Check what you owe in property taxes, then compare your three ways to sell
Official county lookups for Jackson, Clay, Platte, Johnson and Wyandotte, what "delinquent" means in each county, and a calculator that puts a cash sale, listing as-is, and renovating first side by side.
Saving KC Home Buyers buys houses as an investor. One or more principals of Saving KC Home Buyers hold a real estate license in Missouri with Platinum Realty LLC.
A property tax bill that goes unpaid does not turn into a lost house overnight. Missouri and Kansas both give owners years, not weeks, before a county can sell. But the clock, the fees, and the way out are different on each side of State Line Road, and even between neighboring Missouri counties.
Start with the number. Every county below offers a free official search that shows what is owed by year. Then read the timeline for your county, so you know which deadline actually applies to you. If you are weighing a sale, the calculator further down uses the same line items as a real seller net sheet to compare your options.
In Missouri, taxes unpaid on January 1 are delinquent (RSMo 140.010). In Kansas, the first half is due December 20 and the second half May 10 (K.S.A. 79-2004). What happens after that depends on your county.
Look up what is owed in your county
Pick your county. Each button opens the county's own site in a new tab. We do not see or store what you search.
All five county sites block being shown inside another website (they send an X-Frame-Options header) or need a browser session, and none publishes a public data feed for third-party sites. Linking out is the safe, official route. Details are in the method notes.
Find your best path: cash sale, list as-is, or renovate first
Answer a few questions. The calculator estimates what you would walk away with on each path, how long it takes, how likely it is to close, and how much work it asks of you, then ranks the three. It starts from the line items and percentages in a real seller net sheet and uses county figures for days on market, sale-to-list price and listings that failed to sell. Change any number.
It is built to be fair. A cash sale is often the fastest and simplest path, and it usually pays less. When you have time and a house that shows well, listing usually wins. The ranking says so either way.
Line-by-line net sheet for each path
How the score works, and change the weights
Each path gets four scores from 0 to 100, then a weighted average. Net: 100 for the highest estimated net, minus 4 points for every 1% of your as-is value it trails by. Time: 100 for the fastest path, minus a few points per extra day (more points when you are in a hurry), capped at 20 if it likely misses your timeline. Certainty: the estimated chance the sale closes. Effort: how much work and disruption it asks of you. The weights start from your timeline answer.
Edit the assumptions
What the calculator does not know
- Your house. The value, repair and after-repair numbers are your estimates or rough defaults by condition. A local agent's price opinion and a contractor bid will beat any default.
- Your tax sale date. If a sale date is close, the timeline in Step 1 matters more than any score.
- Liens, probate, title problems or tenant rights. Each can add time and cost to every path.
- Investor fall-through. No public data exists on how often investor contracts fail to close. We assume 90%. Ask any buyer whether they will close themselves or assign the contract (get the answer in writing).
PRESSURE
Want a real cash number to compare?
We buy houses as-is in the Kansas City area as an investor. You can get a number, compare it with the other paths above, and decide later, or not at all.
How this resource works
Tax lookup and timelines
- Links are the counties' own collector or treasurer sites, checked Oct 11, 2026. Timelines summarize the statutes and county pages cited under each county. They are general information, not legal advice, and county practice can change (for example, Jackson County canceled its August 2026 sale).
- Live search on this page: not built. Jackson (publicaccessnow.com and payments.jacksongov.org), Clay (collector.claycountymo.gov), Johnson (taxbill.jocogov.org) and Wyandotte (appr.wycokck.org) send X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN, which stops embedding. Jackson's search API needs a browser session; Johnson's site rate-limits detail pages; Wyandotte's delinquent-tax map layer needs a token. Platte's collector site did not respond to our test server. None offers a documented public API for other sites.
Calculator method
- Seller line items come from the "Client Net Sheet" tab of Saving KC's internal purchasing workbook: 6% agent commissions; as-is escrow $1,802.50, warranty/staging/marketing $1,350, recording $500, title insurance $596.13; renovate path escrow $2,100, warranty/staging/marketing $3,350, recording $100; seller repair cost = repair estimate x 1.2. The workbook's 0.12% transfer tax line is set to 0 because Missouri and Kansas have no state real estate transfer tax.
- Modeled cash offer uses the workbook's "Deal Analysis" tab: the price at which an investor's projected profit equals a 10.5% net margin on the after-repair value, after repairs, buying costs, holding, loan costs (90% loan at 12%, 1 point, $1,000 fees, gap funds at 12%), resale costs and 2.5% + 2.5% commissions. With the workbook's own example inputs this reproduces its profit figure to the dollar.
- County figures: days on market and sale price as a share of original list price, KCRAR / Heartland MLS Local Market Update, Sept 2026. Listing fail rate (net of quick relists), Saving KC count of Heartland MLS Sept 2026 listings that left the market, area totals. Monthly property tax (Census ACS 2024 median real estate taxes / 12), insurance (NAIC 2023 statewide HO-3 average / 12) and utilities (EIA 2024 statewide), from the defaults in Saving KC's Oct 2026 pending-sales report calculator.
- Saving KC assumptions (no published figure exists; all editable): repair cost by condition (0%, 5%, 15%, 30%, 50% of as-is value); value added per $1 of repairs (2.0, 1.6, 1.3, 1.1, anchored to the workbook's two examples at 1.2 and 2.3); extra fail risk on as-is listings (0, 0, 5, 10, 20 points); slower sales for repair-heavy homes (x1.15 to x1.6 days on market); inspection credits (0% to 3%); 7 days to list; 30 days contract to close; 21 days to close a cash sale; 90% chance a cash sale closes; 30 extra days with a tenant; 12% a year on back taxes.