Kearney County, NE tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •The County Treasurer is Jody Payne. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., open through the lunch hour and closed weekends and holidays.
• •The sale is a bidder rotation rather than an auction. Bidders draw for position, and the drawn order decides who picks first; each round gives every bidder one choice to purchase or pass, and a passed parcel rolls to the next bidder until it sells.
• •Because nothing is bid down and no premium is paid, the yield is the same 14 percent for everyone. The competition here is over which parcels you reach in the rotation, not over what you earn.
• •Registration closes the Thursday before the first Monday in March, and the $25.00 fee has to arrive with the form. A bidder who shows up on sale morning without both cannot participate that year.
• •One bidder cannot bid on behalf of more than one company, which caps how much of the rotation a single investor group can occupy.
• •Bring a cashier's check or money order. A personal check works only if you have already given the Treasurer a letter of credit from your bank.
• •Budget $20.00 for each certificate issued and $25.00 for any later re-assignment. The Treasurer will store certificates in the office and forward redemption money to you if you ask.
• •Parcels not taken at the public sale move to a private tax sale, so delinquent taxes remain available from the Treasurer's office after sale day.
• •The Treasurer publishes the delinquent list through Nebraska Taxes Online and in the local paper for three consecutive weeks in February, and posts the sale instructions, the registration form and a W-9 on its own tax sale page.
• •The county's own guidance describes the district court foreclosure route after a three year redemption period and points bidders to Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1801 through 77-1941. Nebraska's treasurer's tax deed route runs under those same sections. The Treasurer's office will not advise on either path, so line up counsel before your certificates mature.
• •The sale is held at the Kearney County Courthouse, 424 N Colorado in Minden. There is no online bidding option for this county.

Nebraska rules

Max interest rate

14% per year, fixed by statute (nothing is bid)Neb. Rev. Stat. 45-104.01 - Interest; political subdivisions; delinquent taxes; special assessmentsNeb. Rev. Stat. 45-104.01Verified Aug 23, 2026

Minimum return

No statutory floor; every certificate earns the same statutory rateNeb. Rev. Stat. 45-104.01 - Interest; political subdivisions; delinquent taxes; special assessmentsNeb. Rev. Stat. 45-104.01Verified Aug 23, 2026

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.Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1824 - Real property taxes; redemption from sale; when and how madeNeb. Rev. Stat. 77-1824Verified Aug 23, 2026

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.Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1838 - Real property taxes; issuance of treasurer's tax deed; execution, acknowledgment, and recording; effect; lien for special assessments; pay surplus to previous ownerNeb. Rev. Stat. 77-1838Verified Aug 23, 2026

Governing statute

Neb. Rev. Stat. Chapter 77, Article 18 (77-1801 et seq.)Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1801 - Real property taxes; collection by sale; whenNeb. Rev. Stat. 77-1801Verified Aug 23, 2026

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.

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