Can I Sell My Brookings House With Back Taxes or Liens?

How liens and back taxes are paid

When you sell to us, we pay the closing costs. Your liens are paid off from the sale at closing.

The creditor or county tax office confirms the current amount and payment instructions. The title company checks the property title and works with those offices to include the payoffs in the closing figures.

Records and your next step

A tax bill or notice, mortgage or lien statement, payoff letter, or property address is enough to start the conversation. You can call before you have everything. We can go through the papers you have with you.

The Brookings County Register of Deeds records real-estate documents. For a property-tax account, use the County’s Auditor and Treasurer tax information. The creditor or tax office confirms what is due now.

What happens next

1. We talk through the Brookings house, the notices or balances you know about, and what you want to do.
2. You get a written offer and written terms before you commit, and we close through a title company.
3. The title company reviews title and works with the creditor or county tax office on the current payoff information.
4. No fees. No agent commissions when you sell to us. When you sell to us, we pay the closing costs, including the South Dakota real-estate transfer fee.
5. Close as fast as 7 days when title and closing details allow.

Property-tax matters and mortgage foreclosure

A property-tax sale and a mortgage foreclosure are separate matters. Brookings County property-tax questions go through the County Auditor and Treasurer. A mortgage foreclosure concerns the home loan and follows its own notice and sale process.

South Dakota allows a mortgage foreclosure by court action or by advertisement when the mortgage includes a power of sale. For foreclosure by advertisement, notice must be published at least once a week for four successive weeks, and written notice must reach the borrower and affected lienholders at least 21 days before the sale. The sheriff runs the public auction in the county where the house is. After advertising begins, the borrower may require court action. Read the South Dakota foreclosure-by-advertisement law.

If you received a tax or foreclosure notice, tell us the date and office named on it. Not sure which process it is? Call us — we’ll sort it out with you. For Brookings County court information, see the Third Judicial Circuit or the Brookings County Courthouse.

South Dakota real-estate transfer fee

South Dakota charges 50 cents for each $500 of value or fraction thereof. The person conveying the property—the grantor—is legally responsible unless an exemption applies. Certain foreclosure deeds and decrees distributing an estate are exempt. A deed or contract for deed generally needs a Certificate of Value when recorded. Read the transfer-fee law and the Certificate of Value requirement.

When you sell to us, we pay the closing costs, including the South Dakota real-estate transfer fee.

More Brookings seller resources