Guide 01
3 min read · updated September 27, 2026
Florida sells tax-delinquent property in two stages, a year or more apart, and only the second one sells land. Understanding the gap between them is most of understanding the market. Right now this site tracks 1,869 parcels going to tax deed sale across 41 counties.
Florida property taxes for a year are due by March 31 of the next. When a bill stays unpaid, the county tax collector does not sell the property. It sells a tax certificate: a lien for the amount owed. Investors bid at an annual certificate sale by offering to accept a lower interest rate, starting from a maximum of 18%, and the lowest rate wins.
The certificate holder has paid the county's tax bill. From then on the owner owes the holder instead. If the owner pays the tax collector (redeems), the holder is repaid with interest and that is the end of it. Most certificates end this way.
A certificate does not wait forever. Once two years have passed from April 1 of the year it was issued, the holder may file it with the tax collector and apply for a tax deed (Florida Statutes section 197.502). A certificate that is never used expires seven years after issue.
Applying is not free. The holder must pay off every other outstanding certificate on the parcel, any delinquent and omitted taxes, and the costs of the application. The tax collector certifies the total to the clerk of court, who schedules the sale. The holders who do this at scale are funds, and the certificate holders page shows who they are and where they apply.
The clerk publishes a notice of application for tax deed once a week for four consecutive weeks before the sale (section 197.512), in a newspaper that carries legal notices in the county. It names the holder, the certificate number and year, the property's legal description, the name in which it is assessed, and the date and place of the sale. The owner is also notified by mail.
These notices are the public record that a sale is coming, and they are what this site reads every night. How to read one is its own guide: reading a notice of application for tax deed.
Most Florida clerks sell online, on a county auction site of the form county.realtaxdeed.com or county.realforeclose.com; a few still sell in person at the courthouse. Parcels are sold in batches on set sale days. The sale calendar lists every county's next ones.
Bidding starts at the opening bid: what the applicant paid, plus interest and costs. For a homestead property, half of the assessed value is added, so a homestead's opening bid is usually far higher. The highest bid above the opening bid wins. Winning bidders post a deposit on the day, and pay the balance with documentary stamp tax and recording fees within the time the clerk sets -- the clerk's published terms govern, and they differ between counties.
The owner may redeem until the tax deed is issued. On a busy sale day a meaningful share of noticed parcels drop off the auction list for this reason, often at the last moment, and no notice announces it. A parcel on a county page here is a parcel the clerk announced; the clerk's auction site is the only current list on the morning of the sale.
If a parcel draws no bid at or above the opening bid, it goes on the clerk's list of lands available for taxes. Anyone may then buy it from the clerk for the opening bid. A parcel left unsold on that list for the statutory period passes to the county.
At least two years after the tax certificate is issued, which is itself the year after the taxes came due. A certificate holder can apply for a tax deed once two years have passed from April 1 of the year the certificate was issued, and the sale follows the application by a couple of months. In practice most parcels on this site carry certificates two to five years old.
The clerk, from what the applying holder paid: the certificates on the parcel, delinquent taxes, interest and the costs of the application and sale. For a homestead property, half of the assessed value is added. Many notices do not print it; the clerk's auction site states it before the sale.
No. Until the sale, the only transaction on offer is the owner's: paying the tax collector to redeem. A parcel that draws no bid at auction goes on the list of lands available for taxes, where it can then be bought from the clerk for the opening bid.
General information about Florida procedure, not legal advice. Each clerk sets its own sale terms, and statutes change; confirm with the clerk of court before bidding.