AMM Land Sales (815) 384-6153

Missouri · MO

Sell your land in Missouri.

Missouri sells delinquent land in numbered offerings rather than on one clock, and each trip through the auction strips away more of what an owner can get back — past the third offering there is no redemption at all. The other half of the state's land market is Ozarks shoreline platted into small lots two generations ago and sold to people who never saw it.

Tax sale type
Tax lien
Redemption period
1 year
Rate on redemption
10% penalty plus costs
Closings handled by
Title company

Figures describe Missouri 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 Missouri

Ozarks lots were platted around new reservoirs

Bagnell Dam gave Missouri a lake with 1,150 miles of shoreline, and Table Rock Dam, finished in 1958, gave it another. Land companies platted the ground behind that shoreline into small recreational lots through the 1960s and 70s and sold them nationally, often to buyers who never walked the parcel. What those lots are worth now tracks build-out rather than plat: a lot on a maintained road with utilities at the line, in a section where houses actually went up, is a different asset from an identically drawn lot in a section that stayed timber. The assessed value tells you very little about which one you own.

Offerings, not years, drive the tax sale

Missouri collects delinquent taxes under the Jones-Munger Act, Chapter 140 RSMo, and a parcel is offered at auction once a year until it sells. First and second offerings require a bid covering taxes, interest, penalty and costs, and leave a year to redeem. At a third offering redemption drops to ninety days after notice of the right to redeem, under § 140.250.1. At any sale beyond the third, § 140.250.4 gives the purchaser a collector's deed immediately, with no redemption and no notice requirement. Jackson County and the City of St. Louis run judicial foreclosures under Chapter 141 instead. Which offering your parcel has reached matters more than how far behind you are.

No seller disclosure form is required

Missouri has no statute requiring a seller to hand a buyer a completed disclosure statement, on a house or on raw land. The farm and vacant land disclosure forms in common use are trade association documents, not law. One statutory duty does reach bare ground: RSMo 442.606 requires a seller who knows the property was used to produce methamphetamine to disclose that in writing, whether or not anyone was ever convicted for it. Real estate licensees separately owe duties to disclose known adverse material facts under Chapter 339 RSMo. Not being handed a form is not permission to bury something you know about.

Old Lead Belt mining changes the diligence

Mining in the Old Lead Belt ran from the 1740s to 1972, and what it left behind is a Superfund site. The Big River Mine Tailings site in St. Francois County covers roughly 110 square miles and went on the National Priorities List in 1992. Chat and tailings from those workings were hauled around the region for decades as driveway gravel, construction fill and agricultural lime, so the contamination is not confined to the old mine sites. In the lead districts buyers test rather than assume, and severed minerals and unmapped underground workings are routine title questions. None of that stops a sale. It sets the price.

Questions

Selling land in Missouri

How long do I have before Missouri sells my land for taxes?

It depends on which offering your parcel has reached, not on a fixed number of years. Under Chapter 140 RSMo a delinquent parcel goes to auction annually: first and second offerings leave a year to redeem, a third offering leaves ninety days after notice, and at any sale beyond the third the purchaser takes a collector's deed with no redemption at all. Your county collector can tell you where you stand. If a parcel already sold for more than the debt, § 140.230 holds the surplus for the recorded owner and sends it to the school fund after three years.

Do I have to fill out a disclosure to sell vacant land in Missouri?

No. Missouri has no statute requiring a seller to give a buyer a disclosure statement, for land or for a house, which puts it in the minority of states. The farm and vacant land forms in common use come from trade associations rather than the statute book. One statutory duty does reach raw ground: RSMo 442.606 requires written disclosure if you know the property was used to produce methamphetamine. Licensees owe separate duties to disclose known adverse material facts under Chapter 339 RSMo.

My Ozarks lot has sat since the 1970s. Is it worth anything?

Usually yes, and where it sits inside the plat decides how much. The recreational subdivisions laid out around Lake of the Ozarks, Table Rock and the other big Ozarks reservoirs were marketed nationally to buyers who mostly never visited, and build-out reached some sections and stopped well short of others. A lot with a maintained road, utilities at the line and houses on either side trades in a different range from an identically sized lot in a section that is still timber. These plats are familiar ground for us.

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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