DeedlineCheap government land, without the runaround.

Built by a land buyer, not a company — no company, no course, no upsell

Five tabs you're juggling right now. One place.

Parcel maps. Auction listings. Deal math. Owner lookups. Your workflow. Right now that's five tabs, three notebooks, and a Sunday night you'll never get back. Deedline puts all five in one place — built by someone who buys land at government auctions, for people who do the same.

Start here Why I built this
14Places I check
0You're watching
0Deals you've logged
3,000+counties sell this way — yeah, that's why nobody finds it all on their own
~300Treasury sales a year — easy to miss if you're not looking every week
8 thingsI check before I bid on anything — they're in the playbook below
30 daysto try it out. If it's not helping you, I'll give your money back
01Parcel MapsBorders from county GIS 02AuctionsEvery government sale 03Deal MathAnalyzer + calculators 04Owner IntelAssessor bridges 05WorkflowWatchlist, alerts, guides
Deedline · Parcel Map

The map is the product

Tax-delinquent parcels, drawn from free county GIS data. Tap any parcel for details and assessor links. Coverage: Maricopa County, AZ — more counties coming.

Tax-delinquent parcel Low-risk parcel FEMA flood zone

Parcel data: Maricopa County Assessor, via public ArcGIS REST. Boundaries approximate. Always verify with official county records before bidding.

How I use it

This is literally my routine. Nothing fancy — just the three things I was doing in notebooks and bookmarks before I built this.

STEP 1

Check the sales

I used to have bookmarks everywhere. Now I start here — 14 official sources, Treasury seizures, USDA resales, county tax sales on Bid4Assets, all of it. Filter by what you care about and go straight to the real sale page.

See where I look →

STEP 2

Pick a number and stick to it

This part saved me money. You add a parcel, put down the opening bid and your walk-away price — the most you'll pay, period. The badge turns red when it creeps over. No more "just one more bid."

Open the watchlist →

STEP 3

Write down what happened

Win, lose, or pass — log it. I kept forgetting why I passed on a parcel three months later, then I'd waste time researching it again. Your win rate and what you've spent add up on their own. The boring part, but it's the part that makes you better.

Open the journal →

Why I built this

Short version: I needed it myself and nobody else had made it simple.

I didn't set out to build a product. I was just trying to buy a piece of land I could actually afford.

I save what I can when I can, and every normal listing site wanted a fortune for a scrub lot with no road frontage. Then I fell down the tax-sale rabbit hole — counties selling land for just the back taxes owed. Real land, sometimes for a few thousand bucks, if you could find it.

Problem was, you couldn't find it. One county posts on Bid4Assets, another buries a PDF on the treasurer's site, the feds have half a dozen sites that all look like they were built in 2004. I missed two sales in counties right next to mine because I checked the wrong place on the wrong day. That was it for me.

So I made this list for myself. Then I added the watchlist because I kept bidding with my heart instead of a number. Then the journal because I was tired of repeating the same mistakes.

That's all Deedline is — that list, cleaned up. If you're buying like I am, small budget and a lot of patience, I hope it saves you the Sunday nights I lost.

— The guy behind Deedline. One person, not a team.

Deal Analyzer — paste it in, I'll run the numbers

You found a listing on their site — good. Don't bid on vibes. Paste what they give you below and I'll do what I do on paper: max-bid math, the red flags hiding in the description, and the due-diligence checks that actually apply to this parcel. Works on any listing from any site. That's the point — they can't block your clipboard.

Paste a listing

Why this exists

They won't let a tool pull their listings automatically — X-Frame headers, bot walls, the whole cage. Fine. A listing you copy yourself can't be blocked. You bring 30 seconds of paste, I bring the math I've learned the expensive way. That's a trade they don't get a vote on.

Calculators — know your number before auction day

Every bad deal I've seen started with “it feels cheap.” Feelings don't survive an auction. Run these three first, write the number down, and treat it like concrete. All math happens right here in your browser — nothing to sign up for.

Max Bid Calculator

The 70% rule, adjusted for the real costs everyone forgets.

Your walk-away number

Hit calculate — this is the number you do not cross, even if the other bidder smiles at you.

DSCR Refinance (BRRRR) Calculator

Buy, rehab, refinance, repeat — see if the refi actually pays you back.

The refinance picture

How the math works on a typical deal: $22k purchase + $8k rehab = $30k all-in, refinance at 75% of $150k value = $112,500 loan — $82,500 back over your all-in. Run your own numbers — lenders want DSCR at 1.20 or better.

Repair Cost Estimator

Rough, honest ranges — so a “cheap” house doesn't eat the land deal.

Estimated total

Estimates, not quotes — but an estimate beats a surprise. Always add 15% contingency on top.

