Trego County, KS tax sales
How tax deed sales work in Trego County, seat of WaKeeney: 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
- No fixed annual date.
- Format
- In person
- Registration
- Register in advance with the Trego County Treasurer's Office at 216 N.
- County office
- 785-743-2001
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 24, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page
How Trego County sells delinquent taxes
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Trego County Sheriff, selling under an Order for Sale issued by the Clerk of the District Court of Trego County, with bidder registration taken by the Trego County Treasurer's Office and the foreclosure filed for the Board of County Commissioners by outside counsel Klenda Austerman LLC of Wichita
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- No fixed annual date.
- Registration
- Register in advance with the Trego County Treasurer's Office at 216 N.
When it runs
No fixed annual date. The Treasurer's tax page sets out the path: "Delinquent real estate goes into redemption on the 1st Tuesday in September. If the taxes remain unpaid after three years from that redemption date, the property becomes eligible for a tax foreclosure sale. The property is sold at a public auction after due process has been served." The most recent Trego County tax foreclosure auction ran on December 5, 2024 at 1 p.m., with the sale bill published in the Western Kansas World on November 7, 14 and 21, 2024. No sale has been advertised since then, so confirm the next date with the Treasurer's Office before planning a trip.
Registration and deposit
Register in advance with the Trego County Treasurer's Office at 216 N. Main Street, Suite B, WaKeeney, KS 67672. For the December 5, 2024 auction the sale bill opened registration on November 21, 2024 and closed it at the Treasurer's close of business on December 4, the day before the sale, and states that all bidders must be registered in order to bid. Payment at auction must be in the form of cash or check only.
Sale format and venue
This is a live, in person judicial sale, not an online auction, and Trego County names no third party bidding portal. The December 5, 2024 auction was held at the Trego County District Court, 216 N. Main Street, WaKeeney, and sold to the highest bidder. The sale bill lists each parcel with its tax ID, legal description, approximate street address, delinquent years, owners of record and redemption cost, and it warns that redemption amounts are calculated as of the date the foreclosure petition was filed, so ask the Treasurer for a current payoff before bidding. Parcels missing from the bill have been redeemed or fall under a separate order, so the roster can shrink right up to the auction. Trego County keeps no standing tax sale page, so watch the Western Kansas World for the published sale bill and call the Treasurer's Office at 785-743-2001 for the current listing and the next sale date.
Source: Notice of Judicial Sale in Trego County tax foreclosure, Western Kansas World· Verified Aug 24, 2026
Trego County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Trego 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 Trego County published legal notices, where the sale bill and parcel list run for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Sale day
No fixed annual date. 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 Trego County Sheriff, selling under an Order for Sale issued by the Clerk of the District Court of Trego County, with bidder registration taken by the Trego County Treasurer's Office and the foreclosure filed for the Board of County Commissioners by outside counsel Klenda Austerman LLC of Wichita as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Trego County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Trego County published legal notices, where the sale bill and parcel list run. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
Register in advance with the Trego County Treasurer's Office at 216 N. Main Street, Suite B, WaKeeney, KS 67672. For the December 5, 2024 auction the sale bill opened registration on November 21, 2024 and closed it at the Treasurer's close of business on December 4, the day before the sale, and states that all bidders must be registered in order to bid. Payment at auction must be in the form of cash or check only.
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
- First half real estate taxes are due December 20 and the second half on May 10. Delinquent notices are mailed in June, and the delinquent list is printed in the local newspaper in August, which adds a publication fee to the amount owed.
- Delinquent real estate goes into redemption on the first Tuesday in September. The Treasurer's office states that if the taxes stay unpaid for three years from that redemption date, the parcel becomes eligible for a tax foreclosure sale and is sold at public auction after due process has been served.
- The 2025 delinquent real estate list is published in the Western Kansas World three times before the first Tuesday in September 2026 under K.S.A. 79-2303, over the signature of Treasurer Renee Neff.
- Trego County uses outside counsel for tax foreclosure. Klenda Austerman LLC, 301 N. Main, Suite 1600, Wichita, KS 67202, telephone 316-267-0331, filed and prosecuted the 2024 case for the Board of County Commissioners in the Twenty-Third Judicial District. The County Attorney, Abraham Pfannenstiel at 785-743-5458, handles criminal prosecution rather than the tax sale.
- The Sheriff's Office at 525 Warren Avenue, WaKeeney, telephone 785-743-5721, conducts the auction under the court's order of sale. The Sheriff signs the published sale bill.
- Check what a parcel actually owes through the county's online real estate tax search, which covers tax years back to 2005 and searches by owner name, tax ID or street address.
- The foreclosure petition asks the court to determine the owners and interest holders, declare the tax amount a first and prior lien, and order the property sold at public sale to satisfy that lien, charges and costs. Defendants are served by publication in the Western Kansas World and must plead by the date the notice sets.
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 Trego County, Kansas sell tax liens or tax deeds?
Tax deeds. Kansas sells no tax lien certificates to investors; the county sells the property itself at a public tax sale.
How often does Trego County hold tax deed sales?
Trego County holds its tax deed sale once a year. No fixed annual date. Each sale is scheduled and advertised in advance, so check the county's tax deed calendar for the next posted date.
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Often yes, by paying the overdue taxes, interest, and costs before the deadline. Kansas's redemption rule: Runs BEFORE the sale and ends on the day of the sheriff's sale. 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. Call the Trego County Sheriff, selling under an Order for Sale issued by the Clerk of the District Court of Trego County, with bidder registration taken by the Trego County Treasurer's Office and the foreclosure filed for the Board of County Commissioners by outside counsel Klenda Austerman LLC of Wichita as early as possible for your exact payoff and options; deadlines are strict. Free help: lawhelp.org lists legal aid programs, and consumerfinance.gov lists HUD-approved housing counselors.
Where can I find the Trego County tax sale list?
Trego County posts its tax sale list at kansaspublicnotices.com. Lists go up ahead of each sale and keep changing until the sale date, so confirm every parcel against the county's legal advertisement before you bid.
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.
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