Each step below is drawn from Missouri 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
Missouri real estate taxes that remain unpaid on January 1 are delinquent, and the county collector must enforce the state's lien on them. Delinquent parcels are entered in the back tax book, and that entry is itself the levy that supports the sale. Each tract carries a penalty of 18 percent of each year's delinquency, except that a parcel redeemed before the sale pays no more than 2 percent per month or fraction of a month. Every parcel with delinquent and unpaid taxes is subject to sale on the fourth Monday in August, so the statutory gap between delinquency and a first offering can be as short as about eight months. Collectors differ in how quickly they advertise a newly delinquent parcel, so ask the county which tax years are in this year's sale. Understand this before you commit any money.
Find the advertised delinquent list
Before the certificate sale, the County Collector advertises the delinquent parcels. The collector holds the delinquent land tax sale on the fourth Monday in August each year, starting at ten o'clock in the morning in or adjacent to the county courthouse, and continues it from day to day until every parcel has been offered. The delinquent list runs in a local newspaper once a week for three consecutive weeks beforehand, with the last insertion at least 15 days before the sale. Pull that list for your target county and shortlist the parcels worth researching.
Register, deposit, and bid
Register on the county’s certificate-sale platform and fund the required deposit. Bidding runs upward from a statutory minimum bid, and the highest bid wins. Anything you pay above that minimum is a premium, so check how your state treats it before you bid: a premium can earn a different return than the base amount, or none at all. There is no statutory minimum return, so what you earn is decided at the sale. Missouri does not bid the interest rate down. The collector fixes the rate on the certificate of purchase, subject to a statutory ceiling of 10 percent per year, and bidders compete on price instead. A parcel at a first or second offering sells only when someone bids at least the delinquent taxes, interest, penalty and costs, and the parcel goes to the bidder who offers the most. Everything paid above the taxes and costs is surplus. The collector pays it into the county treasury, and no interest is owed on that excess to anyone, so a heavy premium is idle capital that dilutes the yield rather than a bid for a higher return.
Collect interest or wait out redemption
The certificate of purchase states its own rate of interest, and that rate may not exceed 10 percent per year. Interest runs on the purchase money named in the certificate together with the costs of sale. No interest is owed on any amount a purchaser paid above the delinquent taxes due plus the collector's costs of sale. Subsequent taxes the holder pays earn 8 percent per year. Missouri sets no minimum return, so a certificate redeemed early pays only the interest that actually accrued, and a deposit of the redemption amount with the collector stops any further interest or penalty. The statutes fix no compounding method or accrual start date beyond the terms written on the certificate, so confirm both with the collector. After a first or second offering sale, the owner and other interested parties hold an absolute right to redeem for one year, then a defeasible right that lasts until the purchaser actually acquires the deed. A purchaser must serve the 90 day notice of the right to redeem before the date on which the deed can be acquired, so the practical window usually runs past the one year mark. After a third offering sale, redemption runs 90 days, and the purchaser must give notice to recorded claimants within 45 days of the sale. After a post third offering sale, there is no redemption period and the deed issues immediately. Minors and incapacitated or disabled persons have a longer right, running five years from the last payment of taxes by that person or a predecessor. The right also ends if the certificate lapses because the purchaser failed to record the deed within 18 months. To redeem, the owner pays The reasonable and customary costs of sale, determined by the collector. That means the full purchase money named in the certificate of purchase plus the costs of the sale, including the fee to record the certificate and the later release, the reasonable cost of the title search, and the postage for the required notices, together with interest at the rate on the certificate, capped at 10 percent per year. No interest is owed on any sum the purchaser paid above the delinquent taxes plus the collector's costs of sale. Subsequent taxes the purchaser paid are added with interest at 8 percent per year. Notice costs for the redemption rights notice are reimbursable only when incurred after the March 1 following a first or second offering purchase. 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
Missouri runs no separate tax deed auction alongside the lien sale. The same August sale produces a deed instead of a certificate once a parcel has cycled far enough. A parcel offered without an adequate bid at a first offering goes to a second offering the next year, then to a third offering the year after. A purchaser at a third offering receives a certificate of purchase with a 90 day redemption period. A parcel that still does not sell is re-offered every 30 days, and a purchaser at any of those post third offering sales takes an immediate collector's deed with no redemption period at all. After a first or second offering, the certificate holder reaches the deed by obtaining a title search, serving the statutory 90 day notice on the owner and every recorded claimant, filing the affidavit with the collector, paying all subsequent taxes, and recording the deed within 18 months of the sale. At a first or second offering the collector cannot sell unless a bid at least equals the delinquent taxes on the parcel with interest, penalty and costs. At a third offering the parcel goes to the highest bidder and the highest bid may not be less than the delinquent taxes, interest, penalties and costs. After the third offering, if the county's appointed trustee does not take the parcel, the collector may sell it at any time and for any amount, and a bid there is not held to any floor.
Bid at the tax deed auction
The County Collector sells the property at public auction to the highest bidder. The winning bidder must pay the full amount of the bid to the collector immediately at the sale. Chapter 140 sets no advance bidder deposit and no balance due window. A bidder who fails to pay forfeits a penalty of 25 percent of the bid to the county school fund and the parcel is offered again at once as though no sale had been made. Counties running an online or registered sale may impose their own deposit and registration terms on top of the statute, so confirm them with the collector. There is no balance due window. The bid is payable in full immediately at the sale under section 140.280. Before a collector's deed issues, the purchaser must also pay every subsequent tax that accrued after the certificate was issued, plus the deed recording fee.
Or buy over the counter
You do not have to wait for an auction. Missouri publishes no standing over the counter certificate list, but it does have a continuing route to unsold parcels. If lands are not sold at the third offering, the collector must advertise or offer them for sale once every 30 days. Where the county commission has appointed a trustee to bid in unsold parcels and that trustee declines to take a parcel after the third offering, the collector may sell it at any time and for any amount. A purchaser at any of these post third offering sales takes an immediate collector's deed with no redemption period, and must pay all taxes that fell due after the taxes covered by the advertisement before the deed issues. That deed has priority over other liens and encumbrances except real property taxes. Ask the collector for the post third offering list and its terms, because the schedule and the format vary by county. Parcels the county's trustee has taken under section 140.260 are held for the benefit of the taxing funds and are sold on order of the county commission, with the trustee's compensation capped at 10 percent of the sale price. Counties and municipalities that have created a land bank agency, or a land trust under the Land Tax Collection Law, hold and resell tax foreclosed parcels through that agency instead. The inventories are separate from the collector's sale, so check both.
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 Missouri walkthrough, then value a parcel with the due diligence guide.
Steps verified Aug 18, 2026 against Missouri 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.