“they take the whole enchilada.”
That is just so scummy and morally wrong. Property owner should get whatever is left after satisfying the tax debt and costs.
And because they make a major amount of money on it they have no reason to try to work with you like a bank would.
A bank will get whatever they are owed in a mortgage foreclosure and you get the rest.
As you can tell, not the case with taxes.
Here in Michigan we had a poor guy who lost his rental house over $8. No, I did not leave any digits off.
And of course they also have no reason to try to make sure you actually are informed of what you owe.
In fact they have every reason not to do so.
And they have every reason to over evaluate you home so your taxes go up. Which is what they did in Detroit.
It is a major racket and those people throwing stone are ignorant. The bureaucracy is actively working against you.
And you too will one day fall into it's jaws and wonder what happened.
Someone should take a real good look at what’s going on in NYS with tax foreclosures abd NYS land banks...