The clock is running on the county's calendar
When property taxes go unpaid, the county records a claim against the property itself. That claim takes priority over the mortgage and every other debt, which is why it matters far more to a lender than you expect. The timeline is not guessed. The county publishes it: delinquency, notices, a scheduled sale date, all of it on a calendar you do not control. Two years behind with no sale date scheduled means you have room. Two months before sale means you have almost none. The county treasurer's office can tell you exactly where you stand in that timeline. The balance keeps growing because penalties and interest compound. A debt that was manageable two years ago is now beyond what you can raise in cash.
What a lien actually does, in plain terms
Most people carrying one have never had it explained, and are too embarrassed to ask. A lien is a claim recorded against the property. It is not a claim against you personally, it does not mean the county has taken the house, and it does not stop the property changing hands.
What it does do is sit on the title until it is dealt with, which is what quietly kills ordinary sales. A buyer's search turns it up late, they had no idea it was coming, and they walk. Telling us at the start avoids all of that, because it is the sort of thing we take on rather than the sort of thing that surprises us.
A lien stops ordinary sales, not sales to cash buyers
In an ordinary sale the title company settles everything owed against the property in order of priority. Property taxes come first. That is routine and it means the tax lien is not the barrier people fear. The barrier is the ordinary sale is too slow. Two months to list, two months to close, and somewhere in that timeline the county's date arrives. A previous sale attempt may have collapsed because a title search found the lien, a buyer walked away, and you took the house off market. Disclosing it at the first conversation prevents that. What prevents the county sale is finishing faster than the county's process, which a cash buyer can do and a financed buyer cannot.
What stops being yours at closing
We buy the house as-is for cash. Back taxes, recorded liens, judgments, mechanics' liens, unpermitted work, inherited property in probate, title problems that have accumulated for years. We handle it all at closing through a licensed title company, in the order required by law.
You get one number and a closing date you pick, subject to the county's deadline. Most properties close in two to four weeks, which gives you real room to work. The taxes get paid from proceeds at closing. The lien comes off title. The debt stops being yours to manage.
Tell us the county's date on the first call and we tell you if we can beat it, not three weeks later after time has vanished.
