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Tax Sale Atlas

Steele County, ND tax sales

Tax Sale Atlas maps the Steele County, ND tax sale, one of 2,606 counties in 31 states. North Dakota sells the deed itself, so no statutory investor interest rate applies. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from state rules plus what the county publishes on Sep 4, 2026.

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

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

Format
In person
Registration
Steele County posts no bidder registration form and no printed terms of sale.
County office
(701) 524-2110
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Sep 4, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Steele County sells delinquent taxes

No tax lien certificate sale

North Dakota sells no tax lien certificate to investors. Under N.D.C.C. 57-28-09 the county auditor issues the tax deed to the county itself once the lien is foreclosed, so the county is the only party ever holding the delinquency.

Tax deed sale

In person
Run by
Steele County Auditor's Office
Frequency
annual
Registration
Steele County posts no bidder registration form and no printed terms of sale.
Sale list
Delinquent tax property notice, Steele County Auditor's Office
When it runs
North Dakota fixes the annual sale of tax-forfeited land on the third Tuesday of November, and Steele County follows that statewide date. The county posts no sale date of its own; the Auditor's foreclosure notice that runs ahead of the sale gave owners until October 2, 2025 to redeem before title passed to the county.
Registration and deposit

Steele County posts no bidder registration form and no printed terms of sale. Call the Auditor's Office at (701) 524-2110 ahead of the November sale to confirm where it is held, what a bidder must bring, and how the purchase price is paid.

Sale format and venue
Steele County publishes no standing sale list online. The Auditor's Office instead posts one document a year, a notice of expiration of the period of redemption, naming each parcel under a delinquent tax lien with its record title holder, legal description, and the amount required to redeem. Parcels nobody redeems by the stated deadline become the absolute property of the county in fee and go to the November auction. The county advertises no online auction platform, so bidding runs in person through the Auditor's Office in Finley, which also keeps the record of county-owned property obtained through tax proceedings.
Source: Steele County Auditor's Office, North Dakota· Verified Sep 4, 2026

Steele County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Steele 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. If the parcels on this list are vacant land rather than houses, what buying land at a tax sale hands you is the place to start.

  1. Get the advertised list

    Use Delinquent tax property notice, Steele County Auditor's Office for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.

  2. Register to bid

    Steele County posts no bidder registration form and no printed terms of sale. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    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 Steele County Auditor's Office as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Steele County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Delinquent tax property notice, Steele County Auditor's Office. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Steele County posts no bidder registration form and no printed terms of sale. Call the Auditor's Office at (701) 524-2110 ahead of the November sale to confirm where it is held, what a bidder must bring, and how the purchase price is paid.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the North Dakota due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth. Which liens survive is state law, so read what survives a tax deed in North Dakota before you price the title work.

  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

Any parcel that does not sell at the November auction may be bought from the county auditor at private sale before the next annual sale, for not less than its minimum sale price. Some boards also list unsold parcels through licensed real estate brokers.

New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what North Dakota calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.

Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.

County offices

Tax sale office

Steele County Auditor's Office

(701) 524-2110

201 Washington Ave W, 2nd Floor, PO Box 275, Finley, ND 58230-0275

Official website

County notes

  • Steele County is among North Dakota's smallest counties and its tax-forfeited inventory is small to match. The 2025 notice named farm land plus lots in Luverne, Sharon and Hope, with amounts required to redeem under $300 per parcel.
  • Ask the Auditor's Office about parcels that drew no bid at a past November auction. North Dakota lets a buyer take those at private sale before the next annual auction, and this office holds the county-owned property record.
  • Pull taxes and legal description before you bid. The county links a Tyler iTax property tax portal and a Sidwell parcel viewer from its home page, and both cover Steele County parcels.
  • The Auditor's Office and the Treasurer's Office sit on the second floor at 201 Washington Ave W in Finley but use separate PO boxes. Send tax payments to the Treasurer at PO Box 257 and sale correspondence to the Auditor at PO Box 275.

North Dakota rules

Redemption
There are two distinct windows and neither is a redemption against a private buyer. Up to October 1, paying the amount in the foreclosure notice stops the process. After the tax deed vests in the county, the former owner, the former owner's executor or administrator, or a parent, spouse or child of the former owner may repurchase the property so long as the county still holds tax title, for cash or on a contract for deed. A city holding a delinquent special assessment has a prior right to buy at the appraised value, exercisable within 30 days of the auditor's notice. Once the county sells at the annual auction, the purchaser's deed is not subject to any of this.
Deed deposit
None. Chapter 57-28 sets no bidder deposit and no registration fee. Each parcel is sold at auction to the highest qualified bidder for no less than the minimum sale price, and the terms are settled at the sale: the full amount in cash paid promptly to the county treasurer, or one quarter of the purchase price in cash with the balance in equal annual installments over not more than ten years under a contract for deed. A bidder who owes delinquent property taxes in any North Dakota county is disqualified from purchasing.
Governing statute
N.D.C.C. ch. 57-28

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 North Dakotarules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Steele County, North Dakota sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Tax deeds. North Dakota sells no tax lien certificates to investors; the County Auditor sells the property itself at a public tax sale.

How often does Steele County hold tax deed sales?

Steele County holds its tax deed sale once a year. 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. North Dakota's redemption rule: None after the county's annual sale. Before that, the owner may satisfy the tax lien up to the October 1 foreclosure date, and after the county takes the deed a statutory right of repurchase runs for as long as the tax title remains in the county. Call the Steele County Auditor's Office 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 Steele County tax sale list?

Steele County posts its tax sale list at steelecountynd.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 Sep 4, 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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Compare sale calendars, platforms, and rules across the state, or read the guides before you bid.

North Dakota tax salesDue diligence guide
Call Steele County Auditor's Office