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Tax Sale Atlas

Garden County, NE tax sales

How tax lien sales work in Garden County, seat of Oshkosh: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.

New to tax sales? Read how Nebraska tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.

Next sale
Nebraska holds no tax deed auction.
Format
In person
County office
(308) 772-3622
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 24, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Garden County sells delinquent taxes

From lien to deed

Nebraska holds no county tax deed auction. A certificate holder reaches title down one of two roads, and which road is available depends on how much equity is in the parcel. Three years after the date of the tax sale, and after serving the Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1831 notice at least three months in advance, the holder may apply to the county treasurer for a tax deed. That road is open only where 110 percent of the parcel's assessed value at the time of the application, less the amount that would be needed to redeem it, is twenty five thousand dollars or less. Where the equity is larger the holder must instead foreclose the certificate in the district court of the county where the land lies, in the same manner as a real estate mortgage foreclosure. Either step has to be taken within nine months after the expiration of three years from the date of sale, or nine months after two years where the holder is a land bank and the parcel qualifies as vacant and abandoned. Missing the window voids the certificate.

Tax certificate sale (lien)

In person
Run by
Garden County Treasurer
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
First Monday in March each year.
Next expected
on the first Monday in March, 2027 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
Sale list
Tax sale advertising list and investor forms
When it runs
First Monday in March each year. The Treasurer states: "The county Tax Sale is held the first Monday in March each year at 9:00 A.M. at the County Courthouse." The published notice adds that the sale commences at 9:00 a.m. in the Commissioner's Room at the Garden County Courthouse and continues from day to day until every parcel on the delinquent listing has been offered. Once the public sale closes, taxes still unsold are offered through a private tax sale at the Treasurer's Office.
Registration and deposit

A $25.00 registration fee and a completed Investor Pre-Registration Form must reach the Treasurer's Office no later than the Thursday before the first Monday in March. The form asks for the bidder name exactly as it appears on the W-9, mailing address, contact person, phone, and tax ID or Social Security number, and a Form W-9 accompanies it. One bidder cannot bid for more than one company. Sign-in, registration and fees must be completed before the sale in the Treasurer's Office. Payment for certificates is by cashier's check or money order; a personal check is accepted only when the investor supplies a letter of credit from their bank. The county charges $20.00 for each certificate sold and another $20.00 for any re-assignment. Purchases by fax or telephone are not accepted.

Sale format and venue
Certificates are allocated by rotation, not by competitive bidding. Each registered investor draws a number that fixes the order of choice, and the Treasurer states that "Each round shall consist of one choice per bidder; he may purchase or pass." A passed parcel goes to the next investor in order until someone takes it, and the rounds continue until all parcels are sold. Nothing is bid down, so the buyer pays the delinquent taxes, interest and advertising cost on the parcel chosen and the certificate earns the statutory 14 percent. The sale runs in person at the courthouse in Oshkosh and there is no online auction platform. The Treasurer will hold purchased certificates in the office for safekeeping and remit on redemption if the investor asks. Subsequent taxes must be paid each year as they become delinquent, redemption runs three years, and the county states that a holder then has six months to foreclose on the property.

Garden County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Garden 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.

  1. Get the advertised list

    Use Tax sale advertising list and investor forms for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.
  2. Register to bid

    Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.
  3. Sale day

    Nebraska holds no tax deed auction. 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.
  4. Confirm with the office

    If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use County Treasurer for the administrative deed, or the sheriff under a district court decree as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Garden County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Tax sale advertising list and investor forms. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.
  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    A $25.00 registration fee and a completed Investor Pre-Registration Form must reach the Treasurer's Office no later than the Thursday before the first Monday in March. The form asks for the bidder name exactly as it appears on the W-9, mailing address, contact person, phone, and tax ID or Social Security number, and a Form W-9 accompanies it. One bidder cannot bid for more than one company. Sign-in, registration and fees must be completed before the sale in the Treasurer's Office. Payment for certificates is by cashier's check or money order; a personal check is accepted only when the investor supplies a letter of credit from their bank. The county charges $20.00 for each certificate sold and another $20.00 for any re-assignment. Purchases by fax or telephone are not accepted.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the Nebraska due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth.
  4. 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

Two routes reach parcels outside the March sale, and both run through the county treasurer. Any parcel that stayed unsold at the public sale for want of bidders must then be sold at private sale at the treasurer's office to any person who pays the taxes, penalty, and costs; the certificate issued that way is marked sold for taxes at private sale. Separately, where the county board bought a parcel in the county's name because it drew no bidder, the treasurer holds that certificate and may assign it at any time to anyone willing to pay the face amount plus 14 percent interest from the date of the certificate, with the county clerk endorsing the assignment and the twenty five dollar issuance fee due from the buyer. If the parcel lies inside a municipality that has created a land bank, the treasurer must give the land bank the first opportunity to acquire the county's certificate. Ask the county treasurer which parcels are open to private sale and which county held certificates are available for assignment.

