Walworth County, WI tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the Walworth County, WI tax sale, one of 2,862 counties in 36 states. Wisconsin sells the deed itself, so no statutory investor interest rate applies. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from the county’s own official pages on Sep 11, 2026.
How tax deed sales work in Walworth County, seat of Elkhorn: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how Wisconsin tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Next sale
- One sealed-bid round each year, with bids due at 10 a.m. on a single deadline date.
- Format
- In person
- Registration
- No advance bidder registration or deposit account.
- County office
- 262-741-4251
On this page
How Walworth County sells delinquent taxes
No tax lien certificate sale
Wisconsin counties sell no tax lien certificates to investors. Under s. 74.57(1) the county treasurer issues the tax certificate to the county itself, and s. 74.57(3) states that the county may not sell, assign, or otherwise transfer it. The section carries two carve-outs, and neither admits a bidder: a county may sell its right to receive tax certificate revenues under s. 74.635, which is a payment stream rather than a lien, and the county treasurer must reissue certificates to a city acting under s. 74.87 that has paid the delinquent taxes under an agreement made under s. 74.83.
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Walworth County Treasurer's Office, with the Walworth County Finance Committee accepting or rejecting the bids
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- One sealed-bid round each year, with bids due at 10 a.m. on a single deadline date.
- Registration
- No advance bidder registration or deposit account.
- Sale list
- Sale List Bid Packet
When it runs
Registration and deposit
No advance bidder registration or deposit account. Use the Walworth County Tax Sale Bid Form inside the bid packet, seal it in an envelope marked "County Owned Property" and deliver it to the Treasurer at 100 W. Walworth Street, Room 103, PO Box 1001, Elkhorn, WI 53121. Bids may not be transmitted electronically. Earnest money of 20 percent of the bid must accompany the bid by money order, certified check or municipal check payable to Walworth County Treasurer, with the balance due within 15 days of acceptance. Bids are opened and recorded shortly after the 10 a.m. deadline in Conference Room 112B of the Government Center, and all bidders are notified by mail after the Finance Committee meets.
Sale format and venue
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.
Get the advertised list
Use Sale List Bid Packet for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Sale day
One sealed-bid round each year, with bids due at 10 a.m. on a single deadline 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.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Walworth County Treasurer's Office, with the Walworth County Finance Committee accepting or rejecting the bids as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Walworth County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Sale List Bid Packet. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
No advance bidder registration or deposit account. Use the Walworth County Tax Sale Bid Form inside the bid packet, seal it in an envelope marked "County Owned Property" and deliver it to the Treasurer at 100 W. Walworth Street, Room 103, PO Box 1001, Elkhorn, WI 53121. Bids may not be transmitted electronically. Earnest money of 20 percent of the bid must accompany the bid by money order, certified check or municipal check payable to Walworth County Treasurer, with the balance due within 15 days of acceptance. Bids are opened and recorded shortly after the 10 a.m. deadline in Conference Room 112B of the Government Center, and all bidders are notified by mail after the Finance Committee meets.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin before you price the title work.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 properties
Wisconsin has no statewide over-the-counter program at a fixed statutory price, and no state-held certificate to assign. County inventory is what stays for sale. The county board may sell its tax-deeded lands on whatever terms it sets, may hire licensed real estate brokers on commission, and may advertise on a multiple listing service, so a county parcel can sit on the open market between sales. Once a parcel has been advertised and not sold, the county may sell it for any amount after a further class 1 notice, subject to board or committee approval below the appraised value. Ask the county treasurer or the land committee for the current list of unsold county-owned parcels and make a written offer. Approval still runs through the board or its committee, so nothing closes on the day.
New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what Wisconsin calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
County offices
Tax sale office
County notes
- Walworth County offers tax-deeded parcels by sealed bid through the Treasurer's Office, and the Finance Committee votes the bids up or down at a public meeting after the bids are opened.
- The bid packet is the parcel list. It names each municipality, tax key number, ward, legal description, appraised value and minimum bid, and the county also publishes an interactive map of the parcels offered.
- Recent offerings have been small and mostly vacant lots in the towns of Richmond, Sugar Creek, Geneva and East Troy plus the City of Lake Geneva, with minimum bids ranging from a few hundred dollars to about twenty thousand.
