Auction property had a second lien I didn't catch, what actually happens now

Padding the bid is what most people do and it's the wrong instrument, because a flat pad prices every file the same when the variance between them is enormous. The way to do it is to price each surviving item separately and only bid the ones you can bound.

Municipal code liens: get the actual payoff in writing from the code office before the sale, not the recorded amount. The recorded figure is often stale and the daily accrual may or may not have continued. Whether the lien survives foreclosure and whether accrual stops at transfer both depend on state statute and local ordinance, so that's a question for a local title attorney on that specific parcel. Sewer and water assessments in many places attach as a municipal charge with priority over private liens, which means they survive a first mortgage foreclosure the same way property taxes do. Call the utility and get a balance.

The federal tax lien is the one that changes your model, not your price. The redemption period gives the government a window to redeem at your bid plus interest and certain costs. You'd get your money back with interest, so the loss isn't the purchase price. The loss is the rehab. If you spend $60k in improvements and the property is redeemed, recovery of that spend is a fight, and lenders and title companies both know it, which is why you'll often find title insurance carriers won't insure clean over an unexpired redemption window and hard money won't fund a rehab inside it. Confirm both in writing.

So the practical rule most operators land on: bid the municipal liens as a known deduction with a written payoff, and either skip the tax-lien file or buy it and sit on it doing nothing until the window closes. Your $168k max already assumes the $290k ARV holds through a delay of unknown length. That's the number I'd re-run first.