Land · Ohio tax sale guide

Delaware County tax foreclosure sales

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Delaware's Sheriff states the redemption rule more plainly than most Ohio counties do: the sale is not final until the judge signs the Confirmation, and the defendant can redeem until that signature. Sales run online every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m., and the county's land bank, formed in 2018, works the vacant and abandoned side of the same inventory. What the Sheriff's FAQ does not publish is a deposit amount, and this page does not borrow one from a neighboring county.

Selling office: Delaware County Sheriff's Office (sheriff sales); Delaware County Treasurer (delinquent taxes); Delaware County Land Reutilization Corporation (land bank)

Next sale: Sheriff sales run Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. online; the county publishes the standing schedule rather than a specific next date. The Sheriff's FAQ gives the weekly slot, Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. on RealAuction's website, and no dated calendar beyond it.

The Sheriff's sale contact is sheriffsales@co.delaware.oh.us, per the FAQ.

Dates and deadlines

Sheriff sales	Public sales of foreclosed real estate, online at RealAuction's website, Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. The Treasurer files tax-lien foreclosures into this channel; a 2020 county article records those filings paused at that time, and the Sheriff's FAQ is the current published statement of the sale itself.
Redemption	The sale is not final until the judge signs a Confirmation, and the defendant can redeem until Confirmation is signed, in the Sheriff FAQ's own words. There is no post-confirmation redemption window to plan around, and no safe bid before confirmation either.
Second attempts	A property purchased on a second attempt sells with no minimum bid, and the purchaser is responsible for all fees including court costs. The FAQ does not state a first-sale minimum fraction, so none is stated here.
Tax certificates	A county article from April 2020 has the Treasurer offering payment contracts to help owners avoid the sale of a tax certificate, which shows certificates were in the county's toolkit then. No current certificate sale, date or rate is published by the county, so none is stated here.
Land bank	The Delaware County Land Reutilization Corporation was formed January 26, 2018 as the county's agent for vacant, abandoned and tax-foreclosed property, funded by half a percent of delinquent collections through the DTAC fund. Its fifth-anniversary account says it pushed through dozens of tax-foreclosure cases, four of which went to public auction.

Sources: Delaware County Sheriff, Sheriff Sales FAQs. Delaware County Land Bank marks fifth anniversary. Delaware County Land Reutilization Corporation, audited statements. Confirm with the selling office before relying on any date on this page: sales move, terms change, and owners can pay and stop a foreclosure at any point before the sale is confirmed.

Research Delaware 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 Delaware County, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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How Ohio tax foreclosure sales work

Taxes go delinquent and the lien attaches. Ohio real estate taxes are a lien on the property. The county auditor and treasurer certify the delinquent land, and the county prosecuting attorney files a foreclosure action in the court of common pleas under ORC 5721.18. Counties that have adopted it can also run an expedited foreclosure before the county board of revision under ORC 323.66, a track aimed at abandoned land. There is no lien auction to buy into as an individual: Ohio lets its larger counties sell tax lien certificates only in bulk, in large bundles to qualified financial lenders (ORC 5721.30 to 5721.43), and a lender that buys certificates forecloses through this same sheriff sale after at least a year, which is why several counties in this set run a separate certificate foreclosure sale day.
The court orders the sale and the sheriff runs it. Once the court finds the taxes due, it orders the property sold. The county sheriff conducts the sale the way Ohio judicial sales run: advertised in advance, with the sale list posted by the sheriff, and held in person at the place the county designates or online on the Official Public Sheriff Sale Website where the county has moved its sales there (ORC 2329.153).
The first sale has a statutory floor. At the first offering, the property cannot sell for less than the lesser of two amounts: the auditor's fair market value of the parcel plus the costs of the action, or the total of the taxes, assessments, charges, penalties, interest and costs the court found due (ORC 5721.19(A), as amended effective April 9, 2025). If it does not sell, it is offered again on the second date in the advertisement; a parcel that still draws no buyer is forfeited to the state and moves to the leftover channels described below.
The gavel is not the end: the court confirms the sale. After the sale the sheriff reports it and the court reviews and confirms it (ORC 2329.31). The purchaser pays the deposit at the sale and the balance on the terms the order sets, and the sheriff executes the deed after confirmation. A winning bid that is not paid is contempt territory: read your county's deposit and balance rules before you bid, because they are enforced.
The owner can redeem until confirmation, and never after. At any time before the court confirms the sale, the owner may redeem by paying the full amount due, taxes, penalties, interest and costs (ORC 5721.25). The moment the sale is confirmed, the redemption right ends. (In a board of revision case the equivalent cutoff is the expiry of the alternative redemption period under ORC 323.78.) That hard stop is what makes an Ohio tax deed different from a Texas or Georgia one: no two year wait, no 12 month premium period, and no redemption premium paid to the buyer at all.

