Auction Max Bid Calculator: Foreclosure and Tax Deed Sales

Authored by Carson Nordmann, Founder of Keystone Court Data. See our editorial standards.

Buying at a foreclosure or tax deed auction adds costs a normal purchase does not have: sometimes a buyer's premium or sale fee on top of the bid, debts that may stay with the property, the cost of getting possession and clearing title, and sometimes months of waiting before the property is yours to fix or sell. Type in your own estimates and the calculator works out the highest bid that still leaves your profit, the profit and cash at your bid, the break-even bid, and, if the owner could redeem, what that outcome would look like on the numbers you enter.

The property and the sale

Example numbers are filled in. Replace each one with your own estimate; every answer updates as you type.

Resale price after repairs

What you expect it to sell for once fixed (often called ARV). Many auction properties cannot be inspected inside before the sale.

Repairs

Your repair budget, including a contingency for what you could not see.

Your bid

The winning bid you are weighing.

Buyer's premium or auction fee

% of bid

Some sales add a fee on top of the winning bid; many add none. The sale's own terms say.

Debts that stay with the property

Mortgages, liens, back taxes or dues that may stay attached to the property after this sale, and that you expect to pay to keep it or to sell it with clear title. Which ones a sale clears and which survive depends on the kind of sale, state and federal law, the debts' priority, and whether their holders were notified; this box is your own estimate.

Title, deed and closing costs

Recording, transfer taxes, clerk, sheriff or deed fees, title work, and any court action to clear title (often called a quiet title action).

Getting possession

Eviction costs, a cash-for-keys payment, cleanout and changing the locks, if someone is still living there.

Months before you take over

From the sale until you start work: for example a redemption period you choose to wait out, the wait for the deed or the sale's confirmation, and the time to get possession.

Cost per month while waiting

Taxes, insurance or dues you pay before you take over. Leave the cost of money out; it is below.

Months to fix and resell

From taking over to the resale closing.

Holding cost per month

Taxes, insurance, utilities and dues while you fix and sell.

Selling costs

% of resale

Commissions, closing costs, transfer taxes and buyer concessions.

Cost of money

% a year

Interest on borrowed money, or what your own cash would earn elsewhere. Type 0 to leave it out.

Profit you want

Sets the highest-bid answer. A dollar amount, or a share of the resale price.

The answers

Highest bid for your profit-

Profit at your bid-

Bid, premium and debts that stay-

Cash put in, in all-

Break-even bid-

Return on cash put in-

Each extra month fixing and selling costs-

Figures are rounded to the dollar, so the lines can differ from the total by a dollar or two, and a monthly figure times the months can differ from the line under the grid by a few dollars.

What if the resale comes in lower or more debts turn up?

Each cell recomputes the deal with the resale price moved from your estimate and extra debts found after the sale. Months stay fixed; the line under the grid adds waiting time.

If the owner redeems

Depending on the state, the kind of sale and who held liens on the property, the former owner or another party may be able to pay to redeem it within a set time, and the buyer is paid back instead of keeping it. What is paid back, and at what rate, is set by the law that gives the right and the sale's terms; type what applies. Our tax sale redemption by state and foreclosure laws by state pages quote some states' rules.

Rate paid back on your bid

% a year

Simple interest on the bid, as the law or the sale terms set it. If they set a flat percentage instead of a yearly rate, convert it: flat % × 12 ÷ months until redeemed. Type 0 if only the bid is paid back.

Months until redeemed

From the sale to the day the redemption money is paid.

Costs you paid by then

Recording, title, back taxes, debts you paid off, or other costs you spent before the redemption, not counting the premium. Nothing above is carried down; type what applies.

Of those and the premium, paid back to you

Only what the law or the sale terms say is repaid on redemption, including the buyer's premium if the terms repay it.

This is arithmetic on the estimates you type in, for general information only. It is not investment, financial, tax or legal advice. It does not know the property, the sale's terms, which debts survive the sale, whether a redemption right applies, or the costs in your area, and every result is only as good as the estimates entered. Check the sale terms and the title, and talk to an attorney licensed in the state where the property is and your own professionals, before relying on it.

How each number is worked out

Bid, premium and debts that stay: the winning bid, plus the buyer's premium (a percentage of the bid), plus the debts you entered as staying with the property.
Cost of money: simple interest at the yearly rate you enter, one twelfth a month, on what the sale ties up (bid, premium, debts that stay, and title and closing costs) for every month from the sale to the resale: the waiting months plus the months to fix and sell. Repairs, possession and holding costs carry no cost of money here, while debts that stay and title costs carry it from the sale day even if you pay them later; the figure can run low or high.
Profit at your bid: resale price minus selling costs, the bid, premium and debts that stay, title and closing, possession, repairs, holding costs in both stretches, and the cost of money. It is before income tax, and it assumes the property is not redeemed.
Cash put in, in all: every cost except selling costs (paid from the resale) and the cost of money. Debts that stay are counted as if paid off when you take over; if they will be paid from the resale instead, the cash you need is lower. It is the total put into the deal, whether your own cash or borrowed; if part is borrowed, your own cash is lower and the return on it higher.
Highest bid for your profit: the premium and the cost of money grow with the bid, so the calculator works out how much profit falls per dollar of bid and solves for the bid that leaves exactly your profit target. The break-even bid is the same sum for a profit of zero.
Return on cash put in: profit divided by cash put in. The yearly figure, shown only for a profit, is that return times 12, divided by the months from the sale to the resale: simple, not compounded, as if all the cash went in on day one. It is after the cost of money, which is charged only on what the sale ties up (not on repairs, possession or holding), so it is not simply the return minus your rate; type 0 for the rate to see the return before it. Debts that stay are counted as if paid off when you take over; if they will be paid from the resale instead, the cash you need is lower and the return higher.
Each extra month: the holding cost for that stretch plus one month of the cost of money on what the sale ties up (bid, premium, debts that stay, title and closing). The card shows a month of fixing and selling; its note shows a month of waiting before you take over.
What-if grid: the deal recomputed with the resale price moved by the percentages shown and with extra debts found after the sale. The line under it adds three, six or twelve months of waiting before you take over.
If the owner redeems: your bid back with simple interest at the rate you enter for the months until redemption, plus what you say is paid back of those costs and the premium (never more than you spent), minus your bid, the premium, the costs you spent and the cost of money on the bid and premium for those months.

What it leaves out

Income tax, a deposit the sale may require, the full price being due days or weeks after the sale rather than on the day (the calculator charges the cost of money from the sale), tax lien certificate sales (where you buy a lien rather than the property and the bidding may be on the interest rate; this calculator models buying the property), interest or penalties on debts that stay with the property, rents you might collect while waiting, a property that cannot be insured until you take over, a sale that is set aside, a redemption that pays back less than you expect, and the chance the property takes longer to sell or sells for less. It does not know any sale's terms, any state's rules or any property. Which debts survive a sale and whether anyone can redeem afterward are questions of state and federal law, the debts' priority and notice, and the specific sale; the inputs here are only your estimates of them.

General information only, not investment, financial, tax or legal advice. The calculator only does arithmetic on the numbers typed into it; it holds no data about any property, sale or market.