Lake County tax deed sales

Verified

Lake County (county seat Tavares) sells tax deeds online only, run by the Lake County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. Tax Deed Section, Lake County Courthouse, 550 W. Main Street, North Wing, Third Floor, Tavares, FL 32778, phone (352) 253-2620 or 253-2621. on lake.realtaxdeed.com, the county RealTaxDeed site on RealAuction, at www.lake.realtaxdeed.com. Registration, the auction calendar and bidder accounts are on that site.. Tax Deed Sales are generally held several times per month on Tuesdays at 11:15 AM. Check the online auction calendar at lake.realtaxdeed.com for specific dates and times, per the Clerk FAQs.

Next sale on the calendar: Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 11:15 AM. Date cross-verified against the secondary tracker TaxSalesFeed, which lists November 17, 2026 as the next sale at lake.realtaxdeed.com, consistent with the Clerk published Tuesday 11:15 AM pattern. Confirm on lake.realtaxdeed.com before bidding.

Secondary source, TaxSalesFeed, read November 9, 2026: 52 upcoming tax deed sales in Lake County, with 52 in the next 30 days.

Dates and deadlines

Next sale	Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 11:15 AM
Sale pattern	Tax Deed Sales are generally held several times per month on Tuesdays at 11:15 AM. Check the online auction calendar at lake.realtaxdeed.com for specific dates and times, per the Clerk FAQs.
Format	Online only
Platform	lake.realtaxdeed.com, the county RealTaxDeed site on RealAuction, at www.lake.realtaxdeed.com. Registration, the auction calendar and bidder accounts are on that site.
Selling office	Lake County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. Tax Deed Section, Lake County Courthouse, 550 W. Main Street, North Wing, Third Floor, Tavares, FL 32778, phone (352) 253-2620 or 253-2621.
The list	The sale list and calendar are on lake.realtaxdeed.com, and tax deed files and the Property Information Report for each certificate are in the Clerk online Tax Deed Record Search. Sales are advertised in The North Lake Outpost. Property not purchased at sale, where the applicant chooses not to take ownership, is placed on the Lands Available for Taxes List, available for purchase after it has been listed for 90 days, remains on the list for three years, and may be viewed via the Online Tax Deed Record Search, per the Clerk FAQs.

Sources: Lake County Clerk, Tax Deed Sales Frequently Asked Questions. TaxSalesFeed, Lake County, secondary. Tax Sale Atlas, Lake County, secondary, calendar cross check. Confirm with the selling office or on the auction site before relying on any date on this page: sales move, terms change, and parcels get pulled when owners redeem.

Research Lake County parcels before you bid

A sale list gives you the parcels, the date, and the opening terms. It does not give you the owner, the value, or the rest of the picture: liens, foreclosure status, and parcel history. PropertyRadar is the data platform for that layer. It carries owner records, assessed and market values, foreclosure and tax data, and property history for parcels across Lake County, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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How Florida tax deed sales work

Taxes go delinquent on April 1. The Tax Collector then sells a tax certificate on the property, on or before June 1, to a buyer who pays the taxes and earns interest.
The owner can redeem the certificate by paying the Tax Collector everything owed. Most certificates are redeemed and never reach a deed sale.
After two years from April 1 of the year the certificate was issued, the certificate holder may apply for a tax deed (Florida Statutes, Section 197.502). The Clerk then orders a title search, notifies the owner and lienholders, advertises the sale once a week for four weeks, and sets the auction.
The property sells to the highest bidder at the public auction (Section 197.542), starting at an opening bid that covers the outstanding certificates, interest, costs and fees. The owner may still redeem until the Clerk has received full payment for the tax deed.
What nobody bids on becomes Lands Available for Taxes, the county held list that can be bought without an auction. That leftover list is the year round layer under every county page in this set.

How registration works in Lake County

Registration runs on the auction site. One RealAuction registration works across the RealAuction county sites, but each county holds its own funds, so a separate deposit is required for each county sale you bid in.

