Thurston County, NE tax sales
How tax lien sales work in Thurston County, seat of Pender: 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) 385-3058
On this page
How Thurston 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)
- Run by
- Thurston County Treasurer
- Frequency
- annual
- Next expected
- on the first Monday in March, 2027 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Submit a county tax lien sale registration form with a $25.00 registration fee no later than the Thursday before the first Monday in March. One bidder cannot bid for more than one company. Pay for certificates by cashier's check or money order; a personal check is accepted only if the investor files a letter of credit from their bank, and the office asks for a blank check that it fills in for the purchase total and mails back a copy. A $20.00 fee is charged for each certificate sold, plus another $20.00 for any re-assignment. Purchases by fax or telephone are not accepted, and each bidder researches the parcels on their own.
Sale format and venue
Thurston County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Thurston 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.
Get the advertised list
Use Public tax sale information and current delinquent tax list for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.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.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 Thurston County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Public tax sale information and current delinquent tax list. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
Submit a county tax lien sale registration form with a $25.00 registration fee no later than the Thursday before the first Monday in March. One bidder cannot bid for more than one company. Pay for certificates by cashier's check or money order; a personal check is accepted only if the investor files a letter of credit from their bank, and the office asks for a blank check that it fills in for the purchase total and mails back a copy. A $20.00 fee is charged for each certificate sold, plus another $20.00 for any re-assignment. Purchases by fax or telephone are not accepted, and each bidder researches the parcels on their own.
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.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
unsold certificates
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)
Thurston County Courthouse, 106 S 5th Street, Pender, NE 68047 (mailing: PO Box 625, Pender, NE 68047)
Official websiteCounty notes
- The Treasurer's office sits in the courthouse at 106 S 5th Street in Pender, with mail directed to PO Box 625, Pender, NE 68047. Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, open through the lunch hour and closed weekends and holidays. Fax is (402) 385-3533.
- Registration closes the Thursday before the first Monday in March, so an investor who waits until sale week has already missed the deadline for that year.
- Because the sale runs as a round robin, the order a bidder draws decides which parcels they get first. Arrive with a ranked target list rather than a rate strategy, since the return is fixed at 14 percent no matter who buys the certificate.
- The published advertising list carries many fractional undivided interests in quarter sections, some as small as a 1/384 interest in a forty acre tract. Read the legal description before buying, because a certificate on a fractional interest is not a certificate on the whole parcel.
- Real estate taxes go delinquent on May 1 and September 1 each year and accrue 14 percent interest from those dates, which is the pool the following March sale draws from.
- Parcels not taken at the public sale stay available through the county's private tax sale, so an investor who misses the March date can still buy certificates by contacting the Treasurer.
Nebraska rules
- 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.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Does Thurston County, Nebraska sell tax liens or tax deeds?
When is the Thurston County tax certificate sale?
How often does Thurston County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Thurston County tax sale list?
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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