Free tool
Tax Sale Max Bid Calculator
How much should you bid at a tax sale? The hammer price is a fiction until the buyer's premium, the advertising fee, and your closing and holding costs are added. This calculator works backwards from the resale price you actually expect, so the number you walk in with already has your margin protected. Every line of the math is shown. Nothing you type leaves this page.
County preset terms checked Oct 15, 2026
Your county's terms
Deposit is commonly the greater of a percent or a flat minimum, due immediately at the sale.
Costs that do not depend on the bid
At most tax auctions the bid itself pays the taxes. Enter $0 unless the terms say otherwise.
Taxes, insurance, and upkeep while you own it. Be honest about time on market for land: 6 to 18 months is normal.
Perc test, survey, clearing, anything you already know this parcel needs.
Step 1: what a bid really costs
- Hammer bid
- Buyer's premium
- Advertising / sale fee
- Back taxes you must cover
- Closing, deed, and recording fees
- Holding costs until sold
- Other known costs
- All-in cost
- Deposit due at the sale
- Balance due after the deposit
Know the balance deadline before sale day. Missing it usually forfeits the deposit.
Step 2: your maximum bid
From comparable sales, not asking prices.
On cheap rural land, fixed costs eat thin margins. 35% to 50% is a sane planning band.
- Expected resale price
- Less selling costs
- Less your target margin
- Maximum all-in budget
- Less fixed costs (back taxes, closing, holding, other)
- Left for the bid, the premium, and the advertising fee
- Divided by the fee load
Your maximum hammer bid
- Buyer's premium at that bid
- Advertising / sale fee at that bid
- All-in cost at that bid
- Deposit due at the sale at that bid
- Balance due after the deposit
Write this number down before the sale starts. In the room, the auctioneer works for the seller. This number works for you.
Worked example, the defaults loaded above. Hammer $3,800 plus premium $418.00 plus advertising fee $57.00 plus closing $350 plus holding $600 comes to $5,225.00 all in, with a deposit of $1,054.50 due at the sale. Working backwards: a $12,000 resale at a 40% margin with 6% selling costs leaves a $6,480 maximum all-in budget, so the maximum hammer bid is $4,915.56. The $3,800 bid clears the bar with room.
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The full worksheet lives in the Toolkit
This calculator runs one parcel at a time. The Land Investor Due Diligence Toolkit pairs this same bid worksheet with the parcel due diligence checklist, the offer and letter pack, and, in the PRO tier, the worked deal files that show this math run on real parcel shapes, including the walk-away example. Same numbers, checked the same way, in files you keep.
$49 PRO $79 with the worked deal files
Educational tool from Oasis Investing LLC. Not legal, tax, or financial advice. County preset terms were checked on Oct 15, 2026 against the auctioneers' official terms pages and, for Livingston County, the county's 2026 auction booklet; the underlying dataset is the one maintained for our NY Tax Sale Calendar. Terms change from sale to sale, sometimes by payment method, so confirm the premium, fees, deposit rule, and accepted payment forms against the current official terms for your sale before you bid. Terms you enter yourself always outrank a preset.