New to this path? Read how over-the-counter certificates work.

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County offices

Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)

Garden County Treasurer

(308) 772-3622

611 Main Street, PO Box 350, Oshkosh, NE 69154

Official website

County notes

  • Sheri McCord is the County Treasurer. The office is open 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and stays open through the lunch hour.
  • Registration closes the Thursday before the sale, so an investor who arrives on the first Monday in March without a form and the $25.00 fee already on file cannot take part.
  • Because parcels are allocated by a round-robin draw rather than an auction, the yield is the fixed 14 percent and the competition is over which parcels you get to pick, not over price.
  • Delinquent parcels are advertised in the local newspaper for three consecutive weeks in February and posted on the Treasurer's tax sale page, which carries the advertising list as a PDF alongside the pre-registration form and W-9. The county also points investors to Nebraska Taxes Online for the public delinquent list.
  • Parcels left unsold when the public sale closes move to a private tax sale at the Treasurer's Office, so certificates remain available over the counter after the March sale.
  • The county's sale notice warns that investors add fees of $100 or more for each certificate issued, paid by the property owner at redemption and collected by the investor along with the delinquent interest.
  • The Treasurer's office states it will not provide guidance or legal advice on tax sale certificates and points investors to Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1801 through 77-1941, which cover both routes to title: the treasurer's tax deed after the statutory notice is served, and foreclosure in district court.
  • Most of the delinquent listing is large ranch and irrigated farm acreage in sections outside Oshkosh, Lewellen and Lisco, with a smaller number of town lots, so parcel research should assume rural land rather than housing.

Nebraska rules

Max interest rate
14% per year, fixed by statute (nothing is bid)
Minimum return
No statutory floor; every certificate earns the same statutory rate
Redemption
Nebraska does not run a redemption clock that simply expires. The right to redeem stays open until the certificate holder files the application for a tax deed with the county treasurer, and the treasurer may not accept a redemption after the close of business on the day that application arrives. Because the holder cannot apply until three years after the sale, and must first serve a notice at least three months before applying that says in sixteen point type UNLESS YOU ACT YOU WILL LOSE THIS PROPERTY, the ordinary parcel carries a redemption window of about three years and three months and the owner gets a written warning inside it. Several conditions of the parcel or of its owner change that window, and they are recorded as tracks below. On the foreclosure road the window is different again: redemption stays open until the district court confirms the sheriff's sale.
Surplus proceeds
Nebraska returns the owner's equity on both roads. On the administrative road, within thirty days after the deed is recorded the grantee must pay the surplus to the previous owner. The surplus is the resale price if the grantee has already sold the parcel, or the assessed value shown in the county assessor's records at the time of the deed application if the grantee has not, less the amount that would have been needed to redeem the parcel, less the amount needed to pay all encumbrances on it, and less an administrative fee of five hundred dollars, or reasonable attorney fees in the case of a judicial foreclosure, which the grantee may keep to offset the cost of getting the deed. On the foreclosure road, any surplus remaining after all costs and taxes on a parcel are satisfied is applied the way surplus is applied in a mortgage foreclosure, and proceeds from one parcel may not be applied to the taxes on another except as the decree directs.
Governing statute
Neb. Rev. Stat. Chapter 77, Article 18 (77-1801 et seq.)

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.

See the full Nebraskarules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Garden County, Nebraska sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Tax lien certificates. In Nebraska investors buy the lien, not the property; the County Treasurer runs the sale.

When is the Garden County tax certificate sale?

First Monday in March each year. The Treasurer states: "The county Tax Sale is held the first Monday in March each year at 9:00 A.M. at the County Courthouse." The published notice adds that the sale commences at 9:00 a.m. in the Commissioner's Room at the Garden County Courthouse and continues from day to day until every parcel on the delinquent listing has been offered. Once the public sale closes, taxes still unsold are offered through a private tax sale at the Treasurer's Office. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.

How often does Garden County hold tax deed sales?

Garden County holds its tax deed sale none. Nebraska holds no tax deed auction. 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. Nebraska's redemption rule: 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. Call the County Treasurer for the administrative deed, or the sheriff under a district court decree 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 Garden County tax sale list?

Garden County posts its tax sale list at gardencounty.ne.gov. 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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