Missouri

One sale a year, on the fourth Monday in August

Missouri taxes are delinquent if they are still unpaid on January 1 (§ 140.010, RSMo), and every parcel with delinquent taxes is subject to sale on the fourth Monday in August of each year (§ 140.150.1). There is no spring sale and no rolling calendar for first offerings: the whole state sells on the same day. In 2026 that was August 24; in 2027 it falls on August 23.

The sale is run by the county collector, in or next to the county courthouse, starting at ten o'clock and continuing day to day until every parcel has been offered (§ 140.170.3). The collector may also run it online at the same time (same subsection). Each county sets its own house rules on top: Jefferson County offers the properties in the order they appear in the newspaper, first-offering parcels first, then second, then third, and wants every bidder in the room.

Before a parcel is advertised, the collector must mail the owner of record a first-class notice, and a second one by certified mail if the assessed value is over $1,000 (§ 140.150.2). The owner can pay everything off with the collector at any time before the property is sold (same subsection), so a large part of the published list disappears in the weeks before the auction.

What you are buying: a certificate of purchase, not the property

The winning bidder pays and receives a certificate of purchase (§ 140.290.1). It is numbered, recorded by the collector with the county recorder before it is handed over, and it states the taxes, penalty, interest and costs, the years of delinquency, the sum you bid, any excess over what was owed in a separate column, the date you become entitled to a deed, and the interest rate it bears, which shall not exceed ten percent per annum (§ 140.290.2). You pay the recording fee as part of the cost of the sale (§ 140.290.4).

Jefferson County puts it plainly to bidders: you are buying the tax lien until you obtain a collector's deed, and only once the deed is issued is the property yours. Cole County adds the part new buyers miss: other liens are not extinguished at the sale or during the redemption period. The mortgage, the judgment liens and everything else on the title are still there while you hold the certificate.

The certificate can be sold on, but only by an assignment endorsed on the certificate, acknowledged before an officer who can take acknowledgments of deeds, and entered in the collector's record (§ 140.290.3). It cannot be assigned to a nonresident or to a delinquent taxpayer (§ 140.410).

How the bidding works: the price goes up, the rate does not move

Missouri does not bid down the interest rate. The minimum bid is what is owed: Cole County opens at the taxes, penalties and sale costs; St. Charles County opens at the amount outstanding on the parcel plus $24 to record the certificate of purchase. From there, whoever offers to pay the most wins (Jefferson County: "there is no upper limit on the amount which can be bid").

To bid at all you must sign an affidavit that you are not delinquent on taxes on any other property; not signing it, or signing a false one, may invalidate the sale (§ 140.190.2(1)(a)). Counties make this a registration step: Jefferson County requires the affidavit notarized, a Missouri ID, and for a business a Missouri registration and certificate of good standing, and issues bid numbers only the week before the sale and on the morning of it. St. Charles County verifies that you have no delinquencies before handing you a paddle.

Payment is due on the day. Cole County wants the full price immediately at the close of the sale; Jefferson County gives you two hours after the last property is offered. Walk away from a winning bid and both counties can charge you 25% of the bid, and the parcel goes back up for sale. Audrain County does not accept personal or business checks for tax sale purchases, so bring certified funds or ask first.

What the 10% really pays

When a property is redeemed, the owner pays back the purchase money and costs together with interest at the rate specified in the certificate, not to exceed ten percent annually — except that on anything you paid in excess of the delinquent taxes plus the collector's costs, no interest is owed (§ 140.340.2). Subsequent taxes you paid on the property earn 8% per annum (same subsection).

That exception decides the return. Suppose the taxes and costs on a parcel are $2,000 and competition pushes the winning bid to $8,000. If the owner redeems at the end of the year, you earn 10% on $2,000 — $200 — and get the other $6,000 back with nothing on it. On the $8,000 you actually advanced, that is 2.5%. Jefferson County's bidder FAQ says the same thing in one line: no interest is paid on the surplus.

