Sell a House With Back Taxes in Hickory Hill, Memphis (38115/38125)

If you’re behind on property taxes in Hickory Hill and the property is a condo, a townhome, or a house inside a PUD with an association, you have a second ledger running that nobody warns you about — and in Tennessee it can take the unit faster than the tax sale can. We buy 38115 and 38125 properties as-is, pay the Trustee, the City, and the association out of the closing, and wire you the difference. Call (901) 531-9917.

Why Hickory Hill sellers with back taxes call us

The numbers here move in two directions at once, which is a bad place to be while penalties accrue. Median sale price in 38115 ran about $205,000 over the three months ending June 2026, but price per square foot fell 11.9% to roughly $89, and the market slowed hard — 61 median days on market versus 28 a year earlier, with condos slower still at 63 days (Redfin). A listing that takes two months to go under contract and another 45 to close burns a full year of 1.5%-per-month interest. We close in 7–14 days.

The second ledger: why Hickory Hill is different

Hickory Hill was built out between roughly 1975 and 1988 — Fox Meadows, the Kirby Parkway corridor, the streets feeding Winchester and Mt. Moriah Extended — and almost all of it went up while the area was still unincorporated Shelby County. Memphis didn’t annex it until the end of 1998. County-era platting is why this pocket has Memphis’s heaviest concentration of attached condo and townhome regimes, and why so many sit on private drives and private drainage the City never took into its maintenance system. Paving, storm lines and lighting stayed with the association — which keeps dues high, and high dues are what people quietly stop paying first.

So a delinquent Hickory Hill unit usually carries three balances: Shelby County, City of Memphis, and the association. Two are enforced by government on a published calendar. The third is enforced by a private board with a lawyer on retainer.

What the Tennessee Condominium Act actually lets your association do

Under TCA § 66-27-415, the association’s lien attaches the moment an assessment comes due — no filing required — and it may be foreclosed by judicial action (Justia). Two details matter here:

• The association’s priority is small, but its foreclosure right isn’t. Its super-priority in the proceeds is capped at six months of assessments and 1% of the first mortgage balance — which is why boards usually leave financed units alone.
• A unit owned free and clear has no shield. Association foreclosure is subject to any prior deed of trust. No mortgage means no prior deed of trust to be subject to. A lot of Hickory Hill condos were bought outright for cash in the 2012–2018 rental wave, and those are the units associations move on.

Then there’s the part that closes your retail exit entirely. Once 15% or more of the units in a project are 60+ days behind on dues, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA all stop backing mortgages on any unit in it. The regime goes non-warrantable because of your neighbors, financed buyers disappear, and those units typically sell for 10–25% less. If you’re planning to list your way out of a tax problem, that’s the trapdoor.

How the back-taxes sale works in Hickory Hill

1. We pull all three balances. Shelby County Trustee, City of Memphis Treasury, and — for condos and PUDs — a payoff letter from the association. Give us the address and we’ll start it the same day.
2. We check whether anything is already in suit. A County file goes to the delinquent tax attorney February 1 after a full year delinquent; the City files in Chancery around 17 months. An association suit can land at any point, and each one changes the payoff.
3. We look at the unit once, briefly. Hickory Hill stock is predictable — original panel boxes, 30-year-old shared roofs, slab settling. None of it moves our number much.
4. Written offer in 24 hours, net of every lien. Gross price and the figure that actually hits your account.
5. Close in 7–14 days. Title pays all three and gets the releases.

A real Hickory Hill back-taxes scenario

A 1,150 sq ft two-bedroom townhome-style condo off Kirby Parkway, a few minutes from Hickory Ridge Towne Center — the old mall the church bought after the 2008 tornado. The owner paid $42,000 cash for it in 2016 as a rental and stopped self-managing in 2023 after a bad tenant. No mortgage meant no escrow, so nothing was being paid in the background. County and City arrears reached $3,150; dues at $215 a month ran 21 months and hit $4,600 with late fees, and the board’s attorney had filed suit. With no deed of trust in front of it, that suit was real. We offered $78,000, paid all three plus court costs at closing, and wired him roughly $69,400 on day ten.

Why a local end-buyer beats Opendoor or a wholesaler here

Opendoor doesn’t buy in a non-warrantable condo project — their model depends on a clean financed resale, which is the exact thing that’s unavailable. Wholesalers will sign your contract happily, then discover during assignment that the payoff has a third party in it and the project can’t be financed, and walk. You’ve lost six weeks and the meter never stopped. We don’t assign your contract. We’re the end-buyer closing with our own funds, which is why a tax suit, an HOA suit, and a broken warrantability ratio are things we price rather than run from. Tennessee’s SB909 disclosure rules exist because of the assignment shuffle.

FAQ

Q: Do I have to pay the back taxes or the HOA dues before I can sell?
A: No. All of it comes out of the proceeds at closing. You bring nothing to the table.

Q: Can the HOA really take my condo over unpaid dues?
A: In Tennessee it can foreclose its assessment lien by judicial action. If there’s no mortgage on the unit, nothing sits ahead of it.

Q: My neighbors’ delinquencies aren’t my fault. Why do they affect my sale?
A: Because warrantability is measured project-wide. At 15% of units 60+ days behind, financing stops for everyone in the regime.

Q: Is the property gone if a tax sale already happened?
A: Not necessarily — a redemption window exists, but it runs through Chancery Court with the bid plus interest. Call (901) 531-9917 before assuming either way.

Q: I owe the county but not the city. Am I fine?
A: No. They’re separate bills, separately enforced. Both need pulling.

Q: Will you buy it with the tenant still in place?
A: Yes, occupied or vacant, and as-is. Leave whatever you don’t want.

Get your no-obligation cash offer

Give us the Hickory Hill address and, if it’s a condo, the association’s name. We’ll pull the tax accounts, order the payoff letter, and have a written number to you within 24 hours — no obligation, no fee. Call (901) 531-9917 or use our cash offer page. Our office is at 5100 Poplar Ave Suite 2705, Memphis TN 38137. Want background first? See our seller FAQ, back taxes in Whitehaven, or selling before foreclosure in Hickory Hill. If dues are stacking up alongside the tax bill, call this week — that’s the clock that moves fastest.