Sell a House With Back Taxes in South Memphis

If you own a house in South Memphis and the Shelby County Trustee has started sending certified letters, you are closer to losing it for nothing than you probably realize. In most of the county, a tax-delinquent house sells at the Chancery Court auction to an investor, who at least pays something toward the debt. In 38106 and 38114, where home values run lower than almost anywhere else in this market, a real share of these parcels draw zero bids — and that changes who ends up owning the house. We buy houses with back taxes owed, as-is, and we close before the courthouse steps are the only option left. Call (901) 531-9917 and we will tell you exactly where your file sits.

Why South Memphis sellers with back taxes call us

South Memphis is the most affordable submarket in this part of the city, and that’s exactly what makes a tax delinquency dangerous here. Redfin put the neighborhood’s median sale price at $55,000 last month, down 6.8% year over year, while the broader 38106 zip sold at a median of $77,000 — though days on market there dropped from 80 a year ago to just 39 now, so the houses that do sell move fast once priced right. The problem is what happens to the ones that don’t sell at all: at this price point, a tax-sale purchase often doesn’t pencil out for an outside investor, which changes who ends up owning your house.

How a back-taxes sale works in South Memphis

1. We pull your Trustee account and Chancery Court case number. Most South Memphis files we see are already assigned a Clerk & Master case for the judicial tax sale, not just sitting with the Trustee.
2. We calculate your real number, not just the tax bill. Back taxes, 1.5%-a-month interest, court costs, and any City of Memphis code-enforcement liens on the same parcel all get totaled before we make an offer.
3. We write a cash offer within 24 hours, priced for what the house actually fetches here. On a $55,000–$77,000 median block, that’s an honest as-is number, not a lowball.
4. We confirm your redemption window. Tennessee gives a delinquent owner 30 days to one year to redeem after a sale, depending on occupancy — but selling before the sale date beats redeeming after it almost every time.
5. We close at a local title company, and back taxes come straight out of the proceeds. You never write a separate check to the Trustee.

A real South Memphis back-taxes scenario

A man we worked with owned a small shotgun duplex off Hernando Street in the Bethel Grove pocket of 38106, a few blocks from the old L&N rail yard his grandfather had worked. He’d inherited it free and clear, rented one side for $450 a month, and figured the rent covered everything — it didn’t cover property taxes, which he’d stopped tracking after his grandfather died. By the time he called, the account was 22 months delinquent, a Chancery Court case number was already assigned, and the combined City and County bill with interest and court costs had grown to $3,180 on a house worth roughly $46,000 as-is. We told him plainly: at that value, investors often skip low-dollar South Memphis parcels at auction, meaning real risk the county ends up owning it with no payout to him at all. We offered $42,000, paid off the $3,180 at closing, and he netted $38,820 in nine days — before the sale date arrived.

What South Memphis owners need to know: when nobody bids, the county keeps the house

This is the part almost nobody selling a low-value South Memphis house gets told, and it’s the biggest reason to move before the sale date rather than after. Shelby County tax sales are run by the Chancery Court Clerk & Master under Tennessee’s judicial tax-sale statutes (Tenn. Code Ann. Title 67, Chapter 5, Part 25), and when a parcel draws no third-party bid, it gets struck off to Shelby County itself. An analysis by the Institute for Public Service Reporting and Action News 5 found that of more than 8,000 Shelby County tax-sale properties between 2016 and 2022, the county — not an investor — ended up owning nearly 70% of them, almost all distressed, low-value houses and vacant lots exactly like the ones that fill 38106 and 38114. The county then wipes the back-tax debt and routes the parcel to the Shelby County Land Bank for eventual resale — which has sold parcels carrying five-figure back-tax balances for a few hundred dollars once they changed hands. The former owner gets nothing from that resale; there’s no excess-proceeds claim to file, because there was no winning bid to generate proceeds. One small mercy: the county itself doesn’t evict an occupant while a property sits in its hands. Once the Land Bank sells it to a private buyer, that courtesy ends.

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

Opendoor and the national iBuyers don’t make offers on $55,000–$77,000 South Memphis houses — their algorithms aren’t built for this price range. That leaves the wholesalers whose “we buy ugly houses” signs line Mississippi Boulevard and Walker Avenue, and on a tax-delinquent house with a court date already on the calendar, a wholesaler is the worst fit: they don’t close, they tie your house up under contract and shop it to a third party, hoping to assign it for a markup before your sale date arrives. If their buyer falls through, you’ve burned weeks you didn’t have. We don’t assign your contract. We are the end buyer, our cash is verified before you sign, and the number on the contract is the number that wires at closing. Tennessee’s SB909 wholesaler-disclosure law exists precisely because of that bait-and-switch.

FAQ

Q: How far behind on taxes can a South Memphis house be before it’s too late to sell?

A: Right up until the Chancery Court sale closes. Even a house with a scheduled sale date can usually still sell beforehand.

Q: What happens to the back taxes when I sell to you?

A: They come out of the sale proceeds at closing. You never pay the Trustee separately.

Q: I heard the county can just end up owning tax-sale houses. Is that true in South Memphis specifically?

A: Yes, more so than in higher-value neighborhoods, because lower-priced parcels draw fewer investor bids. That’s the exact risk we help owners avoid by selling first.

Q: Can I still sell if there’s also a code-enforcement lien on the property?

A: Yes. City of Memphis code liens attach to the same parcel and get paid off at closing alongside the tax debt.

Q: Does the house need repairs before you’ll buy it?

A: No. We buy South Memphis houses as-is — vacant, tenant-occupied, storm-damaged, it doesn’t matter.

Q: Are there any fees or commissions taken out of my proceeds?

A: None. No agent commission, no closing costs — only the back taxes and any liens, disclosed before you sign.

Get your no-obligation cash offer

If a South Memphis house you own has fallen behind on Shelby County or City of Memphis taxes, the clock that matters is the Chancery Court sale date, not the one on your calendar. Call (901) 531-9917 or visit our cash offer page for a written number within 24 hours — our office is at 5100 Poplar Ave Suite 2705, Memphis TN 38137. See our FAQ for more on how proceeds are split at closing, and if the house also came to you through an estate, read about selling an inherited house in South Memphis. We also buy back-tax houses just north in Midtown. Every month a tax account sits delinquent, the odds shift further toward the county keeping the house instead of you — (901) 531-9917 is where that changes.