Land · Michigan tax sale guide

Michigan tax foreclosure sales by county

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Michigan is a tax deed state with a long front end and a hard stop. Unpaid taxes are returned delinquent to the county treasurer on March 1, forfeited the next March 1, and foreclosed in circuit court; the owner can redeem until March 31 after judgment, and on April 1 title vests absolutely in the county treasurer as foreclosing governmental unit. After governments take their right of first refusal, the property sells at public auction between the third Tuesday in July and the first Tuesday in November, first at a minimum bid of everything owed, and in a final round with no minimum bid at all. There is no redemption after the sale because there is nothing left to redeem.

This page set covers the top 20 counties by population and sale volume. Each county page carries the selling office, the platform, the rounds and their dates, the minimum bid rule, the registration and deposit gate, the payment clock, and the leftover channel, verified against the treasurer or vendor source. Most of these counties sell through the state's contracted vendor, Title Check, LLC at tax-sale.info; Wayne and Macomb run their own online auctions, and Washtenaw sells on Auction.com, so the platform line on each county page is the one to read first.

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

The 20 counties

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

How Michigan tax foreclosure sales work

• Delinquent, then forfeited. Unpaid taxes are returned delinquent to the county treasurer on March 1 of the year after they were levied. If they are still unpaid a year later, the property is forfeited to the treasurer on March 1 (Section 211.78g), with forfeiture fees and interest added; Oakland County's page states the shape of it: a $235 minimum fee and interest at 18 percent per year running back to the delinquency date. Forfeiture is not yet foreclosure: the owner can still pay and clear the property.
• Foreclosure is a court case, and it ends redemption. The foreclosing governmental unit, in these counties the county treasurer, petitions the circuit court (by June 15), and after the show cause and foreclosure hearings the court enters judgment. The owner and interest holders can redeem until March 31 following the judgment; on April 1, title vests absolutely in the FGU (Section 211.78k). The foreclosure judgment cancels prior liens by court order, with limited exceptions. After vesting there is no redemption, by anyone, at any price.
• Governments pick first. Before any public auction, the property runs the right of first refusal sequence in Section 211.78m(1): the State may buy by the first Tuesday in July at the greater of the minimum bid or fair market value, then the local units where the property sits, then the county or its land bank. What reaches the public auction is what government buyers passed on.
• Auctions run in rounds, and the round sets the floor. Sales are held between the third Tuesday in July and the first Tuesday in November, on at least 30 days published notice, and may be held online (Section 211.78m). At the first offering the minimum bid is all delinquent taxes, interest, penalties and fees. A later offering, held at least 28 days after a prior sale, may carry no minimum bid, though the FGU can set a reasonable opening bid to cover costs. Most counties in this set sell through the state's contracted vendor, Title Check, LLC at tax-sale.info, in three rounds: a minimum bid auction, a minimum bid re-offer, and a no reserve sealed bid round. Wayne and Macomb counties run their own online auctions instead, and Washtenaw sells on Auction.com.
• Payment is fast, and the deed follows. The statute makes the FGU require full payment at the close of the sale day or by a date not more than 21 days after the sale; vendor terms are shorter (Title Check: 5 business days; Wayne: 72 hours; Macomb: by 4:00 PM the next day). The buyer must also show the taxes owed on the property at the time of sale are paid within 21 days, or the sale is canceled. The FGU then issues the deed under Section 211.78m. There is no redemption tail behind a Michigan tax deed; the homework is the property itself, sold as is.

One Michigan fact decides most bids: there is no redemption tail to price. The March 31 cutoff ended the owner's rights before the auction opened, so the bid prices the property, the as is condition, and a payment clock measured in days, not a wait measured in years.

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. Michigan counties 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.