Otter Tail County opens online auction for tax-forfeited properties, bids due May 15

Otter Tail County has put tax-forfeited parcels back on the market in an online auction that includes everything from small lots to larger tracts and improved properties, including one Maine Township listing tied to a 75-year hunting lease. Bids are due May 15 at 4:30 p.m. CST, and the county says the sale is open online through Public Surplus to the highest bidder.

The county’s catalog says online bidding started April 15 at 8 a.m., with tracts auctioned beginning at the listed sale price. Lower offers will not be accepted, and all sales must be paid in full. The county’s tax-forfeited lands page also posts a sales map and a list of parcels for sale, giving bidders a chance to review properties in places such as Fergus Falls, Deer Creek, Evansville, Maine Township, Dora Township, Henning Township, Rush Lake Township, Aurdal Township, Buse Township, Star Lake Township, Lida Township, Pelican Township and Hobart Township.

For first-time bidders, the biggest traps are the deadline and the minimum bid. The county is not taking below-price offers, and anyone who wins a tract has to pay in full. Parcels not sold in the public sale will be added to a later auction, so a property that does not move this round can reappear again.

Otter Tail County says these lands reach county sale only after a long tax default process. Tax-forfeited properties are those that default to State of Minnesota ownership after three years of non-payment of taxes from the judgment year. County officials say the goal is to return those parcels to productive use and strengthen the local tax base.

The broader policy picture has shifted as well. Minnesota Department of Revenue guidance says the 2024 Legislature changed delinquency and forfeiture laws, and the state’s 2024 tax-forfeited lands settlement grew out of litigation over tax-forfeited lands, surplus sale proceeds and mineral rights after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Tyler v. Hennepin County decision. In Otter Tail County, that legal backdrop now meets a practical county service job: getting abandoned or delinquent parcels back into private hands, back onto the tax rolls and back into the local economy.

The auction is also set up to be accessible to people with disabilities, and the county says other accommodations can be arranged by contacting the Auditor’s Office in advance. For bidders weighing a tract in the countryside or an improved property near town, the county’s message is straightforward: check the map, read the catalog, and make sure the full payment can be made if the high bid lands.