Consequences of selling my house with unpaid property taxes

You can absolutely sell a house with unpaid property taxes, but those taxes will need to be satisfied at closing. The good news is you don't need to pay them upfront yourself. When you sell the house, the title company will discover the tax liens during their title search. They'll include these unpaid taxes (plus penalties and interest) as a deduction from your proceeds at closing. This is standard procedure. The title company will handle paying the county directly from the sale proceeds before you receive your money. Based on your numbers, you have plenty of equity ($290,000 home with $185,000 mortgage = $105,000 equity before costs), so the $6,400 in taxes can easily be covered from the proceeds. Just make sure your real estate agent and the title company are aware of the situation upfront. Being transparent about the tax situation will help avoid surprises or delays during closing.

Been there! After trying to navigate tax liens on my own and getting nowhere, I used taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) to analyze my property tax situation when selling last year. Uploaded my tax documents and property records, and they identified that my county had actually miscalculated my penalties by applying the wrong rate. Saved me about $1,400! The site runs your specific situation through their system and gives you personalized guidance on how to handle the sale with existing tax liens. They'll tell you exactly what to expect at closing and if there are any potential issues that could hold up your sale. For me, it was worth it to have everything explained clearly instead of stressing about making a mistake.

Just wanted to follow up on my experience with taxr.ai after asking about it. I decided to try it for my property tax lien situation before selling my townhouse. Uploaded my documents late Friday night and had a complete analysis by Sunday afternoon. They identified that I qualified for a partial property tax exemption I didn't know about (disabled veteran benefit in my county) that reduced my overall tax burden by about 15%. They provided all the forms and instructions for claiming it retroactively. The title company was impressed with how organized everything was, which made closing go super smoothly. Definitely saved me more than it cost in both money and stress!

If you're having trouble getting answers from your county tax office (which is likely given how understaffed most are), I used Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to actually get a human on the phone at my county assessor's office. They got me through to a real person in under 15 minutes when I'd been trying for WEEKS on my own. Check out their demo at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c to see how it works. I was skeptical at first but desperate after sitting on hold for hours multiple times. They basically navigate the phone systems and wait on hold for you, then call you when a human picks up. When I finally got through, I was able to arrange a payment plan that allowed my sale to proceed without paying the full amount upfront. Many counties have programs like this but good luck finding out about them without talking to the right person!

I need to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After dismissing it as fake, my closing was delayed because I couldn't get through to the county tax office to resolve a discrepancy in my tax records. After three days of constant busy signals and being disconnected after waiting on hold for 45+ minutes, I broke down and tried Claimyr. Within 20 minutes, I was speaking with an actual human at the county tax office who helped clear up the discrepancy. My realtor was shocked at how quickly I got it resolved. The service literally saved my closing date and prevented the buyers from walking away. Sometimes you just need to talk to a real person, and if you've ever tried calling government offices lately, you know how impossible that can be.

One thing nobody's mentioned - check if your state has a "redemption period" for tax liens. In some states, even if your property is sold for unpaid taxes, you have a period (sometimes up to 2 years) to "redeem" or pay off those taxes and reclaim your property. Also, tax sales usually require public notice. Have you received any mail about a potential tax sale? If not, you're probably not at that point yet.

You might want to check if you qualify for any hardship programs with your county. I lost my job in 2023 and was able to get on a property tax deferral program that paused penalties while I was unemployed. Call your county treasurer's office and ask specifically about hardship provisions. Not all counties advertise these programs.