Land · Idaho tax deed guide

Idaho tax deed sales by county

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Idaho is a tax deed state with a feature most deed states do not have: the owner can still get the property back after the county takes its deed. When taxes go delinquent the county holds the lien itself, waits three years, notifies the owner and parties in interest, holds a hearing before the commissioners, and takes a tax deed in the county name. Only then does a buying opportunity exist, at a public auction run by the commissioners, and even after the deed the former owner may redeem right up until the county contracts to sell, with a hard stop 14 months after the deed.

There are no tax lien certificates in Idaho and nothing to buy during the three year wait. What buyers get is the auction itself: a minimum bid that covers the taxes, interest, and costs owing, a board that may accept less than that minimum or reject every bid, and deeds that are usually quitclaim. The ten counties below are the largest in the state, and each page tracks the hearing, parcel list, and auction practice of that county, because in Idaho the county calendar, not the statute, is what a buyer actually plans around.

Verify before you go: a city or town can move a date, change terms, cancel a sale, or pull parcels at any time. The official sale list is the final word.

The 10 counties

Each row links to that jurisdiction's own page: selling office, venue or platform, deposit, payment terms, leftover channel, and sources. Where a jurisdiction has not posted a dated sale, the row says so instead of projecting a pattern onto it.

How Idaho tax deed sales work

• Taxes go delinquent and the lien belongs to the county. A delinquency carries interest at 1 percent per month from the January 1 after the lien attached, and the county holds a perpetual lien that entitles it to a tax deed (Idaho Code 63-1001 and 63-1003).
• Three years pass with no investor product to buy. There is no lien sale and no certificate in Idaho; during the wait the only event is the county building its own deed.
• Notice of pending issue goes out. Between five months and two months before the deed date, the tax collector serves notice on the record owner and parties in interest by certified mail with return receipt requested; if the mail comes back undelivered, a summary is published once a week for four consecutive weeks, and an affidavit of compliance is recorded at least five working days before the deed (Idaho Code 63-1005).
• The commissioners hold a hearing. If the tax collector followed the notice statute and the delinquency is still owing and unpaid, the board directs the tax collector to issue and record the tax deed to the county (Idaho Code 63-1006).
• Redemption stays open after the deed. The former owner or a party in interest may redeem until the commissioners contract to sell the property or transfer it by deed, and never later than 14 months from tax deed issuance, by paying the delinquency with interest and costs, including title search and professional fees, plus taxes accrued after the deed (Idaho Code 63-1007).
• The commissioners auction the property. The auction must be held no later than 14 months from issuance of the tax deed, on newspaper notice at least ten calendar days ahead naming the taxpayer and the legal description, and the minimum bid is set to include all taxes owing, interest, and costs (Idaho Code 31-808).
• Excess proceeds are claimed, not kept. Money above everything owing is apportioned first to parties in interest who claim within 60 days of the board notice, in lien priority, and the remainder goes to the owner of record at the time the tax deed issued (Idaho Code 31-808).

Idaho at a glance: the county takes a tax deed three years after delinquency and must auction the property no later than 14 months after the deed (Idaho Code 63-1005 and 31-808).

Research the parcels before you bid

A sale list gives you the parcel, the date, and the opening terms. It does not give you the owner, the value, or the rest of the picture: liens, foreclosure status, and parcel history. PropertyRadar is the data platform for that layer. It carries owner records, assessed and market values, foreclosure and tax data, and property history for parcels across the country, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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Get the alert, not just the calendar.

The dates on these pages are the free layer. The Pine membership is the paid layer, proven in New York: members pick their counties, get alerts when a sale is scheduled or a list posts, and receive the full property list with the analysis already done. Idaho jurisdictions open from the interest list first, in the order readers join it.

Keep going

Once a deadline puts you in a sale, the Land Investor Due Diligence Toolkit is the checklist and bid worksheet to run on each parcel before you bid.