Texas

What you are actually buying

Texas sells a redeemable deed. You are not buying the right to be repaid; you are buying the property, subject to the former owner's right to take it back within a set window. Title passes at the sale. That is a genuinely different risk profile from a lien state, because from day one you own something that can burn down, get squatted in, or accrue code violations.

Sales run at public auction between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month, at the county courthouse or another public place the commissioners court designates nearby (§ 34.01(r), (r-1)). If the first Tuesday is 1 January or 4 July, it moves to the first Wednesday. Counties may also run the auction online, which more of the large ones now do (§ 34.01(a-1)).

If nobody bids the minimum — the lesser of the amount calculated under § 34.01(b) or the adjudged value — the property is struck off to the taxing unit that asked for the order of sale (§ 34.01(j)). Struck-off lists are where a lot of the year's inventory actually sits, and they are not the same thing as the auction.

Before you can bid: registration and the clean-taxes statement

Two pieces of paper decide whether you can buy at all, and both come from the county tax assessor-collector, not from the auctioneer.

The first is optional for the county. A commissioners court can adopt § 34.011, and where it has, you are not eligible to bid unless the assessor-collector issued you a written registration statement before the sale begins. Registration can require your name and address, ID, written authority if you bid for someone else, and an annual certification that you owe no delinquent property taxes in the county (§ 34.011(b), (c)). Turning up on the first Tuesday without it means watching.

The second applies everywhere. Under § 34.015(b) the officer may not execute or deliver your deed unless you show an unexpired written statement from the assessor-collector that you owe no delinquent taxes to the county, and none known to any school district or city with territory in it. You request it in writing, sworn and signed, identifying every property you own or used to own that is taxed there (§ 34.015(c)); each county has to post the request form on its website (§ 34.015(c-1)). Winning the bid without that statement does not get you a deed.

Where the county publishes the sale

There is no statewide list. Each sale follows its own court judgment, and the officer charged with the sale — normally the sheriff or a constable — gives notice of it. The notice must state the authority for the sale, the date, time and place, and a brief description of the property (§ 34.01(e)). The description can simply adopt the one in the judgment, which is why so many Texas listings read like a legal citation rather than an address (§ 34.01(f)).

The notice runs in a newspaper; § 34.01(g) caps what the paper can charge for it. Where no newspaper is published in the county, or none will run it at that rate, the officer posts written notice in three public places, one of them the courthouse door, at least 20 days before the sale (§ 34.01(h)). Each defendant in the judgment also gets written notice (§ 34.01(c)).

In practice that means three places to watch: the legal-notices section of the county's newspaper, the sheriff's or constables' tax-sale pages, and — in counties that have authorised it under § 34.01(a-1) — the online auction platform, where bidding may open early but must close at 4 p.m. on the first Tuesday (§ 34.01(r-2)). The commissioners court can also move the live sale away from the courthouse, but the designation has to be recorded in the county's real property records 90 days in advance (§ 34.01(r)).

When nobody bids: struck-off property and resales

A property that draws no sufficient bid is bid off to the taxing unit for the lesser of the judgment or the market value in the judgment, and that duty is automatic — nobody from the taxing unit has to be in the room (§ 34.01(j)). The taxing unit then holds title for itself and every other unit in the suit, still subject to the owner's right of redemption (§ 34.01(k)).

That inventory comes back to market later, on different terms. The taxing unit may sell it at any time, by public or private sale (§ 34.05(a)). It can ask the sheriff or a constable to run a public resale, and six months after the redemption period ends any participating unit can force one (§ 34.05(c)). Or it can sell privately: at no less than the lesser of the market value in the judgment or the total judgments (§ 34.05(h)), or for less with every participating unit's consent (§ 34.05(i)).

Two things follow for a buyer. Resales can go well below the original judgment, so the struck-off lists that city and county collectors keep are often cheaper than the first-Tuesday auction. And the redemption right travels with the property: on a homestead, ag land or mineral interest resold by the taxing unit, the owner still has two years from the recording of the resale deed, at the same 25%/50% premium (§ 34.21(c)).

What the deed clears, and what it does not

The sheriff's deed conveys the interest the defendants owned — including the right to use and possess the property — subject to the right of redemption, restrictive covenants recorded before 1 January of the year the tax lien arose, a lien under such a covenant that the judgment did not extinguish, and easements of record from before that date (§ 34.01(n)). It extinguishes the tax liens that were in the judgment (§ 34.01(q)).