The 5-Minute Morning Check

This is my actual routine, in order, timed. Five minutes with coffee beats two hours of random clicking on Sunday night. Check each step off as you go — when the bar fills, you're done. Go live your day. The deals that matter will still be there, and now you know about them first.

0 of 8 done — kettle on, let's go

Progress resets when you leave — it's a morning routine, not homework

Alert Setup Guides — make their system work for you

Here's what the sites already offer — most people just don't know: most major sites have free email alerts — and for the ones that don't, there's a 30-second manual check in the routine above. Turn the alerts on once and their servers — the same ones that block scrapers — will email you new deals for free, forever. That's not scraping. That's using the front door they left open. Set up each one below; total time, maybe 20 minutes, once.

GovDeals — saved searches (my #1 alert)

Best coverage for county & city surplus real estate.

  1. Create a free account at govdeals.com and verify your email.
  2. Search Real Estate category + your state + your max price.
  3. Click “Save Search” / “Watch” on the results page and choose daily email alerts.
  4. Repeat for each county or state you watch — I run 4 saved searches.

Open GovDeals →

Bid4Assets — county sale calendars + watchlists

Where most online county tax sales actually happen.

  1. Register free at bid4assets.com — you'll need it to bid anyway.
  2. Open County Tax Sales, pick your states, and note each county's sale dates in your watchlist here.
  3. On any live auction, click Watch This Auction — Bid4Assets emails you before close.
  4. Fund deposits early: many counties require the deposit days before the sale, not day-of — Riverside County's 2026 sale required it by April 20 for an April 23–28 sale (example). Every county's terms differ — read the sale page first.

Open Bid4Assets →

GSA Auctions — category email alerts

Federal surplus — thin inventory, so alerts beat checking by hand.

  1. Create an account at gsaauctions.gov.
  2. Browse to Real Property / your region and save the search.
  3. Turn on email notifications for new items in the category.
  4. Also check realestatesales.gov monthly — surplus land posts there first.

Open GSA Auctions →

HUD HomeStore + Treasury — the slow channels

No slick alerts here — so the routine does the work instead.

  1. HUD: at hudhomestore.gov, search your state weekly and sort by newest — owner-occupant windows open and close fast.
  2. Treasury seized property: bookmark the Treasury real-property page and check it in the Morning Check — new sales post without notice.
  3. USDA resales: search resales.usda.gov by state every week; rural listings sit longest.
  4. Anything interesting? Don't leave it in a tab — add it to the watchlist below with your target price, right then.

Open HUD HomeStore →

The principle, so you don't forget it

Scraping gets blocked. Embedding gets blocked. An email alert they send you? Can't be blocked — it's their own feature. Build your system on things they can't take away: your inbox, your clipboard, your numbers, your notes. That's the whole philosophy of this page.

Where I look

The government doesn't sell in one place — it's split across federal agencies and roughly 3,000 county offices, and none of them talk to each other. These are the doors I check. If you want cheap acreage, start with the tax sales and the land channels.

County tax sales by state

The federal sites above are just the start. Most cheap land sells at county tax sales — here's where to find them, state by state. More states coming.

TexasTax deed sales — monthly, first Tuesday. Strong buyer protections, no redemption period on most.
FloridaTax deed sales — online, competitive. 2-year redemption on liens, deeds are cleaner.
ArizonaTax lien sales — annual, February. Liens not deeds; 3-year redemption period.
GeorgiaTax deed sales — monthly, first Tuesday. 1-year redemption period.
ArkansasTax deed sales — Commissioner of State Lands. Cheap rural land, straightforward process.
MissouriTax deed sales — annual, August. Varies by county.

Your watchlist

This is where you keep an eye on parcels without losing your mind. Put down where it's listed, what it's at, and the most you'll pay. The badge tells you if you're still in your zone or if it's time to let it go. I left four examples in here so you can see how it works — hit “Clear examples” when you're ready to put your own in.

Add a listing

Your list lives in this page — grab a backup file so you don't lose it.

Deal journal

Log what actually happened — the wins, the ones you lost, the ones you were smart to pass on. Honestly, your own notes are worth more than any guru's highlight reel. Mine are.

Log a deal

What I learned the hard way

Nobody explained this stuff plainly when I started, so I'm writing it how I wish someone had told me. This is how the cheap-land channels actually work, and the stuff that can bite you if you skip it.

Tax lien vs. tax deed — this tripped me up at first

When owners stop paying property tax, the county eventually sells either the debt or the land itself, and which one depends on the state. I learned that the hard way — I was researching the wrong kind of sale for weeks.

