I have always been curious about tax sales but never did extensive research on tax sales. Every state has substantial differences and there are (or were) a few states that offered really nice deals for tax sales. Now I do not know California law at all because when I was doing research on this stuff, it was pretty clear that California was not a great state for tax sales compared to the way other states implement them.

Your particular question implies that once you bid at auction, even though your bid may be the winner, the original property owner has a year to object and can thus get the property back through the objection process, (in addition to paying off any penalties and all back taxes).

The one thing about buying any property through auctions that are from tax lien sales or trustee sales is that you need to research any other liens or judgements associated with the property. Because as the winner of the auction you will need to cure those at some time in the future.

As I said earlier some states had some pretty interesting things. For instance if you were the winner of the auction, you would get the property but again, the owner had a period of time to cure the lien even after auction and if they cured the lien you get your money back plus interest, and in some states that rate was pretty darn nice. In others it was lame… The cure time varied as well.

All in all it was really interesting. Research the heck out of it and do alot of legwork.

Of course like trustee sales these are cash deals, no financing.