Bid4Assets Scraper

Scrape Bid4Assets.com — one of the largest online marketplaces for county government real estate auctions: tax-lien certificates, tax-deed sales, sheriff sales, and surplus-funds claims from counties across the US. Search by keyword or parcel number, browse by auction type or state, and filter by auction status. No login, no cookies, no paid proxy required.

What this actor does

• Three modes: search (keyword/parcel), byAuctionType (Tax Lien / Tax Deed / Sheriff Sale / Surplus Funds), byState (browse by US state)
• Filters: marketplace channel (defaults to Real Estate — this actor's focus), property type, auction status (open / closed / all)
• Sort: close/open date, current bid, bid count, title, auction ID (mirrors the site's own sort dropdown)
• Historical range: search up to 6 months back for closed auctions
• County extraction — parsed directly from each listing's title
• Auction-type classification — Tax Lien / Tax Deed / Sheriff Sale / Surplus Funds, detected from listing title phrasing
• Empty fields are omitted from every record

Output per listing

• auctionId — Bid4Assets auction identifier
• title — full listing title (usually includes state, county, and parcel description)
• currentBid — current/winning bid amount (USD)
• bidCount
• auctionOpenDate, auctionCloseDate, actualCloseDate
• timeLeftSeconds — present only while the auction is still open
• auctionStatus — open or closed
• locationCity, locationState, locationStateName
• county — extracted from the listing title
• auctionType, auctionTypeName — Tax Lien / Tax Deed / Sheriff Sale / Surplus Funds (only when confidently detected)
• imageUrl — listing photo
• sourceUrl — canonical Bid4Assets auction URL
• recordType: "listing", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byAuctionType / byState
criteria	string	tax lien	Keyword or parcel/APN number (required for mode=search)
auctionType	string	–	Tax Lien / Tax Deed / Sheriff Sale / Surplus Funds (required for mode=byAuctionType)
state	string	–	US state (required for mode=byState)
channel	string	22 (Real Estate)	Marketplace channel — Bid4Assets also sells vehicles, coins, art, etc.
category	string	–	Real-estate property type (Agricultural / Commercial / Residential / Timeshares / Other)
auctionStatus	string	open	open, closed, or all
sortBy	string	–	Sort order (close/open date, current bid, bid count, title, auction ID)
dateRangeMonths	int	6	How far back to search closed auctions (1–6 months)
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap on emitted records (1–2000)
proxyConfiguration	object	off	Optional Apify proxy (AUTO group); adds resilience under sustained volume

Example: keyword search

{
  "mode": "search",
  "criteria": "surplus funds",
  "auctionStatus": "open",
  "maxItems": 30
}

Example: browse by auction type

{
  "mode": "byAuctionType",
  "auctionType": "taxDeed",
  "maxItems": 40
}

Example: browse by state, residential only

{
  "mode": "byState",
  "state": "FL",
  "category": "05",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: closed auctions, sheriff sales

{
  "mode": "byAuctionType",
  "auctionType": "sheriffSale",
  "auctionStatus": "closed",
  "maxItems": 20
}

Data source / limitations

Bid4Assets' search API does not expose a structured "auction type" facet for real estate — auctionType is classified from each listing's title text (e.g. a title containing "Tax Lien Sale" or "Sheriff's Sale"). Listings whose title doesn't clearly indicate a sale type are still returned in search/byState modes but omit auctionType; byAuctionType mode only returns listings that match a known phrasing for the requested type. Likewise, county is parsed from the title rather than a dedicated field, and is omitted when the title doesn't name a county.

byState mode (when no criteria is given) searches internally for the near-universal keyword "county" to keep the state filter active — this reliably covers the vast majority of listings but can miss the rare non-"county" jurisdiction (e.g. a Louisiana parish or an incorporated borough referenced only by name).

Use cases

• Tax-lien investors — monitor new tax-lien certificate auctions by state or county
• Real estate wholesalers — track tax-deed and sheriff sales for below-market acquisitions
• Title & surplus-funds researchers — find surplus-funds claims tied to foreclosure sales
• Market analysts — benchmark current bids across counties and property types
• Auction aggregators — feed live Bid4Assets real-estate listings into a broader search tool

FAQ

What is Bid4Assets? Bid4Assets is an online auction marketplace where county governments, sheriffs, and municipalities sell tax-lien certificates, tax-deeded properties, and sheriff-sale real estate, alongside other government surplus categories.

Is this affiliated with Bid4Assets? No. This is an independent, third-party actor that reads Bid4Assets' own public listing data, the same way a visitor's browser does.

What's the difference between a tax lien and a tax deed? A tax lien certificate gives the buyer a claim against unpaid property taxes (with interest), not ownership of the property. A tax deed sale transfers actual ownership of the property itself after a tax foreclosure.

What is a "surplus funds" listing? Some counties sell or claim excess proceeds left over after a tax-foreclosure sale exceeds the amount owed — these are listed as their own auction/claim type.

Why is auctionType missing on some listings? Bid4Assets doesn't provide a structured auction-type field for real estate; it's inferred from the listing title. Titles without clear tax-lien/tax-deed/sheriff-sale/surplus phrasing omit this field rather than guessing.

Does this cover every county? Coverage depends entirely on which counties are actively running auctions on Bid4Assets at any given time — this actor reflects the live marketplace, not a fixed county list.

How current is the data? Every run queries Bid4Assets' live listings API directly, so results reflect the current bid and status at run time.