Sell Land in Georgia for Cash | Free Parcel Review

Our status in Georgia

Georgia is an active market for StraightAcre. TechStack Consulting LLC, the company behind the brand, contracts to buy for its own account, and when we assign a contract to a buyer we have vetted instead of closing ourselves, the contract says so before you sign. The Georgia Real Estate Commission’s rules on buying in one’s own name and on advertising apply to licensees (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 520-1-.11 and 520-1-.09), and the Commission publishes no guidance on wholesaling or contract assignment. The owner and prospective purchaser exception in the license law, O.C.G.A. 43-40-29, is the provision a Georgia attorney would read to confirm that a company buying for itself needs no license; counsel has not yet confirmed it for us.

Georgia has no statutory seller disclosure form for vacant land. What you must say about flooding, access, or boundary disputes comes from case law and the contract, so ask your attorney before answering a buyer’s questionnaire, and ask any buyer who mentions assignment to name the end buyer and the fee (see how we buy).

Find the parcel and the county offices

In Georgia the board of tax assessors keeps the parcel record, usually on a qPublic search by owner name or map and parcel number; the tax commissioner bills, collects, and runs tax sales; and the clerk of superior court records deeds through the statewide GSCCCA system. Copy the map and parcel number exactly; the transfer tax form filed at closing needs it. The assessed value the county taxes is a fraction of the assessor’s fair market value, and neither one is an offer figure.

Two metro Atlanta counties and three fast-growing exurban counties produce most of our Georgia inquiries. The Fulton tax commissioner’s site refuses automated requests, so open it in a normal browser.

Find the parcel and the county offices
County	Assessor	Tax commissioner	Clerk (deeds)	Planning	GIS	Flood and stormwater
Fulton	Board of assessors	Tax sales	Clerk of superior court	Community development	Fulton GIS data	FEMA map search
Gwinnett	Tax assessor	Tax liens and tax sales	Deeds and land records	Planning and development	GIS browser	FEMA map search
Cherokee	Tax assessors	Tax commissioner	Clerk of superior court	Planning and zoning	Cherokee GIS	Stormwater management
Forsyth	Board of assessors	Tax commissioner	Clerk of superior court	Planning and community development	Forsyth GIS	Stormwater and erosion
Henry	Tax assessor	Property for tax sale	Clerk of superior court	Planning and zoning	Henry GIS	Floodplain management

Tax sales and the year to redeem

Georgia property tax due dates vary by county, so ask your tax commissioner for the due date and the current payoff, including interest under O.C.G.A. 48-2-40 and penalties under 48-2-44. Gwinnett County’s tax commissioner explains that tax sales may be held on the first Tuesday of any month, after four weeks of advertisement, and that the owner can still pay all taxes, costs, and fees in certified funds to stop the sale. Henry County holds judicial in rem tax sales instead, a court-supervised process under O.C.G.A. 48-4-75 and following, so ask which track your county uses.

Georgia sells a tax deed, not a lien certificate, and the former owner keeps a right to redeem. Gwinnett County’s page states that purchasers must by law allow the owner one year after the sale to redeem, by paying the purchaser the amount paid at the sale plus 20 percent, plus any later taxes the purchaser paid; Chatham County’s tax commissioner states that a sheriff’s deed does not grant full ownership until the redemption right is legally barred. After the year, the purchaser can serve a written notice that forecloses the right to redeem. The Code sections to ask an attorney about are O.C.G.A. 48-4-40 through 48-4-48, including how the premium grows after the first year and the four-year ripening rule for recorded tax deeds.

We can buy land sold at a tax sale while the redemption right is alive, with the redemption paid at closing; if a foreclosure notice has been served, the date in that notice is the only date that matters. See our back-taxes guide.

Inherited land and who can sign

Georgia’s probate courts use statewide standard forms, published by the Council of Probate Court Judges. The ones that matter for land are the petition for letters of administration (form 3), the petition to probate a will in solemn form (form 5), the petition for an order declaring no administration necessary (form 9), the petition for year’s support (form 10), and the personal representative’s petition for leave to sell property (form 13).

Three questions for the probate clerk or an attorney before you ask for an offer: who the heirs are under O.C.G.A. 53-2-1 and whether each must sign; whether the executor needs leave of court to sell under O.C.G.A. 53-8-13; and whether a no administration necessary order under O.C.G.A. 53-2-40, which requires every heir to sign an agreed division, can put title in the heirs’ names. Georgia has no statutory affidavit of heirship that transfers title, so an affidavit of descent is a support document the closing attorney may or may not accept. Send the death certificate, the will, and any letters, and read selling inherited land and selling with multiple owners.

