A Tax Sale List is the list of Tax Foreclosure Properties (properties foreclosed upon due to non-payment of property or county taxes) which will be sold to satisfy property and county tax liens at a Sheriff’s Sale or Constable’s Sale. There are several different methods for obtaining a these lists and the method which you choose to utilize will depend greatly on which county’s tax sale is of interest to you. Each county tax sale list is located differently.
The information provided by independent websites, government websites, local papers and services varies greatly.
Local Print Advertising
In Texas, a property cannot be sold at a Sheriff’s sale or Constable’s Sale without first being advertised in a local paper for three consecutive weeks. This means that a single property will be advertised for one day each week for a total of three appearances, not for three complete weeks. This is the law. The law does not specify WHICH local paper, so sometimes locating that paper for your particular county tax sale can be tricky. Sometimes the paper also provides access to their advertisements on-line and sometimes it does not. Sometimes there is a fee for the electronic access of this information and sometimes there is not. Sometimes they will offer a messaging service to alert you of the listings and other times they do not. The mode of delivery is not consistent, but this is the one category where the information provided IS consistent. In addition, this is also the most thorough source of information.
In most all cases, serious buyers track and save the advertisements for all properties being sold through this mode of delivery, even if they take advantage of other modes as well.
Links to information about specific counties can be found at the end of this page under each respective county.
Legal Websites
Another very popular source of information is legal websites. Legal websites are perhaps the most misleading source of information in Texas. The law firms that represent the county’s and city’s interests frequently post some information regarding the tax sale lists on their websites and, in general, it is very well organized and easy to manipulate. However, their websites only cover the lawsuits that their firm represents. Tax Lien sales represented by a Sheriff or a Constable can be due to several different types of city/county liens. For example, school district can place a lien on a property when school taxes are not paid and can eventually lead to that property being sold at the Sheriff’s sale. If a school district is represented by a different law firm than the main law firm representing the bulk of the tax liens, that property will not be represented on the main law firm’s website. Counties and cities have the right to hire any law firm they wish and the contract for this work is put out for bid on a regular basis. Therefore, if you are told to simply look at a certain law firm’s website for the tax sale list, you may well be overlooking certain properties being represented by other law firms. There are, however, four main law firms representing the bulk of property tax foreclosures at this time. It is worthwhile to review their lists on a regular basis, but you should limit yourself to these sources. They are
- Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP
- Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins & Mott LLP
- Ray, Wood and Banilla LLP
- McCreary Veselka Bragg & Allen
County Websites
County websites can be a strong source for tax sale lists, but it depends on the county. For example, Dallas County, one of the larger counties, does not offer a tax sale list of properties on their website whereas Austin County, which is smaller, has an excellent website. Those counties with good to excellent websites for tax sale lists are identified in the individual county links at the end of this page.
Paid Services
Paid services can provide the same information as discussed above, but there is really no great advantage to these sites except convenience. Because all the same information for county tax sales can be obtained easily in today’s electronic world, I do not recommend these as they seem a waste of money.
For all the specific information and links for each individual county, please click on the county’s name below as they are added:
