The comprehensive, citation-backed guide to tax & mortgage foreclosure, redemption, surplus recovery, and obtaining insurable title across the United States. Every state and territory, the federal-law overlay, the leading case law, and county-level operational detail — with every legal claim sourced to a primary authority (statute, regulation, or decided case), and honest needs_verification flags instead of guesses.

56 jurisdictions358 counties (of 3,143, growing)110 verified cases50 concepts46 edge cases18 playbooks9 reference tables

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▸ For Investors & OperatorsHow to acquire at tax & foreclosure sales, evaluate lien position, reach marketable title, and stay on the right side of antitrust law. ▸ For Former OwnersIf your property sold for more than the debt, the surplus is yours. How to claim it, redeem the property, or stop a sale before it happens.

Investors & operators: pre-sale research · lien priority · due diligence · quiet title · antitrust compliance. Former owners: claim your surplus · redeem your property · stop a sale · recover escheated funds · avoid scams.

Browse the wiki

States & TerritoriesAll 56 jurisdictions — tax-sale type, redemption, surplus rights, mortgage foreclosure, case law, and the operator-grade advanced modules. CountiesLocal operational detail — auction platform, sale calendar, where surplus claims are filed, offices, and records portals. Largest-population-first. Federal LawIRS liens & the 120-day redemption, bankruptcy (§362/§363/Ch.13), SCRA, CERCLA, the Tyler due-process line, PTFA, FHA/VA/USDA. Core ConceptsCross-jurisdiction doctrine — redemption, surplus waterfall, deficiency, quiet title — plus the investor cluster (yield, entity structuring, bidding). Case LawOne verified decision per page — every citation traced to a retrieved opinion, good-law status checked. Reference TablesComparative 56-jurisdiction tables: redemption periods, interest rates, sale types, surplus deadlines, Tyler compliance, HOA super-priority — plus the glossary. PlaybooksStep-by-step process guides for operators and for former owners. Edge CasesThe gotchas — PACE super-priority liens, rollback taxes, tenant eviction, life estates, probate, environmental liens, junior-lien traps. Auction PlatformsRealAuction, Bid4Assets, GovEase, LienHub, SRI/Zeus, CivicSource — who uses them and how they work. Agencies & Land BanksThe 50-state unclaimed-property offices where escheated surplus lands, plus the major land banks.

Landmark cases

The constitutional spine of modern surplus-recovery law:

• tyler-v-hennepin-county — the case: retaining surplus equity above the tax debt is an unconstitutional taking (U.S. 2023).
• united-states-v-lawton-1884 — the 19th-century root of the surplus doctrine, relied on in Tyler.
• rafaeli-v-oakland-county-2020 · nieveen-v-tax-106-2024 · continental-resources-v-fair-2024 — state high-court applications and Tyler remands.
• jones-v-flowers · mennonite-v-adams · mullane-v-central-hanover — the due-process notice line.
• sfr-investments-pool-1-v-us-bank · chase-plaza-condominium-v-jpmorgan-2014 — HOA super-priority.
• united-states-v-nusbaum-stollof-2009 · united-states-v-joyce-2018 — DOJ bid-rigging prosecutions at tax-lien and foreclosure auctions.

Key reference tables

• table-tyler-compliance — which states’ surplus statutes are compliant, reformed, or still non-compliant post-Tyler.
• table-redemption-periods · table-surplus-deadlines · table-interest-rates · table-tax-sale-types · table-recovery-agent-rules · table-hoa-super-priority
• glossary — 150+ terms of tax/mortgage foreclosure, redemption, and surplus-recovery vocabulary.

How this wiki is built

Every page is researched against retrieved primary sources and adversarially self-verified — citations are checked to confirm the source actually says what the page claims and that each case or statute exists and remains good law. Hallucinated case law is treated as the single worst failure mode: an unverifiable claim is flagged needs_verification, never fabricated. Pages are dated; law changes, and stale law is dangerous law.

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Legal information, not legal advice. This wiki summarizes complex, fast-changing law and may contain errors or omissions. Verify against the cited primary sources and consult a licensed attorney in the relevant jurisdiction before acting.