Wyoming

What Wyoming sells, and the rate nobody bids down

Real property taxes in Wyoming are a perpetual lien on the property against everyone except the United States and the State (W.S. 39-13-108(d)(i)). Half the tax is payable on November 10 and the other half on May 10. If the whole year is paid by December 31, no interest is charged. Anything left unpaid after its due date is delinquent and bears 18% a year until paid (W.S. 39-13-108(b)(i)–(ii)).

The county treasurer then sells the county's lien, not the property. At the sale, any person who offers to pay the taxes, interest, penalties and costs on a parcel is considered its purchaser and must pay the treasurer immediately (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(iii)(B)). In return you get a certificate of purchase. It describes the property, states what you paid and lists any special assessments. You can assign it to someone else by endorsement (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(iii)(C)).

What you earn is not negotiated. When the owner redeems, they repay what the property sold for, including the certificate and advertising charges, plus three percent, plus interest at fifteen percent per annum since the date of sale. That 15% applies to every sale from 1982 onward. Older certificates earned 8% (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(iv)(A)). The 3% is not annual. It is a one-time amount on the purchase price. Goshen County describes it as a penalty earned "the first year". Laramie County calls it a 3% penalty "the day of purchase".

Some investor summaries describe Wyoming as "15% plus a 15% penalty". The statute says otherwise. There is one 3% amount and one 15% simple annual rate.

What 3% plus 15% looks like in practice

Because the 3% is paid once and the 15% accrues over time, your annualized return is highest when the owner redeems quickly. Take a certificate bought for $2,000.

If the owner redeems after one month, you receive $60 (3%) plus $25 (one month at 15%), so $85 on $2,000. That is 4.25% in a month. If they redeem after one year, you receive $60 plus $300, so $360, or 18% for the year. If they redeem after four years, you receive $60 plus $1,200, so $1,260. That is 63% over four years, or about 15.75% a year, because the one-time 3% is spread over a longer hold.

The fees do not change this much. The treasurer can charge up to $20 for issuing a certificate of purchase and up to $20 for advertising the sale of real property (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(ix)(A)–(B)). Those charges are part of the amount the owner repays on redemption (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(iv)(A)). The certificate of redemption costs up to another $20, which goes to the county (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(iii)).

How the sale actually works: a lottery, not an auction

Because the price and the rate are both fixed, there is nothing to bid on. When several investors want the same parcel, Wyoming counties pick the buyer by drawing bidder numbers. The statute does not prescribe the draw. It is how the treasurers apply the rule that anyone offering to pay the amount due is the purchaser.

The procedures are published by the counties. In Goshen County, each registered participant gets a number, and only one number per person is allowed. The treasurer announces each delinquent property by owner name and amount due, and a number is drawn. The holder of that number can buy the lien or pass. If they pass, another number is drawn. You cannot pick and choose properties. In Uinta County, parcels are sold individually by electronic drawing from the bidder numbers, and every number is drawn an equal number of times. Laramie County uses the same draw-and-pass method, and Teton County draws the numbers with computer software.

Not every county runs the room the same way. Natrona County runs its lottery inside the treasurer's office and emails each participant the list of properties drawn for their numbers. Participants can reserve up to 10 extra numbers on top of their own, at $20 each. They must confirm which properties they keep by 5:00 p.m. on the day of the draw (September 3 in 2026), or the parcels go to a redraw pool. Goshen County, by contrast, allows only one number per person. Read the rules of the county you are going to before you register.

Expect competition for very few parcels in the wealthier counties. At Teton County's sale on August 5, 2026, there were 11 parcels and 45 participants, and every parcel was sold. In a draw like that, most people go home with nothing.

When and where the sales happen

The treasurer must advertise the sale once a week for three weeks in a legal newspaper in the county. The first notice must appear at least four weeks before the sale, and before the first week of September (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(ii)(A)). If the county has no legal newspaper, the notice is posted at the courthouse door and in three public places at least 30 days before. The notice lists each parcel's legal description, its street address when one is available, the record owner, the years delinquent, the amount due, and any special assessments (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(ii)(B)).