- Every bid below the appraised value must be rejected at the first attempt to sell a parcel, which is why first-round minimum bids equal the appraised values printed in the packet.
- Parcels that draw no acceptable bid come back in later offerings, so the sale results archive is the place to watch for a re-offering of a parcel you missed.
- Bring certified funds. Twenty percent earnest money must ride with the bid by money order, certified check or municipal check, and it is kept as liquidated damages if a winning bidder fails to close.
- Questions go to the Treasurer's Office at 262-741-4251 or [email protected], weekdays 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. except legal holidays.
Wisconsin rules
- Redemption
- The redemption right in Wisconsin runs against the county, and it is over before an investor sees the parcel. Issuance of the tax certificate on September 1 starts the clock. Two years later the county may take its deed or start a foreclosure, but the right to redeem does not end on that anniversary: under s. 75.01(1)(b) any person may redeem at any time before the tax deed is presented to the register of deeds and accepted for record, and a redemption before recording makes the deed void as to the land redeemed. On the in rem route under s. 75.521 the county publishes a notice fixing the last day for redemption at least 8 weeks after first publication, and an interested party may instead serve a verified answer within 30 days after that date on the three grounds the section allows. Once the deed is recorded or judgment is entered, redemption is finished. Between the two, at least 6 and not more than 10 months before the redemption period expires, the county treasurer must publish a class 2 notice listing every unredeemed parcel with its amount due and the last day of redemption, which is the public list an investor can watch. Two things can still pull a parcel off a sale list afterward: the minor and incompetency extension in s. 75.03, and the former owner repurchase right in s. 75.35(3).
- Deed deposit
- Wisconsin fixes no statutory deposit. Section 75.35(2)(am) lets the county board sell its tax-deeded lands in whatever manner and on whatever terms it sets by ordinance or resolution, and s. 75.35(2)(d) lets the board delegate that power to a committee, an officer or a department, or hire licensed real estate brokers on commission. Deposits are county rules, not state law. St. Croix County requires a 10 percent deposit by cashier's check or money order with each sealed bid and rejects personal checks. Counties selling through the statewide online auctioneer instead take payment by certified check or wire transfer under the platform's terms. Read the county's own bid packet before you bid.
- Homestead deeds
- Owner-occupied homes are treated differently, and the difference can pull a parcel off the list. For single-family, owner-occupied properties the county board must by ordinance give the former owner who lost title, or that person's heirs or beneficiaries, the right to buy the land back before it is sold, on paying the costs and expenses under s. 75.36(3)(a), the property taxes that would have been owed for the year of the purchase, and enough to satisfy any other liens at the time of foreclosure plus the county's repurchase costs. The board may extend the same right to other property types at its option. A sale under that ordinance is exempt from s. 75.69 altogether, so it never reaches a public bid. Counties set their own window. Dane County gives the former owner 60 days from delivery of the treasurer's certified-mail notice. Treat an owner-occupied house on a Wisconsin land sale list as provisional until the repurchase window has closed.
- Surplus proceeds
- Wisconsin returns the surplus to the former owner, and the county treasurer has to go find them. On taking the tax deed the treasurer must notify the former owner by registered or certified mail, at the mailing address on the tax bill, that the former owner may be entitled to a share of the proceeds of a future sale. When the county sells, the treasurer computes net proceeds by subtracting foreclosure, record-keeping, legal, advertising and title insurance costs, the actual maintenance, board-up, clean-up and demolition costs reasonably needed to sell, real estate agent or broker fees, and all unpaid general property taxes, interest, penalties, special assessments, special charges and special taxes. From the net proceeds the treasurer pays any managed forest withdrawal tax and fee, then the taxing jurisdictions' special assessments and special charges, prorated if the money runs short. Anything still remaining goes to the former owner, less any delinquent taxes, interest and penalties that person owes the county on other property. A payment unclaimed one year after mailing becomes unclaimed funds under s. 59.66(2), and no interest is paid on any of it.
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 Walworth County, Wisconsin sell tax liens or tax deeds?
How often does Walworth County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Walworth County tax sale list?
Verified Sep 11, 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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