Colorado tax sale properties, straight from county records. Last refreshed Oct 13, 2026. Auction dates and opening bids can change at the county. Check the county link on a listing before you bid.
32 Colorado counties have deals right nowUntil the deed auction redemptionHow Colorado sales work
Colorado sells tax lien certificates. The investor pays the delinquent taxes and receives a certificate that earns the interest or penalty set by state law. If the owner does not redeem, the holder can ask the treasurer for a public deed auction, where the holder's balance is the opening bid and anyone can bid more.
Redemption Period
Until the deed auction
You buy a tax lien certificate, not the property. From August 1 of the third year after the sale, the holder can ask the county treasurer for a treasurer's deed. The treasurer then holds a public auction for the deed: the amount owed to the holder is the opening bid, anyone can bid more, and if someone outbids the holder, the holder is paid off with interest. The owner can redeem up to 7 days before that auction.
Colorado has no fixed end date for redemption. The owner can redeem until 7 days before the treasurer's deed auction, and that auction cannot be requested until August 1 of the third year after the sale (C.R.S. 39-11.5-102, 39-11.5-106).
Avg Property Tax Rate
0.51%
Below the national average (1.1%). Lower tax rates often mean smaller opening bids and lien amounts.
Homestead Rules
Special Rules Apply
Senior homestead exemption available.
Words used on this page
Redemption period
A window after the sale when the old owner can pay up and take the property back.
Homestead exemption
A tax break on an owner's main home. It changes what the minimum bid includes.
Opening bid
Where bidding starts. It is not a price or a value. Often it is just the tax owed.
Tax lien
The county sells the unpaid tax debt, not the property. You collect interest, or later foreclose.
Before you bid in Colorado
What can survive the sale and become yours
IRS federal tax liens
HOA/special district assessments
Other things to check
Colorado sells tax lien certificates, usually to the highest premium bid (a few counties may recognize bidders in rotation instead).
The interest rate is set statewide each September at 9 points above the federal discount rate: 13% for certificates bought at 2026 sales (14% in 2025, 15% in 2024), and a certificate keeps its sale-year rate for life.
The premium you bid over the taxes is kept by the county: it is not repaid on redemption and earns no interest.
Getting the property now means a public deed auction where you can be outbid.
A certificate bought in 2026 or later expires after 7 years unless a deed application is pending.
Check for special metro district assessments, which can be substantial.
How we rate these
Every listing says one of four things. Next to it is how many facts we hold
for it, and what that much evidence is good enough for.
Worth a look
We hold the four basics (what is being sold, when, for how much, and what the property is) and nothing we hold argues against it. A claim about our record, not a promise about the property.
Needs review
We hold the basics, but a named finding wants a human first: a possible lien under the owner's name, a flood or environmental record, no mapped public road, a property check that fired, an opening bid at or above the value we hold for the parcel, or a sale the county reports as postponed.
Screened out
We hold positive evidence of a problem: recorded debt or an IRS lien that survives the sale, a lot too small to be a real parcel, a sale the county reports as over, or a sale date already past. The card names it.
Not enough data yet
One of the four basics is missing. This is not a bad rating: missing data can never produce a negative verdict.
N of 12 facts on file
How many of the 12 facts we track for this parcel we actually hold: sale kind, auction date, entry price, property class, value, lot size, living area, legal description, road access, title search, condition, sale terms. The same count on the board, the deal page and in Flexy. Hover the bar on any card to see which are still missing.
One number cannot say both how good a parcel looks and how much we actually know
about it, and a low number reads as a verdict. So we do not print one.
“Not enough data yet” is not a judgement about the property.
Colorado is a tax lien state. You buy a tax lien certificate, not the property. From August 1 of the third year after the sale, the holder can ask the county treasurer for a treasurer's deed. The treasurer then holds a public auction for the deed: the amount owed to the holder is the opening bid, anyone can bid more, and if someone outbids the holder, the holder is paid off with interest. The owner can redeem up to 7 days before that auction.
In Colorado the owner can pay off the lien until 7 days before the treasurer's deed auction, which the holder cannot request until August 1 of the third year after the sale. The owner repays the taxes, interest and costs; the premium a bidder paid is not repaid.
DeedFlex aggregates Colorado tax sale listings from county auction platforms and gives each property a plain-English verdict: Worth a look, Needs review, Screened out, or Not enough data yet. Next to it is how far the research has got on it. Start with Pro ($59/mo, flat) to browse all available Colorado properties with full deal analysis.
Key risks include: IRS federal tax liens, HOA/special district assessments. Colorado sells tax lien certificates, usually to the highest premium bid (a few counties may recognize bidders in rotation instead). The interest rate is set statewide each September at 9 points above the federal discount rate: 13% for certificates bought at 2026 sales (14% in 2025, 15% in 2024), and a certificate keeps its sale-year rate for life. The premium you bid over the taxes is kept by the county: it is not repaid on redemption and earns no interest. Getting the property now means a public deed auction where you can be outbid. A certificate bought in 2026 or later expires after 7 years unless a deed application is pending. Check for special metro district assessments, which can be substantial.
Opening bids vary widely by county and property. Colorado has an average property tax rate of 0.51%, which influences opening bid amounts. DeedFlex shows the opening bid for every listed property. Where we hold a market value we can stand behind, we show it; where we do not, we say so rather than print a number we cannot support.
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