Closing with a Georgia attorney

In Georgia the closing itself is the practice of law. The Supreme Court of Georgia’s Formal Advisory Opinion 86-5 holds that lawyers may not let nonlawyers close real estate transactions, Opinion 13-1 states that Georgia law requires a lawyer to handle a real estate closing unless the parties act for themselves, and UPL Advisory Opinion 2003-2 treats preparing a deed of conveyance for others as unlicensed practice. Expect a Georgia closing attorney to prepare the deed, hold the funds in a trust account, and record. Title insurers are licensed by the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire.

The real estate transfer tax is $1 for the first $1,000 of consideration plus 10 cents for each additional $100. The Department of Revenue states that the seller is liable for it unless the parties agree otherwise, and that it must be paid before the deed can be recorded. The PT-61 transfer tax form is filed online through the Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority, one form per deed, and it requires the map and parcel number. Recording fees are set by O.C.G.A. 15-6-77; ask the closing attorney for the figure. Our contract states who pays the transfer tax and the attorney’s fee, and the closing guide shows where each cost lands on the settlement statement.

Zoning, access, buffers, flood maps, and covenants

Georgia counties and cities zone under their own ordinances, with state minimum procedures for rezoning in the Zoning Procedures Law, O.C.G.A. 36-66-1 and following; ask the planning office what your parcel’s district allows by right. If the land has no access to a public road, Georgia lets an owner petition the superior court for a private way of necessity across neighboring land, up to 20 feet wide, under O.C.G.A. 44-9-40; that is a lawsuit, and a landlocked parcel is priced with it in mind. Streams carry undisturbed vegetative buffers under the Erosion and Sedimentation Act, O.C.G.A. 12-7-6, so a creek-front tract has less buildable area than its acreage suggests.

Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division runs the state floodplain program and, under its agreement with FEMA, develops the flood hazard maps for every county; the official maps are on the FEMA Map Service Center. On the coast, work affecting tidal marsh or tidal waters needs a permit from the Coastal Marshlands Protection Committee through the Coastal Resources Division. Filling other wetlands generally needs a federal Section 404 permit from the Army Corps of Engineers’ Savannah District.

Many Georgia tracts are under a conservation use covenant. The Environmental Protection Division’s fact sheet states that owners who break the covenant must pay back twice the savings they received over its life, plus interest, and that a new owner must agree to continue the covenant or be responsible for the penalty if it is breached under their ownership. Tell us if your land is under a covenant and when it expires; whether a company buyer can continue it under O.C.G.A. 48-5-7.4 is a question for counsel on each tract. See our agricultural assessment guide.

Questions Georgia sellers ask

Do I need a lawyer to sell land in Georgia?

Yes in practice. The Supreme Court of Georgia has held that closing a real estate transaction is the practice of law and that a lawyer must handle the closing unless the parties act for themselves. We close through a Georgia attorney.

My land was sold at a tax sale last year. Is it gone?

Not yet. Georgia tax sale purchasers must allow the owner one year to redeem by paying the sale price plus 20 percent and any later taxes paid, and the sheriff’s deed does not give full ownership until the right to redeem is barred by notice. Get the sale date and a payoff today.

Who pays the Georgia transfer tax?

The Department of Revenue states that the seller is liable for the real estate transfer tax unless the parties agree otherwise, and that the deed cannot be recorded until it is paid. Our contract says who pays it in your sale.

Can heirs sell without probate?

Sometimes. Georgia’s probate courts offer a petition for an order declaring no administration necessary, which requires every heir to sign an agreed division, and a year’s support petition for a surviving spouse. The closing attorney decides which filing the title needs.

My tract is under a conservation use covenant. What happens if I sell?

If the buyer qualifies and agrees to continue the covenant, no penalty is triggered. If not, the penalty is twice the tax savings over the life of the covenant plus interest. Send us the covenant dates and we will tell you which case applies.

What if there is no road to my parcel?

Georgia allows an owner to petition the superior court for a private way of necessity up to 20 feet wide across neighboring land (O.C.G.A. 44-9-40), or you can negotiate an easement. Either takes time and money, and we price landlocked tracts accordingly.

Sources

Regulator, revenue department, State Bar, probate court, and county pages were read on October 21, 2026. The official Georgia Code portal returned an error that day, so statute sections are cited for you to ask about rather than quoted as settled; the claim register records where each was read.

Tell us about your land in Georgia

Send what you know about the parcel and your situation. You can start without a parcel number. Submitting this inquiry does not commit you to sell.