 rate, in exchange for a quitclaim deed, and that interest stops once the buyer has actual notice that the sheriff's deed was adjudged invalid. 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. To redeem, the owner pays Before the petition is filed: the amount for which the real estate was bid off to the county plus accrued interest, all delinquent taxes and special assessments and the interest on them that accrued after the sale and remain unpaid at the date of redemption, and the costs and expenses of the sale and redemption, including abstracting costs incurred in anticipation of a tax sale. After the petition is filed: the same taxes, charges, interest, and penalties calculated by the county treasurer as of the redemption date, plus an equitable share of the costs and expenses of the proceedings and sale, being the amount the court orders or, if no order is made, 5 percent of the amount set out in the petition as the lien on that parcel plus any separately chargeable amounts. If they redeem, that payoff is your return; if they never do, the certificate becomes your path to the property.
Apply for a tax deed
A parcel becomes eligible for judicial foreclosure when it was bid off to the county at the September delinquent tax sale and remains unredeemed at the end of the K.S.A. 79-2401a holding period for that parcel: three years for a homestead and for every parcel 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. On expiration the board of county commissioners orders the county attorney or county counselor to file a petition in the district court against the owners, supposed owners, and everyone claiming an interest. Filing is discretionary rather than mandatory in three situations: a mineral interest severed from the fee, an aggregate assessed valuation of the real estate subject to sale below $300,000, and an aggregate amount of delinquent taxes including special assessments below $10,000. Once the petition is filed the county treasurer may no longer accept ordinary tax payments on those parcels. Kansas sets no statutory minimum bid and no reserve at the sheriff's sale. Each parcel is offered separately and sold at public auction for the highest and best bid obtainable. Two rules shape the floor in practice. First, the county itself may bid through the sheriff or another person the commissioners authorize, but no bid on behalf of the county may exceed the judgment lien plus interest plus the costs, charges, and expenses of the proceedings and sale, so where a county bids, that figure acts as a practical reserve. Second, lots or tracts may be sold as a single unit rather than separately, either on a party's motion where the court finds they form one unit for usual uses and will sell for more together, or by the county without a court order where they went unsold at a previous public auction.
Bid at the tax deed auction
The The county sheriff conducts the auction under an execution or order of sale issued by the clerk of the district court. The case itself is brought in the name of the board of county commissioners by the county attorney or county counselor. In a county of more than 300,000 inhabitants the county counselor carries that duty. A city may also render legal assistance, and where the county has not started proceedings on a parcel inside city limits for at least three years after it first became eligible, the city may bring the foreclosure itself through its city attorney. sells the property at public auction to the highest bidder. 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. No statewide payment window exists in the statute. Expect the county to want the money at the sale. Sedgwick County, one of the counties whose terms are published, tells bidders that successful bidders make payment for winning bids at the end of the sale day and collects the deed filing fee at checkout. Verify the deadline for the specific county before bidding rather than assuming Sedgwick's terms apply. Winning the bid is not the same as owning the parcel. The sheriff makes a return to the clerk, the court examines it, and title moves only when the court confirms the sale and the sheriff executes and records the deed, which lands well after the auction. Sedgwick County, for one, tells buyers to expect roughly 120 days from the sale date before the new deed is mailed, so that payments clear and any court challenge is resolved first.
Or buy over the counter
You do not have to wait for an auction. Kansas has no over-the-counter certificate list, because it issues no certificates. What it does have is an inventory of parcels the COUNTY bought in at its own sheriff's sale. The commissioners keep a public record of every parcel acquired under K.S.A. 79-2804, showing the case, the judgment lien, and the costs paid, and that record is open to inspection on request. Those parcels are sold by the board at private or public sale for cash in hand, and the price must be at least the original judgment lien plus interest, plus the costs set out in the order of sale, plus every subsequent tax and special assessment not included in the judgment. That price floor is what usually keeps county inventory from being cheap. If a parcel is still unsold six months after the sale to the county was confirmed, the board may cut the price and sell it by sealed bid after advertising once a week for three consecutive weeks, accepting the highest cash bid, and it may reject bids below current market value. From that same six-month point the board may instead sell at public auction for cash to the highest bidder after advertising at least three times in the official county paper. Conveyance is by a deed from the county clerk on a written order of the board. Two eligibility rules follow the parcel: K.S.A. 79-2812 bars any buyer who is the record owner of tax-delinquent real estate on the county treasurer's records, and K.S.A. 79-2804g bars a sale to anyone who had a right to redeem for less than the original judgment lien plus interest and costs, including sales by a county land bank. Kansas keeps no Lands Available for Taxes list of the Florida type and no struck-to-the-state inventory, because parcels are never struck to the state. The equivalent is the county commissioners' record of real estate acquired under K.S.A. 79-2804, which the statute makes open to inspection at all reasonable times, plus any county land bank inventory, since a county may transfer a parcel acquired at a tax foreclosure sale to its land bank. A separate track lets the board sell a bid-off parcel after the redemption period for affordable low-income housing or for community or economic development, outside the K.S.A. 79-2801 foreclosure process entirely, and abate the delinquent taxes on it.
One more step: clear the title
Winning a tax deed does not hand you marketable title. Before you can resell to a normal buyer or insure the parcel, you will usually need a quiet title action, which takes months and costs money. Fold that cost into your maximum bid and read what you actually own after a tax deed before you bid. A tax deed also does not wipe out everything: select governmental and municipal liens can survive, and a federal tax lien carries a 120-day IRS redemption right, so check what survives a tax deed too.
New to this? Start with tax lien vs tax deed and the full Kansas walkthrough, then value a parcel with the due diligence guide.
Steps verified Aug 23, 2026 against Kansas statutes.
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.