Question on tax lein auctions

[Weston Higgason]

Hello , I may not even be in the correct forum but here it goes. I am a newbie to the real estate world, I am trying to understand and familiarize myself with the landscape. I am been looking into tax lein auctions in VA. Fortunately I have been doing my due diligence on understanding the process before I bid on anything because now I understand , correct me if I'm wrong, that I would be bidding on the lein so whatever taxes that is owed I'm responsible for in addition to the bid I place, unless it's redeemed by the owner in which case I would get my money back with interest at a future date ? . If I am correct so far, my question is..... is there a way to know how much taxes or what exactly the lein is on the property that i would be responsible for before the bid takes place? I guess I don't want any surprises , or is that part of the risk? What would you be looking for going into an auction? Thanks everyone.