We buy houses in Pottawatomie County, OK

The Treasurer's calendar runs like this:

• tax bills go out in mid November
• the full bill or the first half is due December 31
• the second half is due March 31

Unpaid city charges can land here too. Cities and towns in the county send late weed, cleaning, sewer and nuisance bills to the Treasurer. They then become a lien on your property.

When real estate tax stays unpaid for three years or more, the Treasurer must sell the property at the yearly resale (68 O.S. 3105). That resale is held the second Monday of June (68 O.S. 3125).

You can still stop it. Any owner may redeem before the resale auction starts by paying the back tax, interest and costs (68 O.S. 3113).

Separately, the Treasurer lists a lien sale for the current year's unpaid real estate tax on the first Monday in October.

Land the county takes at these sales does not stay idle. The Treasurer may sell it later, with the county commissioners' approval.

Oklahoma State University gathers each county's tax rates every year. For the 2024 levies, used in fiscal year 2025, Pottawatomie County ranged from 75.45 to 125.06 mills. The average was 95.87 mills.

Your own rate depends on your school district and town. In 2024 the Shawnee school district's total levy was 103.02 mills. Tecumseh's was 104.31.

A homestead takes $1,000 off the assessed value of the home you live in (68 O.S. 2889). By our own math, that saves about $103 a year at Shawnee's 2024 levy ($1,000 times 103.02 mills).

If a lender pays your tax from escrow, the Treasurer says it must pay the full bill by December 31, not half.

When you sell, Oklahoma charges a deed tax of 75 cents for each $500 of the price (68 O.S. 3201). By our own math, that is $180 on a $120,000 sale.

Oil changed this county in the 1920s. Fields opened at Earlsboro and St. Louis in 1926 and at Asher in 1929.

So many tracts here have mineral rights that were split from the surface long ago. When someone who owned split minerals dies, an heir can file an affidavit of death and heirship. It goes to the county clerk where the minerals sit (58 O.S. 393).

The county is drained by the North Canadian, Canadian and Little rivers. Its Emergency Management office posts a floodplain ordinance and these forms:

• a permit application
• an elevation certificate
• an engineering no rise certificate

The same office keeps a storm shelter sign up form for homes where the sheriff answers emergency calls.

Tornadoes have hit the towns here. On October 5, 1970, an F4 tornado went through the center of Shawnee. The National Weather Service says it damaged 564 homes in Shawnee and killed four people.

On May 10, 2010, an EF3 tornado tracked through Tecumseh and on into Okfuskee County. If your home has storm damage, tell any buyer up front and keep your repair bills.