Jefferson County tax sales, Missouri

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Jefferson County runs the most permissive payment terms and the tightest registration cutoff in this Missouri set: payment on sale day may be made by cash, check or credit card, the broadest menu in the wave, while bid numbers stop being issued at 9:00 AM on sale morning, an hour before the sale. The county states its deed discipline in one sentence a buyer should memorize: failure to make proper certified notification and to receive the deed within 18 months of the sale results in a loss of interest in the property.

Selling office: Jefferson County Collector of Revenue (Michelle Worth)

Next sale: 2026 land sale held Monday, August 24, 2026, 10:00 AM, Assembly Room, Administration Center, 729 Maple Street, Hillsboro. Bid numbers had to be obtained by close of business Friday, August 21, 2026; none were issued after 9:00 AM on sale day. The 2027 sale is the fourth Monday in August, August 23, 2027, same room and hour on the county's standing pattern, with the list expected under Land Sale Documents in June 2027.

The 2026 sale is complete. Next: list expected June 2027 under Land Sale Documents, bid numbers through the Friday before the sale, sale Monday, August 23, 2027 at 10:00 AM in the Assembly Room. The trustee channel is open in the meantime.

Dates and deadlines

Next sale	2026 land sale held Monday, August 24, 2026, 10:00 AM, Assembly Room, Administration Center, 729 Maple Street, Hillsboro
The list	Posted in June under Land Sale Documents on the Collector's Land Sale page, and published in The Countian for three consecutive weeks before the sale.
Registration	Obtain a bid number from the Collector and be eligible under RSMo 140.190. Per the 2026 notice, bid numbers were available through close of business Friday, August 21, 2026, and none were issued after 9:00 AM Monday, August 24, 2026.
The sale	Annual land sale at 10:00 AM on the fourth Monday in August in the Assembly Room of the Administration Center, 729 Maple Street, Hillsboro, MO 63050. Highest bidder sale. The 2026 sale was August 24, 2026.
Payment	Payment must be made that day by cash, check or credit card.
First and second offerings	The buyer is issued a certificate of purchase and must wait one year before being entitled to a collector's deed.
Third offering and the deed	On a third offering, a deed will be issued within 90 days of the completion of the title search notification. Before any deed the purchaser must run a title search and notify every interested party by certified mail of the right to redeem; failure to make proper certified notification and receive the deed within 18 months of the sale results in a loss of interest in the property.
Format	In person annual land sale in the Administration Center Assembly Room on the fourth Monday in August: Jefferson County sells in person at 10:00 AM in the Assembly Room of the Administration Center, 729 Maple Street, Hillsboro. The list posts in June under Land Sale Documents and is published in The Countian for three consecutive weeks before the sale.
Selling office	Jefferson County Collector of Revenue (Michelle Worth)

Sources: Jefferson County Collector of Revenue, Land Sale (jeffcomo.gov). Jefferson County Collector of Revenue, 2026 Tax Sale Notice. Missouri Revised Statutes s. 140.190 (revisor.mo.gov). Confirm with the selling office before relying on any date on this page: sales move, terms change, and parcels are pulled up to sale day.

Research Jefferson County parcels before you bid

A sale list gives you the parcels, 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 Jefferson County, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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How Missouri tax sales work

One August Monday runs most of the state. Under s. 140.150 the collector's sale falls on the fourth Monday in August. The delinquent list is published three consecutive weeks, and the sale is held in or adjacent to the county courthouse commencing at 10:00 AM, or by electronic media where the collector chooses (s. 140.170). Two jurisdictions in this set, St. Louis City and Jackson County, run court foreclosures instead and carry their own process on their pages.
The winner is whoever pays the required sum, and eligibility is policed. Under s. 140.190 the purchaser is the bidder who pays the taxes, interest and charges due. A buyer delinquent on other property must sign the non-delinquency affidavit, and a nonresident may not bid without filing a written consent to circuit court jurisdiction and appointing a citizen of the county as agent.
The certificate caps at ten percent, and the surplus is not yours. The certificate of purchase states an interest rate not to exceed ten percent per annum (s. 140.290). Anything bid above taxes and costs is surplus, held by the county treasury for the former owner (s. 140.230), and it earns the purchaser no interest at all under s. 140.340.
Redemption runs a year, and stays defeasible until the deed. Under s. 140.340 the owner, a lienholder or an occupant holds an absolute right to redeem for one year and a defeasible right until the purchaser actually acquires the deed. Redemption pays the purchase money, sale costs, title search and notice costs, interest at the certificate rate on the tax amount, and eight percent per annum on subsequent taxes the purchaser paid.
The deed is earned on paperwork, and missed paperwork is fatal. Under s. 140.405 the purchaser must run a title search and notify the record owner and every publicly recorded claim holder, by first class and certified mail, at least ninety days before taking the deed, then file the affidavit; failure to comply loses the purchaser's interest entirely. The collector's deed then vests fee simple (s. 140.420).
Unsold parcels climb a ladder, then leave the calendar. No covering bid means a second offering next year (s. 140.240) and a third offering the year after, the third carrying a ninety day redemption (s. 140.250). After the third offering the collector offers unsold parcels once every thirty days, and post-third purchasers take a deed immediately with no redemption; counties and cities may also hold parcels through a trustee under s. 140.260.

