Delinquent taxes are one of the most common reasons people call us — not a reason we say no.
People are often embarrassed to mention it, and sometimes assume it disqualifies them entirely. It doesn't. A meaningful share of the parcels we look at have some balance owed, and the reasons are mundane: the tax notice was going to an old address, the owner died and nobody redirected the mail, or the amount grew past the point where writing a cheque for land you don't want felt sensible.
In a normal sale, what's owed is simply paid out of the proceeds at closing, the same way a mortgage payoff would be. You don't have to clear the balance first in order to sell.
If what's owed is close to or more than the land is worth, we'll tell you that plainly. Sometimes the honest answer is that the parcel has negative value and the sensible route is different — which is a real conversation worth having with your own advisor rather than something to discover after months of waiting.
Counties can eventually take and sell a parcel for unpaid taxes. The process, the notice you're entitled to, the redemption period, and whether any surplus comes back to you all vary substantially from state to state — and in some places from county to county.
If you've received a notice about a tax sale, foreclosure, or forfeiture, treat it as time-sensitive and talk to a real-estate attorney in that state now. Do not rely on this page, or on us, for your deadlines — we don't know your county's rules and getting them wrong can cost you the parcel and any equity in it. Tell us the deadline when you call and we'll be straight with you about whether a sale could realistically close in time.
What we can say without qualification: the earlier you make the call, the more options exist. A parcel with a balance owed is a routine transaction. A parcel two weeks from a sale date is a much harder one.
Counties mail the bill to whatever address is on their records, and for vacant land that address is often years out of date. Nobody lives on the parcel to notice a missed notice, so the balance can grow quietly. If you own land from far away, our page on selling land you've never seen covers why this happens so often, and why updating your mailing address with the county is worth doing either way.
When an owner dies and nobody redirects the mail, the bills keep going to that person, sometimes for many years. By the time an heir finds out, several years can be unpaid. That's common enough that it has its own section on our inherited land page. Who has the authority to sell in that situation is a question for a probate attorney in the parcel's state, not for us.
The amount owed is rarely just the missed tax. Most counties add penalties, interest or fees to delinquent balances, and the rates and timing vary a lot by state. That's why a balance can feel out of proportion to a small annual bill. We get the current figure from the county during our research, so the written offer reflects what's really owed today rather than an old number.
In some states the county doesn't wait to collect. It sells the delinquent balance to an investor as a tax lien certificate, and that investor then holds a claim against the parcel. Whether that applies to your land depends entirely on the state. Either way, it's handled the same way in a sale: the title company gets the payoff figure and it's settled from proceeds, as our costs and fees page explains.
The county treasurer or tax collector is usually the office that holds the current balance, and many of them have an online lookup by parcel number (APN). If you can't find it, or the county's site is hard to use, send us the APN and county and we'll check as part of the research described on our how it works page. You don't need to call the county yourself before contacting us.
On a low-value parcel, years of taxes and penalties can approach or exceed what a buyer would pay. Knowing the land's realistic value matters here, and our page on what determines land value explains why per-acre guesses are usually wrong. If the numbers don't work, we'll say so plainly, and the right next step may be a conversation with your own advisor instead of a sale.
It doesn't disqualify you and it isn't unusual. Send the parcel number and county and we'll look at where things stand.
Send Us the Parcel Details