Tax-delinquent properties: where to get the list
Short answer: A tax-delinquent property list is the county record of owners behind on property tax. Every county keeps one year round and publishes a free version, usually a PDF, before each scheduled tax sale.
Typical cash close
35 to 40% under market
Discount to estimated value on tax-delinquent properties, capped by owner equity.
Metros with a live list
46
Plus any US ZIP through the scan, listed or not.
Cost to browse
Free
Credits only reveal owner contact, and only when one verifies.
What this list actually is
There is no single national tax-delinquent list, and any site claiming to sell you one is reselling county data. Property tax is administered county by county, so the authoritative record always sits with the county office that collects it: the treasurer in most states, the tax assessor-collector in Texas, the tax commissioner in Georgia, the treasurer-tax collector in California, and the town or city collector across New England and New Jersey.
That official list is genuinely free and worth pulling. What it will not tell you is who the owner is, how to reach them, what the house is worth, how much equity sits behind the debt, or which of the several hundred names on it would actually take a cash offer. It is a list of parcel numbers and dollar amounts, published to satisfy a legal notice requirement, not to help you buy anything.
The gap between that document and a workable lead list is the entire job. Owner identity has to be joined from assessor records, contact details from skip tracing, value from an AVM or comps, and equity from open mortgage data. Then it has to be ranked, because the difference between an owner two months from a tax sale with 70% equity and an owner one year behind with no equity is the difference between a deal and a waste of a phone call.
Every source, and what each one leaves out
Including the free ones. Nothing here is a secret, the work is in what you do with it.
| Source | Cost | What you get | What is missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| County tax office pre-sale list | Free | Parcel numbers, owner name of record, amount owed, sale date | No phone, no email, no value, no equity, and it only exists in sale season |
| County recorder lien filings | Free to search, small fee per copy | Recorded tax liens with dates and amounts | Filing by filing, no bulk export, and no way to sort by who is most likely to sell |
| State-level aggregators | Free in some states | Statewide delinquent rolls where the state centralizes them, as in Arkansas | Only a handful of states centralize, and the format varies wildly |
| Bulk list brokers | Roughly 0.05 to 0.30 per record | CSV of names and mailing addresses, often bundled with skip tracing | Frequently stale, rarely ranked, and usually sold to every other investor in your county |
| LowBaller | Free to browse, credits only to reveal an owner | Ranked list with distress signals, estimated value, equity and a suggested offer on every row | Not the official legal notice, so always confirm sale details with the county |
How to find tax-delinquent properties, step by step
1. Pull the official county list
Find your county tax office, download the current delinquent roll, and note the sale date. This is your ground truth and it costs nothing.
2. Join owner and property data
Match each parcel against assessor records for the owner of record, the mailing address, the year built and the assessed value. A mailing address that differs from the property address is an absentee owner, which is a second signal on the same house.
3. Filter on equity, not on debt
The amount owed barely matters. What matters is estimated value minus the open mortgage, because that is the room an owner has to accept a discount and still walk away with money. Owners with no equity cannot sell to you at any price that works.
4. Rank by deadline pressure
Years behind, whether a sale is scheduled, and whether other distress signals stack on the same property. Work the top of that list and ignore the tail.
5. Skip trace and call
Mailing addresses produce a response rate in the low single digits. Phone numbers produce far more. Trace the top of your ranked list rather than the whole thing.
How the lead types compare
Tax-delinquent properties by city
Live lists for 46 US metros, each ranked hardest-first with a below-market offer on every row. Not listed? The scan covers every US ZIP.
Alabama
Arizona
Colorado
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Virginia
Washington
Tax-delinquent properties FAQ
How do I get a list of tax-delinquent properties?
From the county office that collects property tax, which publishes a free delinquent roll before each scheduled sale. Which office depends on your state: county treasurer in most, tax assessor-collector in Texas, tax commissioner in Georgia, treasurer-tax collector in California, and the town or city collector in New England and New Jersey. Pick your county from the directory on this page for the exact source.
Is there a free tax-delinquent property list?
Yes. The county version is free by law, because it exists to satisfy a public notice requirement. Anyone charging you purely for access to that document is reselling something you can download yourself. What costs money is the work on top: owner contact details, current valuations, equity figures and ranking.
Are tax-delinquent properties actually for sale?
Not in the listing sense. These owners have not put their house on the market, which is precisely the opportunity: no agent, no competing offers, no bidding war. Some will sell immediately because a deadline is closing in, most will not, and the ranking exists to tell you which is which before you spend time on the phone.
How many years behind before a property goes to tax sale?
It varies by state, commonly one to five years of delinquency before the county can sell. Arizona and Colorado run three-year redemption cycles, California waits five years on tax-defaulted land, and Florida applies for a tax deed after two years unpaid. The state-by-state table on this site has the specifics.
Can I buy the property just by paying the back taxes?
Almost never, and this is the single most common misconception in the field. In lien states you are buying a certificate that pays interest, not the house, and the owner can redeem. In deed states you bid at auction against other buyers, and the winning bid usually far exceeds the tax owed. Paying someone's taxes without an agreement in place buys you nothing at all.
What discount do tax-delinquent properties sell for?
Cash closes on tax-delinquent property typically land 25 to 40% under estimated value, and stacked distress such as a scheduled auction pushes that toward 35 to 50%. Owner equity caps every offer, because a bid cannot go below what clears the mortgage.