The interest stops as soon as the owner deposits the redemption money with the collector, who then mails you a notice of the deposit (§ 140.340.3–4). You collect from the collector by handing back the certificate of purchase, so do not lose it (Jefferson County).

Some notice costs are reimbursed and some are not. The title search and the postage for the redemption notices count as costs of sale the owner must repay — but only if you incurred them after March 1 following your purchase at a first or second offering (§ 140.340.2). Order the title report in the autumn and you pay for it yourself if the owner redeems. Jefferson County also warns that it is on you to submit every receipt to the collector as soon as the title search and mailings are done, or you will not be reimbursed.

Redemption: one absolute year, then a defeasible right

The owner, a lienholder, the occupant or anyone else with an interest has the absolute right to redeem at any time during the one year after the sale, and a defeasible right to redeem after that, which lasts until you actually acquire the deed (§ 140.340.1). The first year cannot be shortened. After it, every day you wait to call for the deed is another day the owner can still pay you off.

You do not get to use the property during that time. Audrain County tells certificate holders they have no right to improve or change it before the deed, and that any money spent on it will not be reimbursed on redemption. The statute backs that up: no compensation is allowed for improvements made within one year of the sale (§ 140.360.2).

You also keep paying for it. Audrain County bills the certificate holder for the taxes during the redemption period, and § 140.440 is strict about what happens if you do not pay them: a purchaser who lets a subsequent tax become delinquent forfeits all liens on the property, and if someone else buys a certificate on it at the next sale, you must surrender yours, getting back only any unclaimed surplus you paid, without interest.

There is one more lever that works in your favour. If the owner or a lienholder wants to sell the property or put a new lien on it during the redemption period, they must redeem first; if they do not, they owe you your whole bid as recorded on the certificate plus all the costs of sale (§ 140.405.3).

Getting the deed: title search, notice, and an 18-month clock

Nobody hands you a deed at the end of the year. Under § 140.405.1 you must first get a title search report from a licensed attorney or licensed title company showing the ownership and encumbrances. Then, at least ninety days before the date you will be entitled to the deed, you must notify the owner of record and anyone holding a recorded deed of trust, mortgage, lease, lien, judgment or other claim of their right to redeem, by both first-class and certified mail, return receipt requested (§ 140.405.2). If both come back undeliverable, you must try other means and say so in your affidavit (§ 140.405.4).

You prove all of it to the collector by affidavit, attaching the title report, copies of both notices, the addressed envelopes as they looked before mailing, the certified receipts as they came back and any returned envelopes (§ 140.405.5). To be "authorized to acquire the deed" you must also pay the recording fee, produce the original certificate of purchase and pay all subsequent taxes (§ 140.405.9). Audrain County describes the search it expects as a 30-year lien search.

Then the clock that ends careers. The purchaser must pay all subsequent taxes and have a deed executed and placed on record within eighteen months from the date of the sale; if not, the amount due to the purchaser ceases to be a lien on the property, and the collector records the cancellation of the certificate (§ 140.410). Put the two rules together: the owner has twelve months, your ninety-day notice has to go out well before the end of it, and everything must be finished by month eighteen. Failing to comply with § 140.405 loses you all interest in the real estate (§ 140.405.8).

If it all works, the collector executes a deed in the name of the state that vests an absolute estate in fee simple, and everyone who had a right of redemption or a lien on the land is barred and forever foreclosed (§ 140.420). Audrain County still tells buyers a collector's deed is not considered clean title, and warns that federal and state liens are not cleared this way and need a court. Plan on a quiet title action before you try to sell or insure it.

Nobody bids: second, third and post-third offerings

If nobody bids at least the taxes, interest, penalty and costs at the first offering, the parcel is offered again at the next year's sale; if nobody bids at the second offering either, the collector notes that too (§ 140.240). At the third offering it goes to the highest bidder, still with a minimum of what is owed, but the redemption period is only ninety days (§ 140.250.1). The buyer must notify recorded lienholders within forty-five days of the sale that they have ninety days from the postmark to redeem (§ 140.405.6). Jefferson County describes third-offering redemption the same way: ninety days past the notification dates.