Read that as a list of what survives. An HOA whose covenants pre-date the tax year can keep its lien if it was not wiped out in the judgment, and the deed carries only what the named defendants owned. It is only as good as the defendant list in the judgment, so pull the judgment before the auction, not after.

Once the sale happens, it is hard to undo. Anyone challenging a tax sale has to deposit the taxes, penalties, interest and costs from the judgment into the court's registry first, or file an affidavit of inability to pay (§ 34.08(a)), and the deed can be impeached only for fraud (§ 34.01(n)).

The 25% is a penalty, not a yield

§ 34.21(a) sets a redemption premium of 25 percent of the aggregate total in the first year of the redemption period. It is not annualised, and nothing prorates it. If the owner redeems on day 9, you are paid 25%. If they redeem on day 179, you are paid 25%.

That inverts the usual arithmetic. In a lien state a fast redemption is a disappointing one, because you earn interest for the days you held it. In Texas a fast redemption is the best case: the same 25% over a shorter holding period is a far better annualised return, with less time for the property to cost you something.

The aggregate total is not just your bid. § 34.21(a) has the owner repay the bid, the deed recording fee, and the taxes, penalties, interest and costs you paid — and the premium is calculated on that whole figure. So the tax bill you cover after the sale earns the premium too.

The window is 180 days — except when it is two years

This is the part most short summaries of Texas get wrong. There are two regimes, and which one applies depends on what the property was, not on what you intend to do with it.

Two years if the property was the owner's residence homestead, or was land designated for agricultural use, when the suit or the application for the warrant was filed — and also for a sold mineral interest. The premium is 25% if redeemed in the first year and 50% in the second (§ 34.21(a)).

180 days for everything else, with the premium capped at 25% (§ 34.21(e)). Non-homestead residential, commercial, vacant lots.

In both cases the clock runs from the date the purchaser's deed is filed for record, not the date of the sale. Sitting on an unrecorded deed does not shorten anyone's redemption window — it delays the start of yours.

What you can add to the redemption figure

You are not limited to the bid and the taxes. § 34.21(g)(2) defines the recoverable costs as amounts reasonably spent maintaining, preserving and safekeeping the property, including property insurance; repairs or improvements required by a local ordinance, a building code or a lease in effect at the sale; discharging a municipal lien for remedying a health or safety hazard; property owners' association dues under a recorded covenant; and impact or standby fees.

The owner can demand a written itemization of those costs, and you have 10 days from receiving the request to deliver it. Only the amounts in that itemization count toward the redemption price (§ 34.21(i)).

While the window is open, the former owner has no right to use or possess the property or to collect its rents (§ 34.21(h)).

If the property sells for more than the judgment, that surplus is not yours either: it is paid into the court, the former owner is notified, and claims must be filed before the second anniversary of the sale (§§ 34.03, 34.04). More in our guide to Texas excess proceeds.

Keep the receipts from the first day. A redeeming owner reimburses documented costs within that definition; undocumented spending is your own money, and improvements you chose to make because you assumed you would keep the property are not on the list.

Seven ways people lose money here

1. 1. Quoting 25% as an annual return

   It is a flat penalty under § 34.21(a), not a rate. On a day-20 redemption it annualises enormously; on a day-179 redemption it is 25% for half a year. Neither is 25% per annum, and a model that says so is wrong in both directions.

2. 2. Assuming 180 days on a homestead

   § 34.21(a) gives two years on a residence homestead, agricultural land or a mineral interest. Bidding on one of those expecting your money back inside six months ties up capital for up to four times as long.

3. 3. Starting the clock at the auction

   The period runs from the date the deed is filed for record (§ 34.21(a), (e)). Delay the recording and you delay the end of the redemption window, not the beginning.

4. 4. Forgetting you own it now

   This is a deed state. From the sale onward the property's insurance, code violations, association dues and liability are yours — the redemption right does not suspend ownership, it only threatens to end it.

5. 5. Treating struck-off property as the same auction

   Property that draws no sufficient bid is bid off to the taxing unit under § 34.01(j). Resales of that inventory run on their own terms and their own timetable; they are not the first-Tuesday auction.

6. 6. Winning the bid without the tax statement

   § 34.015(b) bars the officer from delivering your deed unless you show an unexpired statement that you owe no delinquent taxes in the county. Request it well before the sale; it involves the school districts and cities too.

7. 7. Ignoring the itemization request

   If the owner asks in writing, you have 10 days to itemize your costs, and only itemized amounts can be recovered (§ 34.21(i)). Miss it and the insurance and repairs you paid come out of your return.