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Tax Sale Atlas

Otoe County, NE tax sales

How tax lien sales work in Otoe County, seat of Nebraska City: 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
402-873-9510
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 24, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Otoe 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
Otoe County Treasurer's Office
Frequency
annual
Next expected
on the first Monday in March, 2027 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
Sale list
Final Investor Tax Sale List (PDF)
When it runs
First Monday in March at 9:00 a.m. The Treasurer states "The Public Sale is the first Monday in March at 9:00 a.m." and that "The Public Sale closes after all parcels are offered for sale." Initial sign-in and buyer number selection begin at 8:00 a.m. in the hallway outside the Treasurer's office, courthouse doors open at 8:00 a.m., and the sale runs "promptly at 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m."
Registration and deposit

Pre-registration is required and closes the Thursday before the first Monday in March, at 4:30 p.m. Send the Otoe County Tax Sale Registration Form (buyer information sheet) and a W-9 by mail, by fax to 402-674-2724, or by email to [email protected], together with a non-refundable $25.00 registration fee for each investor or company represented. The fee may be mailed or paid online with a small surcharge, and the county states that "Registrations Will Not Be Processed Until Payment is Made" and "Incomplete Registration Forms Will NOT Be Processed." A blank check payable to Otoe County Treasurer must accompany pre-registration; the office fills in the total for certificates purchased and sends you a copy. Buyers must be at least 19 years of age and show ID. One person may represent up to five investors or companies. A buyer who arrives late joins the end of the rotation after the current buying round finishes.

Sale format and venue
Otoe County runs a live, in person certificate sale at the courthouse, not an online auction, and the Treasurer does not allow purchases by fax or telephone. Nothing is bid. The sale is conducted in Round Robin format: "Numbers are assigned after the buyers have signed in. The number assigned shall represent the order in which each 'buyer' will sit." Each buyer in turn is offered a parcel and may purchase it or pass, and "Should they pass, the parcel will be offered to the next 'buyer' until that parcel is purchased, continuing with each parcel until all parcels are sold." A buyer who passes waits until their next turn. Parcels are offered in high dollar to low dollar order from one final list, so a buyer pays the delinquent taxes plus interest and advertising rather than competing on price or rate. Interest is fixed at 14% from the date of sale to the date of redemption. A non-refundable $25.00 fee applies to each certificate issued, no certificate is issued if the taxes are paid before issuance, and processing takes about ten business days. The Treasurer holds original certificates and paid tax receipts for safekeeping, mails copies, and sends redemption checks within ten business days once the certificates are returned; the $25.00 certificate fee is not reimbursed at redemption. Reassigning a certificate costs $25.00 and is never done on the day of the sale. Delinquent taxes are published in the Nebraska City News Press for three consecutive weeks beginning the first week of February, and the final investor list is posted on the county website the Tuesday before the sale. Amounts in the newspaper and on the list exclude delinquent interest, and an asterisk marks a parcel with more than one delinquent year. Parcels paid through the Friday before the sale, parcels in bankruptcy, and problem taxes are struck from the master list and called out as the sale reaches them. The county names the exact sale room closer to the sale date; sign-in is in the hallway outside the Treasurer's office. Cell phones must be turned off and the sale is not held for latecomers.
Source: Public Tax Sale, Otoe County Treasurer· Verified Aug 24, 2026

Otoe County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Otoe 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 Final Investor Tax Sale List (PDF) 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 Otoe County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Final Investor Tax Sale List (PDF). Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Pre-registration is required and closes the Thursday before the first Monday in March, at 4:30 p.m. Send the Otoe County Tax Sale Registration Form (buyer information sheet) and a W-9 by mail, by fax to 402-674-2724, or by email to [email protected], together with a non-refundable $25.00 registration fee for each investor or company represented. The fee may be mailed or paid online with a small surcharge, and the county states that "Registrations Will Not Be Processed Until Payment is Made" and "Incomplete Registration Forms Will NOT Be Processed." A blank check payable to Otoe County Treasurer must accompany pre-registration; the office fills in the total for certificates purchased and sends you a copy. Buyers must be at least 19 years of age and show ID. One person may represent up to five investors or companies. A buyer who arrives late joins the end of the rotation after the current buying round finishes.

  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.

Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.

County offices

Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)

Otoe County Treasurer's Office

402-873-9510

PO Box 723, Nebraska City, NE 68410. The office is in the Otoe County Courthouse, 1021 Central Avenue, Nebraska City, NE 68410.

Official website

County notes

  • Nicki Kreifels is County Treasurer and Shelly Denniston is Deputy. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
  • Certificates are allocated by round robin rotation, not by an auction. Every registered buyer draws a number at sign-in and takes parcels in turn at the full delinquent amount, so the 14% statutory rate is fixed and there is nothing to bid down or bid up.
  • Registration closes the Thursday before the sale, so a buyer who has not sent the form, the W-9 and the $25.00 fee by then cannot take part that year.
  • Two separate paths lead to title and both start with holding the certificate for three years while paying each year's subsequent taxes as they become delinquent. The Treasurer's page states that if the owner does not redeem "by the end of three years, you will have nine months to foreclose on the property," and the office says plainly that it "WILL NOT provide any guidance or legal advice pertaining to tax sale certificates." A holder may instead apply for a treasurer's tax deed after serving the statutory notice. Retain counsel before a certificate matures.
  • Budget $25.00 for registration plus $25.00 for every certificate issued. Neither fee is refundable, and the certificate fee is not repaid when the parcel redeems.
  • The exact sale room inside the courthouse is named closer to the sale date. Plan to arrive for the 8:00 a.m. sign-in in the hallway outside the Treasurer's office, and expect to sit in your assigned rotation order for the full session.
  • Mail registrations and fees to the Treasurer at PO Box 723, Nebraska City, NE 68410. A sidebar on the registration page shows a street address in Gering, which is not an Otoe County office.
  • The printed instructions sheet still names an older county web address. The final investor list and the registration forms are posted on the current county site under Departments, then Treasurer.

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 Otoe 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 Otoe County tax certificate sale?

First Monday in March at 9:00 a.m. The Treasurer states "The Public Sale is the first Monday in March at 9:00 a.m." and that "The Public Sale closes after all parcels are offered for sale." Initial sign-in and buyer number selection begin at 8:00 a.m. in the hallway outside the Treasurer's office, courthouse doors open at 8:00 a.m., and the sale runs "promptly at 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m." The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.

How often does Otoe County hold tax deed sales?

Otoe 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 Otoe County tax sale list?

Otoe County posts its tax sale list at otoecountyne.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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Call Otoe County Treasurer's Office