The sale itself is held at the county courthouse or a county building, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., and may continue from day to day until every parcel is sold (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(iii)(A)). In practice, the season runs from July to September. Goshen County held its 2026 sale on July 15, Teton County on August 5, Big Horn County on August 26, Natrona County on September 3 and Uinta County on September 16. Laramie County normally publishes its notice in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on the three Thursdays before Cheyenne Frontier Days and holds the sale on the Thursday after it.

Registration is in person and usually ahead of time. Laramie and Teton require pre-registration in the days before the sale and do not register anyone on the morning of the sale. Teton also requires participants to be present: no representatives are allowed, and nobody under 18. Goshen and Uinta register you the same morning. The counties ask for an IRS Form W-9 because they report the interest you earn. Natrona will not issue certificates until it has yours. Payment is due the same day: Goshen requires payment by 4:00 p.m. or the lien goes to another buyer. Teton does not accept company names on checks or credit cards.

Redemption: until a valid deed application is accepted

The legal owner can redeem at any time after the sale and before a valid tax deed application has been filed with, and accepted by, the county treasurer (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(i)). Redemption is not a fixed four-year window. It ends when you, the certificate holder, complete the deed application. If you never apply, the owner can still redeem.

The owner pays the treasurer, who holds the money for you, issues the owner a certificate of redemption and notifies you (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(i)). A mortgagee, or a buyer at a mortgage foreclosure sale, can partially redeem the part of the property they hold an interest in. The rest of your certificate remains in force (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(ii)).

If the owner redeems after you have served notice of your intent to apply for a deed, they must also reimburse your actual expenses, up to $250, once you file a sworn statement of those expenses with the treasurer (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(iv)(C)). Attorney's fees are excluded (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(iv)).

Subsequent taxes, and why you should pay them

If the owner falls behind again in later years, you can pay those taxes yourself. Paid subsequent taxes are added to what the owner must repay, with interest at 15% per annum (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(iv)(B)). Laramie County accepts those payments from September 1, but interest starts only once each installment becomes delinquent, after November 10 and May 10.

There is a defensive reason as well. Your lien as certificate holder is superior to all other liens except those created by junior tax sales or the payment of subsequent taxes by another person (W.S. 39-13-108(d)(ii)). If you do not pay next year's taxes, they can be sold to someone else at next year's sale, and that buyer's certificate ranks ahead of yours.

Year four to year six: the treasurer's deed

The treasurer accepts applications for a tax deed on unredeemed property no sooner than four years and no later than six years from the date of the original sale (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(v)(A)). Goshen and Laramie counties both warn that no deed can be issued once six years have passed. If you want the property, the window lasts two years and you have to act within it.

The notice requirements come first. At least three months before you apply, you must serve written notice on everyone in actual possession or occupancy, and on the person in whose name the property is taxed, if they can be found in the county. If nobody is in possession and the taxpayer cannot be found, you publish the notice in a county newspaper once a week for three weeks. The first notice must run no more than five months before the application and the last no less than three months before it. In either case, you also send notice by certified or registered mail to the record owner and any mortgagees whose addresses are known or appear in the public records (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(v)(B)).

The notice must say when you bought, in whose name the property was taxed, the property description, the tax year, when the time of redemption will expire, when you will apply for the deed, and any special assessments (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(v)(C)). With your application, you return the certificate, pay the fees and prove that you served the notice. Treasurer's deeds issued to private purchasers carry a $25 fee (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(ix)(C)). After the deed is issued, you record the notice and proof of service as you would any other conveyance (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(v)(D)).

What the deed gives you, and how firm it is

The grantee of a tax deed is entitled to possession. The deed is prima facie evidence of title, subject to special assessments, and anyone trying to overturn it carries the burden of proof (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(vii)(B)). An irregularity in the sale advertisement does not invalidate the sale or the title (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(vii)(A)). No action to recover property sold for taxes can be brought more than six years after the sale (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(vii)(D)).