Tax lien states sell a lien certificate: you pay the back taxes, earn interest (often 8–18%), and only get the property if the owner never redeems and you foreclose. It's a yield play first, a land play second.

Tax deed states sell the property outright at auction. The opening bid is frequently just the back taxes, fees, and penalties owed — which is why raw land can go for a few thousand dollars. This is the channel for buying acreage directly.

Some states are hybrids, and many counties now run these sales online through Bid4Assets or GovDeals instead of on courthouse steps. Check the county treasurer or tax collector page for your target county to find which platform — and which rules — apply.

Why some land opens so cheap (it's not a scam)

At a tax deed sale the county isn't pricing the land — it's just trying to get back what it's owed. A parcel assessed at $30,000 might open at $2,400 in back taxes. If nobody else shows up, that's the price. First time I saw it I thought it had to be fake. It wasn't.

The catch: sales are cash, fast, and as-is. Timelines vary wildly by county and state — many online county sales require the deposit before the sale just to qualify, and the balance can be due days to weeks after. There's no standard schedule, no financing contingency, no inspection period, and no title guarantee. The discount is payment for doing your homework in advance and taking on the risk.

Example terms (labeled as examples, not rules): Montgomery County, PA's sheriff sale via Bid4Assets required a $10,000 deposit before bidding and the balance within 10 calendar days (sale terms); Philadelphia's requires the balance within 15 days (buyer instructions); Riverside County's 2026 tax sale required the $5,000 deposit days before bidding opened (sale notice).

Federal and REO channels (Treasury, Marshals, HUD, USDA) are slower and pricier, but they generally convey clear, insurable title — the seller settles old taxes at closing. Tax-sale title usually needs a quiet-title action before it's insurable or resellable.

Set a target price per parcel before auction day and treat it as a hard ceiling. The most common way to lose money here is winning an argument with another bidder.

The 8 checks I run before I bid — every time

0 of 8 checks done

How the workflow looks

Illustrative examples

I'm not going to fake reviews — these are made-up examples based on how people actually use this, names and numbers changed. I left them here because the workflows are real, even if the people are composites. This is what using the watchlist and journal looks like in practice.

I had six county treasurer sites bookmarked and still missed a sale two counties over. Now I check one directory on Sunday, set my targets, and let the badges tell me what's still in range. The discipline alone is worth it — I stopped bidding with my ego.
Marcus T.First-time land buyer · Ozark County, MO

2.3 acres · $1,850 winning bid · county tax deed sale

The target-price badge saved me from myself. A lot I wanted crept $200 over my walk-away number and I let it go — two weeks later a better parcel in the same subdivision closed under target. Before Deedline I'd have chased the first one and overpaid.
Dana R.Part-time investor · Fulton County, AR

0.9-acre lot · $2,600 against a $3,000 target

We'd never bought land before and were nervous about tax-sale title. The playbook steered us to a USDA resale instead — clear title at closing — and the checklist caught a septic question we hadn't even thought to ask. We bought with our eyes open.
James & Priya K.Homesteaders · Baxter County, AR

5.1 acres · USDA resale · clear title at closing

The journal is the part nobody else gives you. Eleven auctions logged, three parcels bought, and every loss has a note on what I missed. My win rate went up because my mistakes stopped repeating. It's a boring tool. That's the point.
Rob S.Land buyer & reseller · Georgia

11 auctions logged · 3 parcels bought · every loss reviewed

What this is

Straightforward — here's what it does, what it doesn't do, and who it's for.

What you're actually getting

  • The list I use myselfAll 14 sources — federal seizures, surplus, county tax sales. Every link goes straight to the real government sale page. No copies, no middleman.
  • The watchlist with target badgesYou put your walk-away number in, it tells you when a bid goes past it. Plus a heads-up when auction day is getting close.
  • The journalYour win rate, what you've spent, what you've gained — added up for you so you can see if you're actually getting better at this.
  • The Deal Analyzer + calculatorsPaste any listing from any site and get max-bid math, risk flags, and the checks that apply. Plus max-bid, DSCR refinance (BRRRR), and repair estimators — the numbers before the bid, not after.
  • The Morning Check + alert guidesAn 8-step, 5-minute routine with a progress tracker, and step-by-step setup for each site's own email alerts — so deals come to you without any scraping.
  • Everything I learnedTax lien vs. tax deed in plain English, why some land opens at $900, and the 8 checks I run before I bid. The mistakes are in there too.
  • Your stuff is your stuffDownload a backup of your watchlist and journal anytime. No account holding it hostage. You leave, your notes go with you.
  • When I find a new source, you get itCounties move their sales online all the time. When I add one to my list, I add it to yours.

