The work splits into four buckets, and buyers hire out different ones depending on volume.
Parcel diligence is the biggest spend. Before bidding, somebody has to confirm the parcel exists, is worth more than the lien, and doesn't have a superior lien or an environmental problem sitting on it. A limited search or title report on a single parcel commonly runs in the low hundreds, a full search more. A drive-by photo and condition note from a local runs in the tens of dollars per parcel, and in rural counties that person is often the scarcest resource in the whole chain.
Data and bidding tools are second. Counties publish delinquent lists in wildly different formats, from clean CSVs to scanned PDFs. Services that normalize those lists and price bids are typically sold as annual subscriptions, and the range is wide, from a few hundred dollars for one state's data to five figures for multi-state coverage with bid automation.
Servicing and tracking is third. Somebody has to watch redemption deadlines, pay subsequent taxes on time, and reconcile treasurer payments to certificates. Some buyers pay per certificate per month for this, often a small dollar amount, which adds up across a few hundred positions.
Fourth is legal work on the foreclosure track, priced per file by attorneys licensed in that state.
Rates move around, so treat those as rough ranges and get quotes.
The gap worth looking at is the boring middle. Plenty of capital can afford title work and lawyers. Very few have someone reliable who will drive to a parcel in a county of 8,000 people and send back a photo the same week.