Title 34 adds a second, stronger bar. The former owner cannot sue to set aside the deed, redeem or quiet title once two years have passed since the deed was recorded, provided the grantee has held possession continuously for at least six months at some point after the first eighteen months. This applies even if the deed or the proceedings were void (W.S. 34-2-132). That possession extinguishes the former owner's claims for good. After two years, the owner of the deed can record an affidavit of possession to prove it (W.S. 34-2-133). In practice, a Wyoming tax deed becomes solid only once you have physically possessed the property for that period.

If the sale turns out to be void because of a mistake or unlawful act by the treasurer, the county pays you what you would have received on redemption (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(viii)(A)). If the sale is invalid for some other reason, you keep a lien for the taxes plus 8% a year (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(viii)(B)).

The other route: foreclosing in district court

Instead of applying for a treasurer's deed, a certificate holder can enforce the lien in district court in an action conducted like a mortgage foreclosure (W.S. 39-13-108(d)(ii)). The action cannot be filed sooner than four years or later than ten years after the original tax sale (W.S. 39-13-110(c)). The lien covers taxes, costs, penalties and interest, plus the value of any improvements you placed on the property while lawfully in possession (W.S. 39-13-108(d)(ii)).

The sheriff sells the property at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, without appraisal. You can bid, and if you win you pay only the amount above what the decree owes you. Anyone with an interest can still redeem before the court confirms the sale by paying what you are owed. No deficiency judgment is allowed (W.S. 39-13-108(d)(iii), (v)).

This is the only route in which a surplus exists. The proceeds pay the costs of the action and sale, including your attorney's fee as the court allows. Then they pay you. The balance goes to whoever held prior interests in the property. They have two years from confirmation to claim it, or the money goes to the county sinking fund (W.S. 39-13-108(d)(iv)). The treasurer's deed route has no sale at all, and Title 39 contains no step that returns the property's equity to the former owner. Since Tyler v. Hennepin County (U.S. Supreme Court, 2023), keeping equity above the tax debt has been challenged as an unconstitutional taking in several states. If you take a valuable property by treasurer's deed, keep that exposure in mind.

What happens to the parcels nobody buys

A parcel that cannot be sold for the taxes, interest, penalties and costs is bid in for the county by the treasurer. It stays on a separate assessment roll and continues to be taxed (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(iii)(B)). The county gets a certificate of purchase without paying the fee.

The county commissioners can sell and assign any certificate held by the county, at public or private sale, at any time. At a public sale they can reject bids and continue the sale (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(iii)(D)). This is the only place in Wyoming where you can buy a certificate without entering a draw. However, an owner who redeems from a county-held certificate pays the 15% interest and subsequent taxes but not the 3% (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(v)). Check how a county prices an assignment before you assume the full return.

If a county-held certificate is still unredeemed four years after the sale, the treasurer issues and records a tax deed to the county after at least 60 days' notice to the taxpayer and any mortgagees. The commissioners can then sell the property at private sale (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(iv)). These sales do not go through the annual tax sale. Watch the commissioners' agendas.

Six ways people lose money here

1. 1. Budgeting for 15% plus a 15% penalty

   The penalty is 3%, paid once, plus 15% simple interest a year (W.S. 39-13-109(e)(iv)(A)). On a quick redemption, the 3% is most of what you earn.

2. 2. Thinking you can bid to win

   The price and the rate are fixed. Counties pick the buyer by drawing numbers, and Teton had 45 people for 11 parcels in 2026.

3. 3. Missing year six

   The treasurer can issue a deed only between four and six years after the sale (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(v)(A)). After that, only the court route remains, and it closes at ten years.

4. 4. Applying without the three-month notice

   Personal service or three weeks of publication, plus certified mail to the owner and mortgagees, all before you apply (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(v)(B)).

5. 5. Skipping next year's taxes

   A junior tax sale or another person's payment of subsequent taxes ranks ahead of your certificate (W.S. 39-13-108(d)(ii)). Paying them also earns 15%.

6. 6. Treating the deed as clean title on day one

   The former owner is barred only after two years from recording, with six months of your possession after month eighteen (W.S. 34-2-132). Special assessments survive.