Missouri tax sale properties, straight from county records. Last refreshed Oct 12, 2026. Auction dates and opening bids can change at the county. Check the county link on a listing before you bid.
Missouri 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 must take the further steps state law sets to get the deed.
Redemption Period
1 yr
At the county collector's August sale you buy a certificate of purchase. The owner has one year to redeem, and can still redeem after that until you take the deed. To take the deed you must order a title search, mail redemption notices to the owner and every recorded lienholder at least 90 days before, and have the collector's deed recorded within 18 months of the sale, or the certificate is lost (RSMo 140.340, 140.405, 140.410). Property offered for a third year gets only a 90-day redemption; after the third offering the county sells it with an immediate collector's deed and no redemption (140.250). St. Louis City instead forecloses in court and the sheriff sells the property (Chapter 92).
Avg Property Tax Rate
0.97%
Near the national average (1.1%).
Homestead Rules
Special Rules Apply
Property tax credit for seniors.
Words used on this page
Redemption period
A window after the sale when the old owner can pay up and take the property back.
Tax lien
The county sells the unpaid tax debt, not the property. You collect interest, or later foreclose.
Before you bid in Missouri
What can survive the sale and become yours
IRS federal tax liens
Other things to check
Missouri's annual sale (fourth Monday in August) is a premium auction: bidding starts at the taxes owed and goes up.
Bidders who do not live in Missouri must appoint a Missouri resident as agent.
You earn up to 10% a year on the taxes and costs you paid, 8% on later taxes you pay, and nothing on any amount you bid above the taxes.
You must pay the later years' taxes and take the deed within 18 months or you lose the certificate.
Missing a single required notice costs you the whole purchase.
Post-third-offering property is sold outright with no redemption. St.
Louis City sells through sheriff's land tax sales that a judge must confirm; the deed requires you to get an occupancy permit before resale.
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.
Missouri is a tax lien state. At the county collector's August sale you buy a certificate of purchase. The owner has one year to redeem, and can still redeem after that until you take the deed. To take the deed you must order a title search, mail redemption notices to the owner and every recorded lienholder at least 90 days before, and have the collector's deed recorded within 18 months of the sale, or the certificate is lost (RSMo 140.340, 140.405, 140.410). Property offered for a third year gets only a 90-day redemption; after the third offering the county sells it with an immediate collector's deed and no redemption (140.250). St. Louis City instead forecloses in court and the sheriff sells the property (Chapter 92).
The redemption period in Missouri is 1 yr. During this period, the original owner can reclaim the property by paying what is owed plus the interest or penalty set by state law.
DeedFlex aggregates Missouri 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 Missouri properties with full deal analysis.
Key risks include: IRS federal tax liens. Missouri's annual sale (fourth Monday in August) is a premium auction: bidding starts at the taxes owed and goes up. Bidders who do not live in Missouri must appoint a Missouri resident as agent. You earn up to 10% a year on the taxes and costs you paid, 8% on later taxes you pay, and nothing on any amount you bid above the taxes. You must pay the later years' taxes and take the deed within 18 months or you lose the certificate. Missing a single required notice costs you the whole purchase. Post-third-offering property is sold outright with no redemption. St. Louis City sells through sheriff's land tax sales that a judge must confirm; the deed requires you to get an occupancy permit before resale.
Opening bids vary widely by county and property. Missouri has an average property tax rate of 0.97%, 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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