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Tax Sale Atlas

Walworth County, SD tax sales

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

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

Next sale
There is no fixed annual date.
Format
In person
Registration
Set county by county.
County office
(605) 649-7737
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 31, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Walworth County sells delinquent taxes

Tax certificate sale (lien)

In person
Run by
Walworth County Treasurer
Frequency
annual
Next expected
on the third Monday in December, 2026 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
When it runs
Third Monday of December each year, between nine a.m. and four p.m., at the Walworth County Courthouse, 4304 4th Avenue in Selby. The treasurer may adjourn the sale from day to day until every tax certificate has been offered. State law fixes this date, so it is the same in Walworth County as in every other South Dakota county and it does not move from year to year.
Registration and deposit

Bidding is in person at the courthouse, so there is no online bidder account to open and no deposit is posted in advance. Call the Treasurer at (605) 649-7737 before the third Monday in December and ask two things: first, whether the commission has adopted the resolution that lets the county sell certificates to buyers at all, and second, the arrival time and the payment methods the office accepts. Certificates are offered parcel by parcel in the order the parcels appear on the tax list. The winning bidder pays the full delinquent taxes, interest and costs while naming the lowest yearly interest rate, ten percent a year is the ceiling and there is no floor, so decide your walk-away rate before you drive to Selby.

Sale format and venue
Confirm with the treasurer that Walworth County is actually selling certificates before you plan a trip. SDCL 10-23-28.1 bars a county from selling any tax certificate unless its board of county commissioners adopts a resolution waiving that prohibition, and no such resolution appears among the ordinances and resolutions Walworth County publishes or in its commission meeting minutes. The commission took the question up in February 2022, recorded that a resolution would be required, and did not adopt one. What the county has done in every year since is the opposite route: the treasurer bids the certificates off in the county's own name, the county later takes tax deeds, has the properties appraised, and sells them at public auction on the front steps of the courthouse after two weeks of advertising. Plan on the December sale being closed to outside bidders until the treasurer tells you otherwise, because the statutory date sits on the calendar whether or not investors can buy. If the county has waived, note that SDCL 10-25-39.2 requires anyone other than a county who takes a tax deed to offer the property at public auction within one year of the deed and return the surplus to the former owner, so a South Dakota certificate is a way to be repaid with interest rather than a way to keep land cheaply.
Source: SDCL 10-23-7, Time and Place of Annual Sale, South Dakota Legislature· Verified Aug 31, 2026

Tax deed sale

Run by
County Treasurer issues the deed; the county then sells the property under SDCL chapter 6-13, commonly through the county auditor
Frequency
as needed
Typical timing
There is no fixed annual date.
Registration
Set county by county.
When it runs
There is no fixed annual date. A tax deed sale happens parcel by parcel once a tax deed has issued. The certificate holder, which in most counties is the county itself, may begin the deed process no sooner than three years and no later than six years after the certificate sale by serving a notice of intention to take a tax deed. Sixty days after the affidavit of completed service is filed with the treasurer, redemption ends and the treasurer prepares the deed. SDCL 10-25-39.1 then requires the county to declare the property surplus and sell it within one year, with notice published at least twice and the first publication at least thirty days before the sale. Watch the county auditor and the county's legal notices for those publications.
Registration and deposit

Set county by county. SDCL chapter 6-13 lets the county take sealed bids opened at a commission meeting, sell at public auction to the highest bidder, or list the property with one or more licensed real estate brokers, and it prescribes no bidder registration. Sealed bids are filed with the county's fiscal officer and opened at the time named in the published notice. The board may reject every bid, but if it accepts one it must be the highest. A county may refuse a bid from any person who is not current on all property taxes due within that county. No deposit is required on a cash sale; a buyer taking an installment contract deposits the cash portion as soon as the bid is accepted, and gets it back if the board declines to approve the sale. Confirm the bid form, the deadline and the payment terms with the county auditor.

Sale format and venue
This is the sale most South Dakota bidders can actually take part in, and it is a sale of the property itself rather than of a lien. Costs of taking the deed and of the sale come out of the proceeds first, the remainder is prorated to the taxing districts until all tax and interest is paid, and any surplus goes back to the prior owner of record, or to the Unclaimed Property Division if that owner cannot be found within one hundred eighty days. A private certificate holder who takes a tax deed is under the same duty: SDCL 10-25-39.2 requires that holder to offer the property at public auction within one year and entitles the holder only to what a redemption would have paid. Title vests in fee simple but remains subject to any claim the state or county has for taxes, liens or encumbrances and to past-due installments of municipal special assessments, and counties commonly convey by quitclaim deed and expect the buyer to bring a quiet title action. The former owner has one hundred eighty days after the deed is recorded to sue to recover possession or to avoid the deed.
Source: S.D. Codified Laws 10-25-39.1 - County acquisition of real property; sale of property; notice of sale requiredSDCL 10-25-39.1· Verified Aug 27, 2026

Walworth County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Walworth 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

    A county sale-list URL is still being verified. Use the office and platform details on this page before relying on a copied list.

