AMM Land Sales (815) 384-6153

Illinois · IL

Sell your land in Illinois.

Illinois put contract assignment inside its real estate licensing law, is rebuilding what happens at the end of a tax sale after the Supreme Court's Tyler decision, and assesses farm ground on a soil productivity index that tells you nothing about what an acre near Chicago — or four hours south — would bring.

Tax sale type
Tax lien
Redemption period
2–3 years before deed
Rate on redemption
18–36% penalty
Closings handled by
Title company

Figures describe Illinois generally. Counties administer their own sales and their own calendars — your county treasurer is the only source for a payoff figure or a sale date you can act on.

Local detail

What actually matters about land in Illinois

Assigning contracts can require an Illinois license

Illinois wrote assignment into its licensing law. Public Act 101-0357 amended the definition of broker at 225 ILCS 454/1-10 to reach a person who engages in a pattern of business of dealing in contracts — including assignable contracts for the purchase or sale of, or equitable interests in, real estate — whether for another or for the person's own account. The Act defines a pattern of business as two or more such transactions in any twelve-month period, so the threshold is low, and it counts entities under common ownership together. The definition speaks of real estate rather than houses. Ask anyone offering on your land whether they are licensed, and whether they intend to close or assign.

The tax sale is being rebuilt

Illinois sells delinquent taxes, not land. Under the Property Tax Code, 35 ILCS 200, the county collector holds an annual sale where bidders compete by bidding the penalty down, and the winner takes a certificate. Title stays with the owner: the certificate holder has to serve statutory take notices and petition the circuit court before any deed issues. That endgame is changing. After the U.S. Supreme Court held in Tyler v. Hennepin County in 2023 that keeping a delinquent owner's surplus equity is a taking, Illinois passed House Bill 4537, signed in July 2026, moving toward an auction in which the debt is paid from the proceeds and what is left over returns to the former owner.

Farm ground is assessed by soil index

Illinois assesses farmland on productivity, not on what the neighbor paid. Under 35 ILCS 200/10-115 the Department of Revenue certifies an equalized assessed value per acre for each soil productivity index, set at one-third of the agricultural economic value, with the Farmland Assessment Technical Advisory Board supplying the underlying data. Movement is damped: the change in the certified value for any index is limited to ten percent of the prior year's certified value for the median cropped soil. County assessors then map each field to its index from soil survey data, so black prairie ground and a timbered slope on the same farm are assessed differently. None of it tracks market price.

Ending a farm lease has a deadline

735 ILCS 5/9-206 governs ending a year-to-year farm tenancy in Illinois: written notice to quit, served not less than four months before the end of the year of letting, covering crop share, livestock share and cash rent arrangements alike. The section also provides that the notice cannot be waived in a verbal lease. Illinois farm lease years customarily run from March 1 to the end of February, which puts the practical deadline in late October — miss it and the tenancy renews for another full year. A buyer therefore inherits the tenant, and if you are selling in the winter, next season is usually already spoken for.

Questions

Selling land in Illinois

Can the buyer of my Illinois land assign the contract to someone else?

Yes, if the contract you signed permits it — but the more useful question is whether the party doing it is licensed. Public Act 101-0357 folded contract assignment into the broker definition at 225 ILCS 454/1-10, which reaches a person dealing in assignable contracts or equitable interests in real estate as a pattern of business, defined as two or more transactions in a twelve-month period. Nothing there stops you from selling. We say up front whether we intend to close ourselves or assign.

My Illinois parcel went to the tax sale. Have I lost it?

Not at the sale itself — what sold was the tax debt, and you keep title while the redemption period runs. The certificate holder has to serve the statutory take notices and petition the circuit court before a deed can issue, so the parcel can still be sold during that window, with the redemption paid out of the closing. Illinois is also changing the far end of the process: House Bill 4537, signed in July 2026, sends surplus equity back to the former owner, phased in over several years.

Is my land worth more because it is near Chicago?

Usually, though the two markets are priced by different buyers rather than by distance alone. Collar-county and exurban parcels in Will, Kane, McHenry, Kendall and Lake trade on development potential — sewer and water availability, zoning, and what the municipality will annex. Downstate acreage in the corn and soybean counties trades on farm income, cash rent and soil productivity, which is why a hundred-acre field can outprice a five-acre lot two hundred miles north. Both sell. They answer to different questions.

Sources for the figures above

These are secondary references, accurate enough to orient you and not a substitute for the statute or your county. Tax procedure changes; nothing here is legal advice.

Get an offer

Tell us about your Illinois parcel

The state is filled in already. County and parcel number is enough to start, and AMM Land Sales replies within one business day.

No listing agreement and no obligation. We reply within one business day.