Know your numbers before you bid.

If you came here searching for tax liens, start with this: Georgia is a redeemable tax deed state. In lien states like Florida and Arizona, the county sells the debt — a certificate that pays statutory interest when the owner catches up. Georgia auctions the property, and the winning bidder walks away with a tax deed.

That deed carries a 12-month right of redemption. If the former owner redeems, they repay what you paid plus a 20% penalty — flat, not annualized, whether they redeem in week one or month eleven. If nobody redeems, you bar the right of redemption and typically file a quiet-title action before the property is cleanly sellable.

Both outcomes are workable. They are just different businesses, and your maximum bid should reflect which one you are underwriting. Read the full beginner’s guide →

Not every parcel is worth bidding on. A small tax debt can still be a bad bet if the property has little market value, sits under other encumbrances, or is an unbuildable sliver of land. Georgia sale lists routinely include vacant lots, landlocked parcels, and structures worth less than the cost of clearing title on them.

What separates a parcel worth bidding on from one to avoid is what it is genuinely worth, what comparable properties nearby have actually sold for, and what it would cost to make it sellable. That research is the job — and it has to happen before auction day, not after.

Every property on a published county list gets a score from 0 to 100. It is a formula, not a black box and not a guess — you can open the calculation notes on any parcel and see exactly how each number was derived.

The engine starts from what the property would be worth fixed up, then subtracts:

• After-repair value from recent comparable sales, with a confidence rating reflecting how much comp data stood behind it
• Estimated rehab, from square footage and the age of the structure
• Legal and closing costs, including an allowance for clearing title on a tax-deed parcel
• Carrying and selling costs across the redemption period and resale

What is left is the margin, and the score expresses it. A high score means the spread is wide enough to absorb surprises. From there you get a recommended maximum bid — the number to stop at when the auctioneer keeps going.

BidWise currently serves investors across DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Clayton counties in Georgia — four of metro Atlanta’s highest-volume tax-sale counties. Each runs its own sale on its own schedule, and BidWise analyzes each list as the county publishes it.