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Grant Street Group / LienHub / LienAuction

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Grant Street Group / LienHub / LienAuction

Commercial-vendor profile. This page describes a private auction-software vendor and its products neutrally, for reference. It is not an endorsement, ranking, or recommendation. AuctionBlock is not affiliated with Grant Street Group. Mechanics vary by county; always confirm against the specific tax collector’s or clerk’s official auction page before bidding.

Overview

Grant Street Group is a Pittsburgh-based government-software company whose “delinquent collection software suite” includes the online auction platforms used by many U.S. county tax offices to sell tax certificates (liens) and tax-defaulted property deeds. Its principal auction products are:

  • LienHub® — described by the vendor as “a comprehensive online auction platform for tax lien sales,” covering both annual delinquent tax certificate sales and ongoing sales of county-held certificates, plus certificate transfers and tax-deed applications. LienHub is the current investor-facing portal (lienhub.com) for the certificate side.
  • LienAuction — Grant Street’s original certificate-auction service, which the vendor states was “the country’s first Internet auctions of delinquent tax certificates,” debuting in May 2004. Functionally the certificate-auction engine later consolidated under the LienHub brand.
  • DeedAuction® — the vendor’s “complete online auction platform for sales of tax-defaulted property deeds,” used principally by California counties.
  • ClerkAuction® — the platform Florida Clerks of the Circuit Court use to run online tax deed sales (the deed stage that follows a Florida tax certificate). Example: St. Lucie County launched at www.stlucie.clerkauction.com.

Note on “RealTaxDeed.” realtaxdeed.com is a product of RealAuction, a different vendor and Grant Street competitor, not a Grant Street product. Many Florida counties that use LienHub/ClerkAuction on the certificate side use RealAuction’s *.realtaxdeed.com portals on the deed side, or vice versa, so the two vendors frequently appear in the same county’s workflow. Orange County, FL, for instance, runs its tax deed sales on RealAuction at orange.realtaxdeed.com, not on a Grant Street product. This page covers Grant Street’s products only.

Where it’s used

Coverage below is limited to jurisdictions confirmed on a retrieved official Grant Street page or an official county page.

Florida (tax certificate sales via LienHub):

  • broward-fl — Broward County Tax Collector registers and bids through lienhub.com/county/broward.
  • Hillsborough County — lienhub.com/county/hillsborough.
  • Sarasota County — lienhub.com/county/sarasota.
  • The four launch counties for LienAuction in May 2004: Miami-Dade, Okaloosa, Orange, and Volusia. (Historical; current vendor for each should be reconfirmed against the county and the Florida DOR annual list.)

The Florida Department of Revenue publishes an annual “Tax Certificate Sale Information” list of every county’s sale date and auction website; many counties list lienhub.com/county/<county> URLs there, while others list RealAuction (*.realtaxdeed.com) — confirming a mixed-vendor landscape across the 67 Florida counties. A precise current count of LienHub-using counties is needs_verification (secondary sources cite “~30,” not confirmed against the primary DOR list here).

Florida (tax deed sales via ClerkAuction):

  • St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court — www.stlucie.clerkauction.com.

Arizona / Maryland (historical LienAuction):

  • Grant Street’s own news release names Maricopa County, Arizona and Baltimore, Maryland among early LienAuction jurisdictions. (Current status needs_verification.)

California (DeedAuction):

  • Grant Street’s auctions page lists the City and County of San Francisco, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Mateo, and Solano as DeedAuction deed-sale clients.

▸ For Investors / Operators. The vendor portal is not the rule-maker — the county is. The same LienHub login can front counties with different deposit rules, batch structures, and W-9 handling. Treat each county’s official auction page as the controlling document for redemption interest, certificate life, and payment deadlines before you fund an account.

How it works

The mechanics below are drawn from official county pages (Broward, Hillsborough, Sarasota) and Grant Street’s own product/help pages. They describe the Florida tax-certificate flow on LienHub, which is the platform’s highest-volume use.