  2. Register to bid

    Set county by county. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    There is no fixed annual date. 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 issues the deed; the county then sells the property under SDCL chapter 6-13, commonly through the county auditor as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Walworth County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    The county sale-list URL is still being verified. Use the county office contacts below and confirm the advertised parcels directly before you price a bid.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Set county by county. SDCL chapter 6-13 lets the county take sealed bids opened at a commission meeting, sell at public auction to the highest bidder, or list the property with one or more licensed real estate brokers, and it prescribes no bidder registration. Sealed bids are filed with the county's fiscal officer and opened at the time named in the published notice. The board may reject every bid, but if it accepts one it must be the highest. A county may refuse a bid from any person who is not current on all property taxes due within that county. No deposit is required on a cash sale; a buyer taking an installment contract deposits the cash portion as soon as the bid is accepted, and gets it back if the board declines to approve the sale. Confirm the bid form, the deadline and the payment terms with the county auditor.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the South 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 South 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

Three routes exist and each runs through a county office. A certificate that stayed unsold for want of bidders must be sold at private sale at the treasurer's office to any person who pays the taxes, penalty and costs due. A person may also buy the county's interest in a certificate the treasurer bid off, by paying the taxes, penalty, interest and costs of sale and transfer plus every unpaid and subsequent tax, after which the treasurer assigns the certificate and the buyer holds the rights of an original purchaser. Both routes are closed in a county whose commissioners have not waived SDCL 10-23-28.1. Separately, tax deed property the county offered that drew no bid may be sold at private sale within twelve months for not less than ninety percent of the appraised value, without further publication or appraisal. Ask the county treasurer about certificates and the county auditor about unsold deeded parcels.

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

Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.

County offices

Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)

Walworth County Treasurer

(605) 649-7737

PO Box 325, Selby, SD 57472-0325. Walworth County Courthouse, 4304 4th Avenue, Selby, SD 57472.

Official website

County notes

  • The Walworth County Treasurer runs the December certificate sale, issues the certificate and later issues the tax deed. Treasurer's office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the courthouse at 4304 4th Avenue in Selby, and mail goes to PO Box 325, Selby, SD 57472-0325.
  • The Register of Deeds records the deed. That office is at PO Box 159, Selby, SD 57472-0159, reachable at (605) 649-7057, open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
  • The county posts no delinquent list and no sale page online. Notice of the sale and the delinquent property list run in the county's two official newspapers, the Selby Record and the Mobridge Tribune, which the commission redesignates each January. Watch both papers in the week before the third Monday in December, and call the treasurer if you want the list read to you.
  • Certificates left unsold at the December sale can normally be bought afterward at private sale at the treasurer's office for the taxes, penalty and costs due, under SDCL 10-23-12. That counter route closes along with the auction while the prohibition in SDCL 10-23-28.1 stands unwaived, so ask the treasurer about both in the same call.
  • County-owned land that has gone all the way to tax deed is sold separately from the December certificate sale and is the surface most likely to be open to buyers here. The commission has the parcels appraised, sets the auction date by motion at a regular meeting, advertises it for two weeks, and holds the sale on the front steps of the courthouse in Selby. Watch the commission agendas and minutes for the motion that sets a date.
  • Mobridge is the county's largest town and generates much of the delinquent inventory, so the Mobridge Tribune is worth reading alongside the Selby Record even though the sale itself is held in Selby.

South Dakota rules

Max interest rate
10% per year, bid down at auction
Minimum return
No statutory minimum; interest accrues at your bid rate
Redemption
There is no fixed redemption deadline that starts at the sale. SDCL 10-24-1 lets any person redeem at any time before a tax deed is issued. What sets the outer limit is the deed process: SDCL 10-25-1 bars the certificate holder from starting that process until three years after the certificate sale, and SDCL 10-25-8 keeps the right to redeem alive until sixty days after the affidavit of completed service of the notice of intention is filed with the treasurer. Missing that sixty-day window passes the owner's, mortgagee's and lienholder's interests to the certificate holder. After the deed is recorded, the former owner has one hundred eighty days to bring an action to recover possession or to avoid the deed, which is a limitation period rather than a further right to redeem.
Deed deposit
Chapter 6-13 sets no deposit for a cash sale. A buyer taking an installment contract must deposit the cash portion with the fiscal officer as soon as the bid is accepted, and the board can still decline to approve the sale, in which case the deposit is returned. A separate rule bars a bidder from the sale entirely: under SDCL 10-25-45 a county may refuse a bid from any person who is not current on all property taxes due within that county. Payment methods and any county-set deposit are county practice rather than statute, so confirm them with the county before bidding.
Surplus proceeds
The county first deducts the expenses of taking the tax deed and of the sale. What remains is prorated to the taxing districts on the levies for the most recent year included in the proceeds until all tax and interest is paid. Any surplus left after taxes, penalty, interest, county liens and other costs must be returned to the prior owner of record, and if that owner cannot be found within one hundred eighty days the surplus is transferred to the Unclaimed Property Division under SDCL chapter 43-41B. The same distribution binds a private buyer. SDCL 10-25-39.2, effective February 12, 2024, requires any person other than a county who acquires property by tax deed after being issued a tax certificate to offer that property at public auction under chapter 6-13 within one year of the deed, and entitles that seller only to compensation in the same manner as a redemption under SDCL 10-24-1. A South Dakota certificate is therefore a route to being paid what the certificate is worth, not a route to keeping the land.
Governing statute
SDCL Title 10, Chapter 10-23

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 South Dakotarules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Walworth County, South Dakota sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Walworth County follows South Dakota's tax lien state system.

When is the Walworth County tax certificate sale?

Third Monday of December each year, between nine a.m. and four p.m., at the Walworth County Courthouse, 4304 4th Avenue in Selby. The treasurer may adjourn the sale from day to day until every tax certificate has been offered. State law fixes this date, so it is the same in Walworth County as in every other South Dakota county and it does not move from year to year. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.

How often does Walworth County hold tax deed sales?

Walworth County holds its tax deed sale as needed. There is no fixed annual date. 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. South Dakota's redemption rule: Open until a tax deed issues; a deed cannot be sought until 3 years after the certificate sale, and redemption then runs until 60 days after completed service of the notice of intention. Call the County Treasurer issues the deed; the county then sells the property under SDCL chapter 6-13, commonly through the county auditor 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.

Verified Aug 31, 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.

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Call Walworth County Treasurer