Bidders must register at lake.realtaxdeed.com by the day before the sale and place a valid deposit in U.S. dollars with the Clerk Office. Deposits must be received by the Clerk Office by 4 PM Eastern the day before the sale date. A deposit of $200 or 5 percent of the winning bid, whichever is greater, is required for each item you anticipate winning. Acceptable deposit forms are cash, cashier checks no more than two months from issue date, money orders, and wire transfers. ACH payments are not accepted for tax deeds, per the Clerk FAQs.

Owners redeem up to the last moment. A parcel leaves the list when the owner pays. A list you researched last week is not the list that sells.
A winning bid is a contract. Fail to complete payment and the deposit is kept, the property is resold, and the county can bar you from future sales.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Deposit rule, Lake County	Bidders must register at lake.realtaxdeed.com by the day before the sale and place a valid deposit in U.S. dollars with the Clerk Office. Deposits must be received by the Clerk Office by 4 PM Eastern the day before the sale date. A deposit of $200 or 5 percent of the winning bid, whichever is greater, is required for each item you anticipate winning. Acceptable deposit forms are cash, cashier checks no more than two months from issue date, money orders, and wire transfers. ACH payments are not accepted for tax deeds, per the Clerk FAQs.
Balance due	If you are the successful bidder, full payment must be received by the Clerk Office within 24 hours after the time of the sale. Accepted forms are cash, cashier check, U.S. Postal money order, payment from deposit balance, and wire transfer, with cashier checks dated no more than two months from issue date. If full payment is not made within 24 hours, your deposit will be forfeited, per the Clerk FAQs.
Deposit rule (state law)	The high bidder posts a nonrefundable deposit of 5 percent of the bid or $200, whichever is greater, at the time of the sale, applied to the final price (Florida Statutes, Section 197.542(2)). Online counties collect it in advance, in the bidder account, before the sale opens.
Extra costs on top of the bid	The buyer also pays the documentary stamp tax on the deed and the recording fees. Budget for them in the maximum bid, not after it.
Deed type	A tax deed issued by the selling office after full payment. Properties sell as is, on a buyer beware basis. The selling office makes no warranty about condition, title, zoning, or liens that may survive the sale.
Surplus	If a property sells for more than the opening bid, the surplus is held by the Clerk for the former owner and lienholders to claim under Section 197.582. It is not the buyer's money and it is not a discount on the bid.

Lands Available for Taxes: the leftover list

When a Lake County tax deed sale draws no bid at or above the opening bid, the parcel is placed on the county List of Lands Available for Taxes. Anyone may then buy it at the posted price, first come, without an auction, until it is sold or the list is cleared. These are the parcels the auction passed over, so the due diligence matters more, not less: check taxes owed since the sale, liens, access, and zoning before you pay. The sale list and calendar are on lake.realtaxdeed.com, and tax deed files and the Property Information Report for each certificate are in the Clerk online Tax Deed Record Search. Sales are advertised in The North Lake Outpost. Property not purchased at sale, where the applicant chooses not to take ownership, is placed on the Lands Available for Taxes List, available for purchase after it has been listed for 90 days, remains on the list for three years, and may be viewed via the Online Tax Deed Record Search, per the Clerk FAQs.

Before you bid

Check the list on the morning of the sale. Redemptions and cancellations run right up to sale time.
Run the parcel, not the headline. Look up assessed value and ownership with the county Property Appraiser, read the Clerk's tax deed file, and screen the opening bid against both before you set a maximum.
Some liens survive. A tax deed clears most private liens, but government liens can remain, and a federal tax lien can carry a 120 day right of redemption for the IRS after the sale. Title work after the sale is the buyer's job.
Set the maximum before the auction opens. The free Max-Bid Calculator below works backwards from your resale or hold value to the highest bid you can pay, with deposit, stamps and recording shown.

Every Florida county in this set

One page per county, each verified against its own selling office or auction source. Florida has 67 counties and about 41 with active tax deed sales; this set covers all 67 counties.

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The free Max-Bid Calculator works backwards from your resale price to the highest hammer bid you can pay, with the fees shown line by line.

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