Registration. Bidders register on LienHub for the specific county and receive a bidder number. Broward requires a Federal Taxpayer ID or SSN and a completed W-9, with the name on the EIN/TIN (SS-4) or SSN document matching the W-9 “without exception.”

Deposit. Deposit rules are set per county. Broward and Hillsborough both require an ACH-Debit deposit equal to 10% of the estimated amount the bidder intends to purchase, paid on the LienHub/BidBroward payments page. Sarasota, by contrast, does not require a deposit. (This per-county divergence is the single most common source of bidder error.)

Bidding method — interest-rate bid-down. Florida certificate auctions are reverse auctions on the interest rate. Bidding “begins at 18 percent (the maximum rate) and is bid down” in 0.25% (quarter-percent) increments to a floor of 0%; the certificate is “awarded to the buyer with the lowest interest rate bid.” LienHub supports proxy bidding — the bidder sets a lowest acceptable rate and “the electronic agent keeps lowering the bid to submit by quarter percent increments.” Certificates are grouped into batches, each with its own closing time.

Statutory 5% minimum return (Florida). Under Florida law, if a certificate is redeemed, the holder is “guaranteed a minimum of 5% interest” even if the winning bid was below 5% (and a 0% bid earns the 5% floor) — except in cases the statute excludes. (This is a Florida statutory rule surfaced on county pages, not a LienHub feature; see florida for the governing certificate statute.)

Payment. Winning bidders pay via ACH from the LienHub payments page. Broward requires payment “no later than 48 hours after close of sale.”

Certificate delivery / life. Certificates are “dated as of the first day of the sale.” Per Broward, a Florida certificate is “null and void seven years from the date of issuance.” Holders are reimbursed principal plus accrued statutory interest and advertising costs by the Tax Collector upon the owner’s redemption. The deed-acquisition stage (a Florida tax-deed application after two years) runs through a separate ClerkAuction or RealAuction deed sale, not the certificate platform.

Tax deed sales (ClerkAuction). For the deed stage, the Florida Clerk of the Circuit Court conducts the online sale on ClerkAuction; specific deposit and bidding rules are set by each clerk and are needs_verification here (not retrieved from a ClerkAuction county rules page in this pass).

Practical notes

  • Per-county variance is the rule. Deposit (10% vs. none), batch layout, and closing-time structure differ between counties on the same platform. The LienHub brand does not standardize these.
  • Two vendors, one county. Because LienHub/ClerkAuction (Grant Street) and RealAuction/RealTaxDeed are both heavily used across Florida, a single property can touch both a Grant Street certificate sale and a RealAuction deed sale (or the reverse). Read each portal’s URL carefully — lienhub.com and clerkauction.com are Grant Street; realtaxdeed.com is RealAuction.
  • Proxy bidding + ties. When multiple bidders proxy to the same lowest rate, Florida counties typically award by a random/round-robin tiebreak; the exact tiebreak procedure is set by the county and is needs_verification here.
  • ACH timing is strict. Missing the post-sale ACH window (e.g., Broward’s 48 hours) can forfeit awards and/or deposit; confirm the deadline on the county page.
  • Fees. Any bidder/transaction or convenience fees are county/vendor-specific and were not retrieved from a primary source in this pass — needs_verification.

▸ For Former Owners. A LienHub or ClerkAuction sale of your property does not erase your equity. In Florida, surplus from a tax deed sale belongs to the former owner and lienholders, with a statutory claim window — the auction vendor does not pay it to you automatically. Confirm your deadline and claim path on florida before it lapses.

Sources

Official vendor and county pages actually retrieved for this profile:

Legal/operational information, not legal advice. Auction mechanics, fees, and vendor assignments change and vary by jurisdiction; verify against the controlling county tax collector or clerk page before acting. AuctionBlock is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Grant Street Group, RealAuction, or any jurisdiction named here. Last verified 2026-06-02.

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