Each step below is drawn from Nebraska 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
Nebraska property taxes for a given levy year are due on December 31 of that year, and from that date the tax is a first lien on the real property until it is paid or extinguished. The bill is paid in halves: the first half becomes delinquent on May 1 and the second half on September 1 of the following year, except in counties of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, where the two halves become delinquent April 1 and August 1. Delinquent taxes owed to a Nebraska political subdivision carry interest at 14 percent per year. Real estate on which the taxes are still not paid in full on or before the first Monday of March after they become delinquent is subject to the annual tax sale, which is why a Nebraska certificate sold in March 2027 covers taxes levied in 2025. Understand this before you commit any money.
Find the advertised delinquent list
Before the certificate sale, the County Treasurer advertises the delinquent parcels. One public sale a year in every county, held on the first Monday of March. The treasurer makes out the list of real property subject to sale and the accompanying notice not less than four and not more than six weeks before that date, publishes the list once a week for three consecutive weeks in a legal newspaper starting the first week in February, posts a copy in the treasurer's office, and adds a twenty dollar advertising charge to each parcel. The sale opens on the day named in the notice and continues from day to day, Sundays and holidays excepted, until every listed parcel has been sold or offered. The treasurer also files the county's list with the Property Tax Administrator, who publishes a compiled statewide list on the Department of Revenue website. Pull that list for your target county and shortlist the parcels worth researching.
Register, then buy at the amount due
Register with the state and the county ahead of the sale, and be ready to pay the full amount due rather than a deposit. There is no auction in the ordinary sense. A certificate sells for the amount due on it and every one of them earns the statutory 14 percent, so the sale allocates access rather than price. Ask the county who holds priority ahead of you and what you must file, and by when, to be eligible at all. There is no statutory minimum return, so what you earn is decided at the sale. There is no bidding at a Nebraska tax sale, so a zero bid is not a thing that can happen. Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1807(2)(c) says the person who offers to pay the amount of taxes, delinquent interest, and costs due on a parcel is the purchaser, which fixes the price at the payoff figure, and Neb. Rev. Stat. 45-104.01 fixes the rate at 14 percent for everyone. What the sale allocates is access to parcels. The treasurer announces the bidding rules at the opening of the auction and those rules bind every bidder for the whole sale. Where the sale runs in the round robin format the statute spells out, the treasurer counts the registered bidders present, puts one sequentially numbered ticket per bidder in a receptacle, draws every ticket by hand, and the number on a bidder's ticket sets the order in which that bidder may take one parcel per round. Rounds repeat until every listed parcel is sold or every bidder has consecutively passed, and a bidder who is not present when their turn comes is treated as having passed. Bidders arriving after a round has started join at the end of the next round. Registration is with the county treasurer before the sale, costs a non refundable twenty five dollars, and a foreign corporation must show it maintains a registered agent for service of process with the Secretary of State. One exception overrides everything: if a municipal land bank gives an automatically accepted bid under Neb. Rev. Stat. 18-3417, the land bank is the purchaser and no public or private auction is held on that parcel at all.
Collect interest or wait out redemption
Interest runs at 14 percent per year on the sum stated in the certificate, from the date of purchase to the date of redemption. Because the certificate sells for exactly the taxes, delinquent interest, and costs due, the rate runs on the whole amount the buyer paid; no premium exists to dilute it. Subsequent taxes the holder pays on the parcel are added to the certificate and earn the same 14 percent from the date of each payment. Nebraska sets no minimum return and no penalty floor, so a certificate redeemed a week after the sale earns roughly a week of interest and nothing more. The redemption figure also carries back the twenty five dollar certificate issuance fee and the one hundred fifty dollar administrative fee charged to the owner when the certificate is issued. 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. To redeem, the owner pays The sum stated in the certificate, plus interest at 14 percent per year from the date of purchase to the date of redemption, plus every subsequent tax the holder paid, whether for a year before or after the sale, with interest at the same 14 percent from the date of each payment. The total also includes the twenty five dollar certificate issuance fee charged under Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1823 and the one hundred fifty dollar administrative fee charged to the owner under Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1818(2), which the treasurer collects for the benefit of the certificate holder. Redemption is paid to the county treasurer for the holder's use, and the treasurer notifies the holder and pays the money out on return of the certificate. If they redeem, that payoff is your return; if they never do, the certificate becomes your path to the property.
Or buy over the counter
You do not have to wait for an auction. Nebraska has two over the counter routes and both run through the county treasurer. First, once the March public sale closes and the treasurer has made the return to the county clerk, any parcel that remained unsold for want of bidders must be sold at private sale at the treasurer's office to any person who will pay the taxes, penalty, and costs. The certificate issued that way carries the extra statement that the parcel was offered at public sale but not sold for want of bidders, and the words sold for taxes at private sale. The same section also requires the treasurer to sell all real property in the county on which taxes remain unpaid and delinquent for any previous year. Second, where the county board bought a parcel for the county because it stayed unsold, the treasurer holds that certificate and may assign it at any time to any person willing to buy, for the amount on the face of the certificate plus 14 percent interest from the date of the certificate, with the county clerk endorsing the assignment. A twenty five dollar issuance fee is waived when the certificate is issued in the county's name but becomes due from the buyer on assignment. One right of first refusal applies: if the parcel sits inside a municipality that has created a land bank, the treasurer must notify the land bank of the county's purchase as soon as practical and give it the first opportunity to acquire the certificate. Cities, villages, school districts, drainage districts, and irrigation districts may also buy certificates on parcels inside their boundaries, or buy the county's certificate. Nebraska maintains no lands available list and no struck to the state inventory, because parcels are never struck to the state. Unsold parcels go to private sale under Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1814, or are bought in the county's name under Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1809 and held as an assignable certificate. The statewide substitute for a lands available list is the Nebraska Delinquent Real Property List that the Department of Revenue publishes each February under Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1804(2), which carries every delinquent parcel in all 93 counties in one spreadsheet.
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 Nebraska walkthrough, then value a parcel with the due diligence guide.
Steps verified Aug 23, 2026 against Nebraska 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.