- Step 1 — Count your window. Run the free checker with the date from the county's letter. Write the last day on paper. If it is under 30 days away, treat everything below as this week's work.
- Step 2 — Get the payoff figure in writing. Ask the county office (treasurer / collector / clerk — named on your state page) for the full redemption amount as of a specific date, in a letter or printed statement. A figure spoken over a counter is not a figure.
- Step 3 — Check the figure against the statute. Your state page carries the formula and citation. The lawful total is the tax and charges + the statutory interest or premium + allowed costs. Question any line the formula does not produce — especially buyer fees the statute never mentions. (Texas owners: the premium is flat — 25% in year one — and is not prorated; do not let anyone 'prorate' it upward.)
- Step 4 — Pay the county office, never the investor. Certified funds if the office requires them; in person if the deadline is close. Paying the buyer directly is the classic unforced error — the county's books are what cancel the sale.
- Step 5 — Leave with proof, and verify it landed. A stamped receipt and the redemption recorded. A week later, confirm with the office that the redemption is on the parcel record and the buyer has been paid out. Keep everything with your deed papers.
- Step 6 — Fix the cause. File any exemption you qualify for, ask about a plan or deferral for the current year, and set the tax aside monthly from now on. Redemption saves the house once; the system will happily sell it again.
If the money is not there: do not let the window close silently while you hope. Some states allow partial payments toward redemption (New Hampshire, Rhode Island); a bankruptcy filing pauses tax sales in many states (a lawyer question, fast); and if redemption truly fails, the surplus claim becomes the main event — pivot to it the day the window closes, not a month later.
Included in the $49 TaxSaleDecoded Kit
- The surplus claim pack: how to prove the house was yours (deed records, address history, ID), the claim-form path in your state, and what to do when the county says it has no record of your money
- The redemption playbook: your state's window and cost formula worked step by step, who to pay, how to prove you paid, and the traps in the payoff figure (added fees and interest)
- The heirs page: the house was a parent's — what changes, which papers prove you are an heir, and the point where it stops being simple
- The scam shield: how surplus-recovery companies work, the fee caps your state sets for them, and the assignment papers you should never sign
- The lookback module: what Tyler won, what Pung limited (the extra money is the sale price minus the debt — not your home's value), and the dated state lookbacks, including Illinois claims that die in July 2028
Get the TaxSaleDecoded Kit — $49
One payment of $49. No subscription. The kit is a web page you can return to and print — the claim pack, the redemption playbook, the heirs page, and the scam shield.
Redemption, explained · Next guide: claim the surplus