Caroline County, Virginia

Oct 22, 2026 · in 21 days

Tax Deedscheduledvia County site

Parcels

17 land-only hidden

Opening bids

26 lot(s) have no published opening bid

Redemption

None

clear title at sale

Quiet title

$2K–$5K

typically required

VA caveats

THE COMPUTED MAX BID IS AN ALL-IN CEILING AND VIRGINIA ADDS A BUYER'S PREMIUM ON TOP OF THE BID. Both sales in our own inventory charge one: Shenandoah County's judicial sale adds 10% of the high bid, and the City of Chesapeake's nonjudicial sale adds 15% plus a $200 recordation fee. Bid at most maxBid ÷ 1.10, or ÷ 1.15 where the terms say 15%. Bidding the computed figure itself overshoots the ceiling by the whole premium — on a $20,000 parcel that is $2,000 to $3,000 of profit that was never there. closingCosts is a flat dollar field and cannot hold a rate; read the auctioneer's terms for every sale.
AT A NONJUDICIAL SALE A PRIOR DEED OF TRUST CAN SURVIVE, AND THE LISTING WILL NOT SAY SO. § 58.1-3975 conveys free of the locality's tax lien "but shall not affect ... liens recorded prior to the date of sale unless the treasurer has given the lienholder written notice of the sale at least 30 days prior to the sale". Whether that notice went out is not on the public record. The Chesapeake terms in our own inventory advertise the parcels as "sold free and clear of liens & encumbrances", which is the auctioneer's phrasing and not what the statute says. Pull a title search before bidding on any nonjudicial parcel.
A JUDICIAL SALE IS THE STRONGER TITLE, BUT ONLY AS TO PARTIES SERVED. § 58.1-3967 frees the title of creditors' claims, "provided that such creditor, person, or entity was made a party defendant". A lienholder who was never named keeps their lien. The court file shows who was named, which is the whole advantage over the nonjudicial track.
NONJUDICIAL PARCELS ARE SMALL AND USUALLY UNBUILDABLE BY STATUTORY DESIGN. § 58.1-3975 reaches parcels assessed at $15,000 or less, or $15,001-$30,000 if unimproved and under an acre or unsuitable for building or condemned or derelict or blighted, or $30,001-$40,000 if in a revitalization zone, unimproved and under half an acre. A derived ARV can make one of these look like a house lot when the statute that put it in the sale says it is not.
Virginia localities are not all counties. Thirty-eight independent cities sit outside any county and levy their own tax — Chesapeake, Newport News, Suffolk, Danville, Martinsville and Portsmouth are all in the current inventory. Towns are a further layer: § 58.1-3974 makes a redeeming owner pay "any outstanding taxes, penalties, and interest owed to a town or other concurrent taxing entity", so a parcel can owe two governments and a county's sale does not necessarily clear the town's lien.
Virginia's recordation tax is ad valorem and is not in closingCosts. That figure is anchored on Chesapeake's flat $200 recordation fee plus clerk's recording; the state and local recordation tax scales with the price and is owed on top.
Surplus is the former owner's. At a nonjudicial sale "any excess proceeds shall remain the property of the former owner, subject to claims of creditors", escrowed for two years. This does not affect the buyer's title, but it means Virginia is not exposed on the Tyler v. Hennepin question.
quietTitle costs here are a placeholder and have not been reviewed by the operator. Do not rely on a computed Virginia max bid until they are set.

Caroline County rulesstate defaults

Sale type: Tax Deed
Redemption period: Right to redeem up until the court confirms the sale, not after
Investor return: N/A — outright deed transfer once confirmed
Governing statute: Code of Virginia Title 58.1, Ch. 39
Population: 33,477 residents

Notes

Judicial in-rem sale process; independent cities function as county-equivalents in Virginia.

Inherited from Virginia rather than researched for Caroline: type, redemption, returns, statute, notes.

Parcels — ranked by assessed value over opening bid

Show 17 land-only parcel(s)

Parcel	Address	Opening bid	Assessed	Spread	Status
38-4-3B	14225 Countyline Church Rd · Woodford	—	$84,301	—	pending
67A2-1-638	156 Yorktown Dr · Ruther Glen	—	$10,000	—	pending
67A2-1-778	306 Union Dr · Ruther Glen	—	$5,000	—	pending
67A4-1-1589

Spread is not profit.It compares the opening bid to the county's assessed value, which is not market value — Va. Const. art. X, § 2: "All assessments of real estate and tangible personal property shall be at their fair market value, to be ascertained as prescribed by law." There is no classification and no ratio below full value, except the agricultural, horticultural, forest and open-space use-value deferral the same section authorises. Open a parcel to run the full max-bid analysis, which accounts for the assessment ratio, surviving liens, quiet title, and holding costs.