How bidding works in Delaware County

Sales are public and online; there is no interior access, and the Sheriff is blunt about diligence: buyer beware, the Sheriff does not guarantee clear title, and only the real estate taxes due are paid from the sale proceeds. Register and bid through RealAuction for the Wednesday sale.

The deposit is real money, committed at the sale. Ohio sheriffs collect the deposit in the form and on the deadline the county publishes, and a purchaser who fails to pay the balance faces forfeiture of the deposit and court sanctions. Read your county's rule above before you bid.
Confirmation is the finish line. Nothing is final until the court confirms the sale. Until that entry files, the owner can still pay everything due and take the property back out of the sale.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Deposit, Delaware County	Not published. The Sheriff's FAQ states no deposit amount, so none is stated here; do not assume a neighboring county's schedule applies.
Payment, Delaware County	Terms usually give 30 days from Confirmation to pay the balance and pick up the deed. The Sheriff puts the whole process at 30 to 60 days or longer.
What is sold	The property itself, at a court ordered sheriff sale, with a sheriff's deed issued after the court confirms the sale. Ohio sells tax lien certificates only in bulk to institutional lenders (ORC 5721.30 to 5721.43), never to individual buyers at a public auction; a certificate holder's foreclosure comes back through this same sheriff sale.
Minimum bid (first sale)	The lesser of the auditor's fair market value of the parcel plus the costs of the action, or the total of the taxes, assessments, charges, penalties, interest and costs found due in the foreclosure judgment (ORC 5721.19(A), as amended effective April 9, 2025). A second offering runs on the terms in the advertisement and the order.
Redemption	The owner may redeem at any time before the court confirms the sale, by paying the full amount due (ORC 5721.25). After confirmation there is no redemption, and Ohio pays the buyer no redemption premium: the return is the property, not a premium.
Title	The sheriff's deed after confirmation conveys the property under the foreclosure decree, which disposes of the liens joined in the action. It is not a warranty deed from the owner; what the decree did not reach, and condition, access and zoning, remain the buyer's homework.
Costs on top of the bid	Budget the deposit, the balance, and the deed and recording charges the county publishes. On online sales the platform terms can add buyer side fees; your county page states what its sources publish.

No title promise

Delaware's Sheriff sells as-is in the strongest sense on this page: no guaranteed clear title, no interior access, and only taxes due are paid out of the proceeds. Everything else riding on the parcel is the buyer's problem to find before Wednesday, not after.

Before you bid

Know which track the parcel is on. A common pleas foreclosure and an expedited board of revision foreclosure reach the same sheriff sale by different roads, and the board of revision track is aimed at abandoned land, with the county land bank often in line for what does not sell. The track changes who else wants the parcel.
Check the list in sale week. Owners pay, courts stay sales, and parcels get withdrawn up to sale day. The advertised list is the starting list, never the selling list.
Price the confirmation wait, not a redemption period. Your capital is committed from the deposit to the deed, and until the court confirms, the owner can redeem at the full amount due. There is no premium for that wait in Ohio; the payoff is a deed with no redemption tail once confirmation lands.
Set the maximum before the sale opens. The free Max-Bid Calculator below works backwards from your resale or hold value to the highest bid you can pay, with the costs shown.

Every Ohio county in this set

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New York tax sales · Florida tax deed sales · Texas tax sales · Pennsylvania tax sales · Georgia tax sales · North Carolina tax foreclosure sales