Tax deed, tax lien, redeemable deed: three different purchases

"Tax sale" covers three purchases that have little in common except the unpaid tax behind them. Buying the wrong one by mistake is common, and expensive. The auction calendar labels every county sale with which of the three it is; right now it lists 198 sales in 24 states.

Tax lien sales: you buy the debt

At a tax lien sale the county sells its claim for the unpaid tax, as a certificate. The buyer pays the tax and earns interest -- or a fixed penalty, depending on the state -- when the owner pays. The buyer does not get the property, and in most cases never will: most owners redeem.

The property is only reachable if the owner never pays, and even then only through a further step: a deed application (Florida), or a foreclosure suit on the lien (Kentucky, New Jersey and others). Florida's annual certificate sale is a lien sale.

Tax deed sales: you buy the property

At a tax deed sale the county sells the property itself, conveyed by tax deed to the highest bidder above an opening bid. Florida's clerk sales are this: the second stage, after a certificate holder applies. The Florida county pages list every one we read. California's tax-defaulted property auctions are deed sales too: the county auctions the property itself once its taxes have been in default for five years, and how California tax deed auctions work sets out the rules.

Two cautions. First, the owner can usually still pay until the deed issues, so a scheduled sale may not happen. Second, a tax deed extinguishes most private liens but not everything, and title insurers often want a quiet title action before they will insure a tax-deed title.

Redeemable deed sales: a deed that can be undone

A redeemable deed (or "redemption deed") sale conveys the property at auction, but the former owner keeps the right to buy it back for a period after the sale, by repaying the price plus a statutory premium. Texas and Georgia sell this way. The buyer holds a deed, but not a final one, and usually cannot do much with the property until the redemption period ends.

Tax foreclosure sales

In some states the lien is enforced in court. In Jefferson County, Kentucky, the holder of a certificate of delinquency sues, and the court's master commissioner sells the property. The result is a sale of the property, like a deed sale, but on a court's schedule; the Jefferson County page lists them.

At a glance

Which states sell which

Each state's law decides which of these its counties sell, and several have changed in the last three years. Tax deed states and tax lien states sorts all 50 and the District of Columbia, with each owner's redemption period, the buyer's return and the statute behind it. How to find tax delinquent properties explains which of a county's lists actually sells property, and where each state's must be published.