Sacramento County Tax-Default Property Auction — 2026

Sacramento County Department of Finance — Tax-Defaulted Land Unit

Address: 700 H Street, Room 1710, Sacramento, CA 95814 (mailing: P.O. Box 508, Sacramento, CA 95812-0508)

Phone: (916) 874-6621 (Tax-Defaulted Land Unit); main tax line (916) 874-6622

Email: Finance-TDL@saccounty.net

Website: https://finance.saccounty.gov/Tax/Pages/TaxSale.aspx

Grant Street Group's DeedAuction at sacramento.mytaxsale.com

Platform support (Grant Street): (877) 274-9320

Sacramento migrated from Bid4Assets to mytaxsale.com; Bid4Assets storefronts (`/SacramentoCoFeb19`, etc.) are historical only

February 23–25, 2026 sale — held (parcel list "February 2026 Auction List Approved by Board" published)

May 18, 2026, 10:00 AM PT (closes rolling May 19, 2026, 10:00 AM PT) — confirmed online sale at sacramento.mytaxsale.com

Historical pattern: last Monday of February with a May/June re-offer; 2026 follows that pattern

Preview list published April 20, 2026

Registration window: April 20 – May 8, 2026 (Wednesday cutoff)

$5,000 deposit per bidder via ACH/e-check only (no wire, no cashier's check for the deposit)

Applied to purchase price if you win; refunded ~5 business days after sale if you don't

Forfeit + 5-year ban if you win and fail to pay

Final payment (winning bid + documentary transfer tax + recording costs) due per the platform's stated deadline at sale close

Historical Sacramento terms require payment by 5:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM PT on the close-of-auction settlement window; late payments NOT accepted

Accepted forms: ACH/e-check or wire transfer through the mytaxsale.com platform (no cash, personal checks, or credit cards)

Default consequences: deposit forfeit, 5-year bidding ban, parcel re-offered (R&T § 3693.1)

Documentary transfer tax: $0.55 per $500 of bid (≈ 0.11%) owed at settlement on bids over $100, on top of bid price (R&T § 11911)

City of Sacramento parcels: add the City of Sacramento Real Property Transfer Tax of $2.75 per $1,000 of bid (≈ 0.275%) — city surtax for in-city parcels only, often missed by buyers. Recording fees also added.

February 2026 list and pre-sale May 2026 list are the official inventory

Historic Sacramento sales run ~150–300 parcels with a heavy mix of vacant land/timeshares plus some improved residential

Minimum bid: set per parcel by Tax Collector (R&T § 3698.5); county will not accept bids below the listed minimum

Bid increment: set by DeedAuction, not less than $100

Owner redemption deadline: 5:00 PM on the last business day prior to the sale — Friday, May 15, 2026 for the May sale (R&T § 3707)

Title conveyed free of prior encumbrances under R&T § 3712, except listed survivors: post-sale tax/assessment installments, IRS liens not extinguished by proper notice, certain recorded restrictions, and pending Lis Pendens actions

Rescission: county may rescind under R&T §§ 3725 / 3731 — challenges generally must be filed within 1 year of deed recordation

Excess proceeds (R&T § 4675): 1-year claim window from deed recordation. Priority is lienholders of record (oldest first), then prior titleholders. No filing fee. Deed typically recorded ~30 calendar days after sale close.

Sale fully on sacramento.mytaxsale.com (Grant Street DeedAuction); Bid4Assets is no longer the host (parallel to San Bernardino's 2024 migration)

Two-sale cadence is back on the published schedule: Feb 23, 2026 primary + May 18, 2026 re-offer/secondary

$5,000 ACH/e-check deposit and 5-year forfeit-ban remain unchanged; bid increment floor stays at $100

Forgetting the documentary transfer tax (and, for City of Sacramento parcels, the $2.75/$1,000 city transfer tax) is owed on top of the bid price at settlement — under-funding the wire causes default

Treating the deposit as the only payable amount. Deposit is ACH/e-check only, but final settlement requires wire/ACH at close — late payment forfeits the deposit and triggers a 5-year ban

Bidding without confirming R&T § 3712 survivors (post-sale tax installments, IRS liens, recorded restrictions, Lis Pendens) and without verifying the parcel through the Assessor's Parcel Viewer

Assessor Parcel Viewer: https://data.saccounty.gov/datasets/assessor-parcel-viewer

Assessor (main): https://assessor.saccounty.gov/

Assessed-value lookup: https://assessorprop8.saccounty.gov/

County Clerk-Recorder (deeds, tax liens, fee schedule): https://ccr.saccounty.gov/

GIS Open Data: https://data-sacramentocounty.opendata.arcgis.com/

2026 listing & terms hub: https://finance.saccounty.gov/Tax/Pages/TaxSale.aspx

Auction Information Packet (terms PDF): https://finance.saccounty.gov/Tax/Documents/AuctionInformationPacket.pdf

February 2026 approved auction list: https://finance.saccounty.gov/Tax/Documents/February%202026%20Auction%20List%20Approved%20by%20Board.pdf

Registration / bidding: https://sacramento.mytaxsale.com/

Excess proceeds FAQ: https://finance.saccounty.gov/Tax/Pages/ExcessProceeds-TaxSale_FAQs.aspx

City of Sacramento Real Property Transfer Tax: https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/finance/revenue/real-property-transfer-tax

County DTT FAQ: https://ccr.saccounty.gov/content/ccr/us/en/faq/faq-documentary-transfer-tax-dtt.html