What it doesn't do

  • No guaranteed deals. This won't find you a parcel. It'll keep you from overpaying on the ones you find yourself.
  • No legal advice. Tax sales have redemption periods, title issues, and rules that change by county. I'm a buyer, not a lawyer — always check the official sale page.
  • No scraping, no automation. The platforms block it. This works with their systems (your paste, their email alerts), not against them.
  • No live listings. I link to the official sources instead of copying their inventory. What you click through to is always current.

Who it's for

People buying cheap land on a regular budget — first-timers who don't want to get burned, part-timers building a system. If you're already running a full investing operation with a team, you probably don't need this.

Pricing

Two tiers. No subscription. No upsell. Pay once, use it as long as you want.

Free
$0

Everything you need to start looking.

  • Parcel map (all covered counties)
  • Auction source directory
  • 5-Minute Morning Check
  • Alert setup guides
  • Tax lien vs. deed primer

Free forever. No account needed.

Deedline Full
$49 one-time

The complete toolkit for serious buyers.

  • Everything in Free, plus:
  • Deal Analyzer (paste any listing)
  • All calculators (max bid, DSCR, repairs)
  • Watchlist with target-price badges
  • Deal journal with win-rate tracking
  • Due diligence checklist
  • 8-step pre-bid playbook
  • New counties & sources as added

One payment. Yours forever. Export your data anytime.

Not for sale yet — join the waitlist

I'm still using Deedline myself and sharpening the tools before charging anyone. Leave your email and I'll let you know when the paid tier opens. No spam, one email when it's ready.

Prefer email? research@ruzuna.com

Stuff people ask me

The questions I get before someone starts — answered straight, the way I'd want them answered.

Is buying government auction land actually legal?

Yeah — totally legal. These are public sales the government runs itself: the Treasury, the Marshals, HUD, the USDA, your county tax office. When someone doesn't pay their taxes or a property gets seized, the law says it has to be sold, and anyone can buy it.

Most of them just want you to register for free and, for county sales, put down a refundable deposit. You're buying straight from the county or agency, not from some middleman flipping it to you.

How current is the data?

I didn't build this to copy anyone's listings — that would go stale in a day. Every card here links to the official sale page itself, so what you see when you click through is the live price and deadline, straight from the source.

This stuff changes daily: parcels get paid off, sales get pushed back, new ones pop up. Always double-check the price, date, and deposit on the official page before you bid. I do.

What if I never find a deal?

That happens, and honestly, sometimes waiting is the move. Sales run on the county's schedule, not yours — some months there's just nothing good in the places you want. That's what the watchlist is for: set your numbers and let it sit until something actually opens cheap.

And if you try this for a sale cycle and it doesn't earn its keep, that's what the 30-day promise is for. You're not stuck with it.

Do I need experience to do this?

No — I didn't have any when I started. That's why I wrote the playbook the way I did: what a tax lien vs. a tax deed actually means, why a parcel can open at $1,200, and the eight things to check before you bid — road access, zoning, flood zone, liens, all of it.

My honest advice: watch your first sale or two without bidding. Start small. And whatever number you set as your max, treat it like it's set in concrete.

How much cash do I actually need to start?

Less than most people think, but more than just the bid. At a tax deed sale the opening bid is often just the back taxes and fees — raw land regularly opens between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars. The federal and USDA stuff costs more, but you usually get clear title, which matters.

Where people get caught: timelines are all over the map, and it's cash — no financing, no "let me think about it." Add the buyer's premium, recording fees, and on tax-sale land, a possible quiet-title cost (typically $1,500–$5,000 for an uncontested action, per Investopedia). That's your real number.

Examples (not universals): GovDeals sales commonly require payment in full within 5 business days of the buyer's certificate (example); Montgomery County, PA's Bid4Assets sheriff sale required the balance within 10 calendar days (sale terms); Philadelphia's allows 15 days (buyer instructions).

Why don't you just scrape the sites or embed them?

Because they forbid it — on purpose. GovDeals, HUD, Bid4Assets and the rest send headers that block embedding, and they run bot protection that blocks automated scraping. Anyone selling you a "fully automated" feed of these exact sites is either lying or one layout change away from broken.

So I built the other way: things they can't block. You paste a listing and the Analyzer runs the math. Their own email alerts — a feature they offer you directly — bring deals to your inbox. The Morning Check covers every source in 5 minutes. The tools work with the system as it exists.

What exactly am I buying — is it a subscription?

No subscription. One purchase and you get the whole thing: the 14-source list, the watchlist, the journal, and the playbook — plus any new sources I add later, and the 30-day promise.

Your watchlist and journal live in your copy of this page. There's a one-click backup so your notes are never locked up somewhere you can't get them. Export them, keep them forever, they're yours.