Buying a house before tax auction

[Nick Thompson]

I have seen a few forum posts on this, but I'm looking for some direct advice. There are a few houses I just found out about that are slated to go to a tax deed auction in August. I see online that the properties were already forclosed to the city on 05/01/15. Is there a way I can pay off the taxes and buy the properties before they make it to auction? It sounds like the properties are in good shape and were given to the guy a few years ago, and he just never paid the taxes. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Emily B.]

@Nick Thompson I'm recently getting into the tax auction area myself and from what I understand, there is a redemption hearing (typically in Feb/March) in which the owner can pay the taxes to stop the tax foreclosure. Kind of like a "this is your very last chance to re-claim your property before it goes to auction." I have known of people who go to the owner before this point in time, or even try to find them at the redemption hearing (not sure if this is the correct term for it), offering to buy the property from them, for the amount of taxes due, and at the redemption hearing the property is then removed from the foreclosing procedure. Once the redemption period is past, however, I do not believe the property can be removed from the auction, but I'm not 100% sure. From the point of someone who stops paying their property taxes to the time it goes to auction is about 3 years. Hope this helps.