If a parcel is still unsold after the third offering, the collector must advertise or offer it once every thirty days, and a buyer at any of these post-third-year sales is entitled to the immediate issuance of a collector's deed, with no redemption period (§ 140.250.3–4). Before the deed, the buyer also pays the taxes that came due after the ones in the advertisement, and the deed has priority over all other liens except real property taxes (§ 140.250.4).

The county can also step in. A county commission may appoint a trustee to bid at third-offering sales to protect the taxes, and that trustee does not have to pay the amount bid; but if any bidder offers enough to pay everything in full, the trustee has no authority to bid further (§ 140.260.1, .3, .7). If there is no trustee, or the trustee does not take the property, the collector may sell it after the third offering at any time and for any amount (§ 140.260.8). Audrain County's FAQ describes exactly that: at the fourth sale the collector can accept offers below the opening bid, entirely at their discretion.

Where the list is published

The collector must print the list of delinquent lands in a newspaper of general circulation published in the county for three consecutive weeks, once a week, with the last insertion at least fifteen days before the fourth Monday in August (§ 140.170.1). The list names the record owners and states the taxes, penalty, interest and cost due, each year separately (§ 140.170.2). For low-value parcels — assessed at $1,500 or less and advertised before, or lots in a development of twenty or more lots — the collector may publish a separate list without legal descriptions or owner names (§ 140.170.7).

Count back from the sale and the list runs in the local paper from roughly mid-July to early August: for the August 24, 2026 sale the last insertion had to be out by August 9. The collector's office is the place to get the bidder paperwork — Jefferson County posts its bid package, with the affidavit, under its land sale documents. Because every county sells on the same day, you have to choose your counties before the auction, not on it.

One caveat before you plan around a county: a county may elect to operate under the Land Tax Collection Law in chapter 141, in whole or for chosen parcels, and those parcels are exempt from the chapter 140 sales and removed from the first, second, third and post-third lists (§ 140.010.2; § 141.230). Check with the collector which system your parcel is in.

Out-of-state investors and the surplus

Missouri does not take bids from nonresidents directly. No bid shall be received from any person not a resident of Missouri, and a foreign corporation or other entity counts as a nonresident. To bid, a nonresident must file a written consent to the jurisdiction of the county's circuit court and appoint a citizen of the county as agent; the certificate of purchase is issued to the agent, and the deed is conveyed to the agent, who then conveys it to you (§ 140.190.2(2); § 140.290.5). St. Charles County has separate application forms for this and wants the agent's signed acceptance.

If the property sells for more than the taxes and costs, the surplus goes to the county treasurer, held for the lesser of three years or ninety days after the redemption period ends. It is paid first to the former lienholders in order of priority, then to the former owner; claims must be filed with the county commission in writing within ninety days after the redemption period expires; and whatever is unclaimed after three years goes to the county school fund (§ 140.230.2–3). No interest is paid on it.

Six ways people lose money here

1. 1. Bidding the price up and expecting 10% on it

   Interest runs only on the taxes and the collector's costs; your overbid comes back with nothing on it (§ 140.340.2).

2. 2. Letting month eighteen pass

   If the deed is not executed and recorded within eighteen months of the sale, what you are owed stops being a lien (§ 140.410).

3. 3. Skipping next year's taxes

   A certificate holder who lets a subsequent tax go delinquent forfeits all liens on the property (§ 140.440).

4. 4. Ordering the title search too early

   Search and postage are only reimbursed on redemption if incurred after March 1 following a first- or second-offering purchase (§ 140.340.2).

5. 5. Bidding from out of state in your own name

   Nonresidents and out-of-state entities need a county-resident agent and a signed consent to jurisdiction before the sale (§ 140.190.2(2)).

6. 6. Treating the collector's deed as clean title

   Audrain County warns it is not clean title and that federal and state liens need a court to clear.