How bidding works in Jefferson County

Get a bid number from the Collector before the deadline: by close of business the Friday before the sale, and never after 9:00 AM on sale day. Eligibility follows RSMo 140.190, including the non-delinquency affidavit, and nonresidents must file the s. 140.190 written consent to circuit court jurisdiction and appoint a citizen of Jefferson County as agent.

Bid the tax amount, not the parcel, at first and second offerings. Interest runs at no more than ten percent and only on the taxes and costs; every dollar of overbid becomes surplus that earns nothing and waits on redemption to come back. On a contested parcel the disciplined Missouri bid stops where the certificate stops paying.
The ladder rewards patience. The same parcel returns as a second offering, then a third offering with a ninety day redemption, then in the post-third cycle with no redemption at all. A buyer who wants the property rather than the yield often does best at the bottom of the ladder, and the counties in this set run those later channels very differently, from Boone County's sealed bid post-third sales to Jefferson County's trustee.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Deposit, Jefferson County	No separate bidding deposit is stated in the county sources read. Payment in full on sale day is the discipline.
Payment, Jefferson County	Made on the day of sale, by cash, check or credit card. Jefferson County's acceptance of checks and credit cards is the broadest payment menu among the Missouri counties in this set; most others require certified funds.
What is sold	At a first or second offering, a certificate of purchase: a lien position, not the property and not a deed. The purchaser's road to ownership runs through the redemption period and the s. 140.405 notice process. At a post-third offering, what is sold is effectively the deed itself, issued immediately with no redemption.
The interest rate	The certificate states an interest rate not to exceed ten percent per annum (s. 140.290). The rate attaches to the delinquent taxes and sale costs. Nothing above that amount earns anything: the surplus belongs to the former owner.
The surplus	Any amount bid above the taxes, interest and costs is surplus, deposited in the county treasury for the former owner under s. 140.230, and noted separately on the certificate. On redemption it goes back through the county process; it is never yield, and pricing a contested parcel as if the overbid earned ten percent is the standard Missouri beginner's error.
Redemption money	The purchase money, the costs of sale, the purchaser's title search and notification costs, and interest at the certificate rate (capped at ten percent) on the tax amount, plus subsequent taxes the purchaser paid at eight percent per annum (s. 140.340). No interest is owed on any excess above delinquent taxes plus sale costs.
Redemption periods	One year absolute, and defeasible until the deed issues, for first and second offerings (s. 140.340). Ninety days for third offerings (ss. 140.250, 140.405). None at all for post-third purchases, where the deed issues immediately.
The deed path	Title search report from a licensed attorney or title company; notice of the right to redeem to the record owner and every publicly recorded claim holder at least ninety days before the deed, by first class and certified mail return receipt requested; affidavit at the end of the redemption period (s. 140.405). Counties apply an eighteen month outer limit from the certificate: miss the process and the purchaser's interest is lost.

Unsold parcels: the Jefferson County Trustee

Any property not sold after three consecutive offerings is turned over to the Jefferson County Trustee and may be purchased from the Trustee at any time. That trustee inventory is the standing leftover channel: no auction calendar, no offering ladder, a direct purchase from the Trustee when the parcel fits.

Before you bid

Model the surplus at zero percent. Run every first or second offering bid with the overbid earning nothing and returning only on redemption. If the deal only works with yield on the full bid, it does not work in Missouri.
Calendar the deed process the day you buy the certificate. The s. 140.405 title search and ninety day notice, inside the eighteen month outer limit counties apply, are where Missouri certificates go to die. The buyer who diaries the process owns the deed path; the buyer who does not loses the interest entirely.
Read the county's channel before the state's frame. Eight counties in this set run ch. 140 sales, but no two run them identically: sealed bids in St. Louis County, GovEase in Clay County, courthouse steps elsewhere, and two jurisdictions, St. Louis City and Jackson County, run court foreclosures with no certificate at all.
Set the maximum before the sale opens. The free Max-Bid Calculator below works backwards from your exit value to the highest bid you can pay, with the costs shown.

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New York tax sales · Florida tax deed sales · Texas tax sales · Pennsylvania tax sales · Georgia tax sales · North Carolina tax foreclosure sales · Ohio tax foreclosure sales · Illinois tax lien sales · Michigan tax foreclosure sales · Arizona tax lien sales · California tax defaulted property sales · Colorado tax lien sales · South Carolina tax sales · Indiana tax lien sales · Tennessee delinquent tax sales · Wisconsin tax deed sales