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Michigan · MI

Sell your land in Michigan.

Michigan runs the fastest tax foreclosure calendar in the country — roughly three years from first delinquency to losing the land outright — and it is also the state where the courts ended the practice of counties keeping the surplus when they sell it.

Tax sale type
Tax deed
Redemption period
1 year
Rate on redemption
Varies; fees plus interest
Closings handled by
Title company

Figures describe Michigan 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 Michigan

Three years, and the dates are fixed

Michigan property taxes that go unpaid are returned as delinquent to the county treasurer, the parcel is forfeited the following March, and it is foreclosed the March after that. Once the foreclosure judgment enters and the redemption deadline passes, title vests absolutely in the foreclosing governmental unit and there is no post-sale redemption. It is a short, rigid calendar with hard dates rather than a slow drift, and the difference between acting in year two and year three is the difference between selling the land and not owning it.

You may be owed the surplus from a past foreclosure

In Rafaeli, LLC v. Oakland County (2020) the Michigan Supreme Court held that keeping the surplus from a tax foreclosure sale — the amount above what was actually owed — is an unconstitutional taking of the former owner's property. The United States Supreme Court reached the same conclusion nationally in Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023). Michigan has a claims procedure with deadlines attached. If a parcel of yours was foreclosed and sold for more than the debt, that difference may still be claimable, and a great deal of it goes unclaimed because owners never learn it exists.

Waterfront is priced by frontage and riparian right

Michigan touches four Great Lakes and holds more inland lakes than almost any state, and lake frontage is priced by the linear foot rather than by acreage. What comes with it matters as much: riparian rights on an inland lake, bottomland ownership, and whether a dock is permitted are separate questions from where the boundary runs. A narrow deep lot with good frontage routinely outsells a larger lot with less.

Up-north recreational parcels turn on access and neighbors

Much of northern Michigan is recreational ground bordered by state forest, and that adjacency cuts both ways — it adds huntable land and it adds pressure from everyone else using it. Two-tracks that cross state or private land without a recorded easement are common, seasonal roads are common, and both are the kind of thing a title company will flag. What the parcel borders and how you legally reach it usually matter more than what it contains.

Questions

Selling land in Michigan

How long before Michigan takes my land for unpaid taxes?

About three years, on fixed dates rather than a rolling clock. Unpaid taxes are returned delinquent to the county treasurer, the parcel is forfeited the following March, and foreclosed the March after. Once the redemption deadline passes after judgment, title vests absolutely and there is no redeeming it afterwards. Acting in year two is a completely different situation from acting in year three.

My Michigan land was already sold at tax foreclosure. Is anything left for me?

Possibly, and it is worth checking. In Rafaeli, LLC v. Oakland County (2020) the Michigan Supreme Court held that a county keeping the surplus above the debt is an unconstitutional taking, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed nationally in Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023). Michigan has a claims process with deadlines. A significant amount of surplus goes unclaimed simply because former owners do not know it exists.

What makes Michigan lake frontage worth more?

Linear feet of frontage, ahead of total acreage. A narrow deep lot with good frontage generally outsells a wider lot with less, because the buyer is purchasing the water. Riparian rights, bottomland ownership, and whether a dock can be permitted are separate questions from where your boundary sits, and each affects the number independently.

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.

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