Behind on property taxes
Selling a house with back taxes in Michigan
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When the property taxes go unpaid, it's the county treasurer you're up against, and the county keeps a hard calendar. Here's how that calendar runs, and how selling can settle the taxes before the last date on it.
A local team, no obligation, and a real answer either way.
How does Michigan property tax foreclosure actually work?
It is run by your county treasurer, not a bank, under Michigan's General Property Tax Act, and it moves on roughly a three-year clock. Taxes that go unpaid in the first year are returned delinquent to the county the following March 1. If another year passes, the property is forfeited to the treasurer. Forfeiture sounds final, but it is not, yet. You still own the house at that point, though fees attach and the interest gets steeper.
Early in the third year, a foreclosure judgment is entered in circuit court. Nothing about that filing takes the house on its own. It sets up the one date on this page worth memorizing.
Why is March 31 the date that matters?
March 31 of that third year is the absolute deadline. After it, title vests in the county and (outside a narrow exception for owners who formally contested the case in court) there is no redemption: no grace period, no catching up late, no buying the house back afterward. Michigan's deadline is famously unforgiving compared with other states, and it works the same whether the notices are coming from the Muskegon County treasurer or from Ottawa County.
In Muskegon County alone, a batch of properties crosses that line every spring, and the owners who keep control of the outcome, and almost always the most money, are the ones who acted before the deadline. The most expensive mistake an owner can make is treating March as a soft date. It is not. That is general information, not legal advice, but the deadline itself is not a gray area.
Do you need cash to pay off the back taxes before selling?
No. Delinquent taxes, interest and fees are paid out of the sale proceeds at closing, the same way a mortgage payoff is handled. The title company gets a payoff figure from the county treasurer, that amount comes off the top, and you receive what is left. You do not need to catch up first, and you do not need to bring a dollar to the table as long as the price covers what is owed.
Most owners in this situation do not know that, and it changes everything. The real question is not whether you can scrape the money together. It is whether the house can be sold before March 31.
What does selling to us look like?
We are Home and Neighbor Home Buyers, a cash buyer based in Kent County, and we buy from Grand Rapids out to the lakeshore, Ludington to Benton Harbor, and down to Kalamazoo. On a tax-deadline sale, speed is the entire reason to use us: a cash offer within 24 hours, minimal disruption to you, and a closing in as little as 14 days. Our offer has no financing contingency and no appraisal contingency, so there is no bank approval on your side to wait on and nothing that can fall apart in week five. The condition does not scare us off either. A worn roof in Muskegon Heights gets looked at the same way as a tidy ranch in Holland.
We are a business and we do not pretend otherwise. If the deal does not leave a margin, we cannot do it, and we will say so on the first call rather than burn weeks you do not have. Call (616) 300-2586 and you will get a straight answer either way.
What if the county has already foreclosed?
Then we cannot buy the house from you, because after title vests it is no longer yours to sell, and that stays true no matter what a we-buy-houses postcard claims. Michigan law does now allow former owners to claim surplus proceeds after a foreclosed property is auctioned, on a strict process and timeline, and pursuing that is work for an attorney rather than a house buyer. If March 31 has not passed yet, everything above still applies, and the sooner you start, the more options you have. That is the honest boundary of what we do.
When we're the wrong call
For a lot of people on this page, we're not the right call. If you're in the first year or two of the tax clock, your county treasurer can often put you on a payment plan or a hardship arrangement, and catching up yourself will cost far less than selling the house ever would. If the house is in decent shape and the deadline is still a year off, a normal listing with an agent, with the taxes paid off at closing, will usually leave you with more even after the commission. Where we fit is when March is close, when the house needs the kind of work a lender would shy away from, or when you're done with the place either way. If that's not you, call the treasurer before you call us.
Everything on this page is general information about these situations in West Michigan, not legal advice. For your own case, a Michigan attorney (or, if you are facing foreclosure, a HUD-approved housing counselor) is the right person to confirm your options, and we'll never talk you out of calling one.
Straight answers
Back taxes: questions sellers bring us
Can I sell my house in Michigan if I owe back taxes?
Yes, right up until title vests in the county on March 31 of the third year. Before that date, the house is yours to sell, and the delinquent taxes, interest and fees are paid out of the proceeds at closing. The county gets paid, the debt clears, and whatever remains is yours. The closer you are to the deadline, the more the closing timeline matters. A cash sale can move inside a month; a financed one often cannot.
How long does Michigan give you before tax foreclosure?
Roughly three years from the first unpaid bill. Taxes are returned delinquent to the county treasurer the March after they go unpaid, the property is forfeited to the treasurer about a year later, and a circuit-court foreclosure judgment is entered early in the third year. March 31 of that third year is the end of the line, and the clock does not pause while you decide what to do.
Will the county treasurer work with me on a payment plan?
Often, yes. County treasurers can offer payment plans and hardship arrangements, and asking costs you nothing. If a plan keeps you in a house you want to keep, that is a better outcome than selling, and we will tell you so. Where a plan stops making sense is when the house also needs repairs you cannot fund, or when you are ready to be done with the property. At that point a sale clears the taxes and the house in one closing.
How fast can you close before the tax deadline?
We make a cash offer within 24 hours and can close in as little as 14 days. Our offer has no financing contingency and no appraisal contingency, so there is no bank approval on your side to wait on, and that is what makes a fixed deadline workable. Do not wait until the last week of March to start, though. The title company still needs time to pull the payoff figure from the treasurer and prepare a clean closing.
Do you buy tax-delinquent houses anywhere in West Michigan?
Yes. We buy across West Michigan, from Grand Rapids out to the lakeshore, Ludington to Benton Harbor, and down to Kalamazoo. The timeline is set by state law, so it works the same across Michigan counties. Whether your notice came from Kent County or Ottawa County, the March 31 deadline and the paid-at-closing mechanics above apply. Call (616) 300-2586 and tell us where the house sits.
Whatever the situation, start with the house.
Start with a call or the short form, and you'll have a number within 24 hours and a date that works for you. If a different route would serve you better, that's what you'll hear from us first.