New York forecloses judicially: the lender sues in county Supreme Court, and the case ends with a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and a public auction run by a court-appointed referee. That slow court pipeline is exactly why a calendar habit beats a one-time list.

1. Pick 2–3 counties and learn their rhythm. Sale day, time, and location (courthouse steps vs. a designated room or online) are set county by county. Start where you can actually attend.
2. Track upcoming sales weekly. Referee sale notices run in the local newspaper of record; many NY sales also surface on Auction.com, and lis pendens filings at the county clerk tell you what is coming months ahead.
3. Pull the Terms of Sale for your target before auction day. Typical NY terms: roughly 10% deposit at the knock-down, balance in about 30 days, property sold strictly as-is with no interior access. The terms in the actual notice control — read them, not a summary.
4. Research title and surviving charges. A referee sale usually wipes junior liens, but real estate taxes, water/sewer charges, and senior liens can survive. Budget a title search into every serious target.
5. Set your ceiling with the Offer-Math workflow before you bid. Resale value, minus repairs, minus holding and closing costs, minus your required profit = your maximum bid. Auction fever is how beginners donate their margin. (The Full Toolkit's Deal Analyzer runs this exact math.)
6. Bid, then close with a New York real estate attorney. NY is an attorney-close state. If occupants remain, price the holdover/eviction timeline into your offer — it can take months.

Wholesaling tie-in: an auction purchase is an ownership play, a different lane from wholesaling. If you assign contracts in NY instead, remember you cannot publicly advertise a property you do not own (19 NYCRR 175.25) and sellers can sue for up to 4× the fee (RPL 442-e(3)) — disclose in writing and close with an attorney.

New York City is the trap most national courses get wrong: NYC does not sell tax deeds. The city sells tax liens (unpaid property tax and water/sewer charges) at an annual lien sale, and the liens are sold into securitized trusts — individual investors do not bid lien-by-lien at a public auction.

1. Know the calendar. The NYC Department of Finance publishes the lien-sale list in stages (roughly 90, 60, 30, and 10 days before the sale). The list is free and public — it is the single best distress signal in the five boroughs.
2. Understand what you can actually buy. Retail access to NYC liens is through the secondary market — funds and brokers that acquire liens from the trusts. Expect capital requirements and patience; this is an interest-and-redemption game, not a quick flip channel.
3. Use the list as research, lawfully. Owners on the list are under a real deadline. Any outreach must stay inside NY law: never advertise a property you do not own, never use deceptive "we buy your house before the sale" pressure tactics, and expect homeowner-protection rules to apply at every step.
4. Know the endgame. An unpaid lien can eventually be foreclosed in rem, subject to the statutory redemption timeline. Timelines vary by property class — verify against the current DOF notice before relying on any date.
5. Compare lanes before committing capital. For most investors, upstate county tax-deed auctions (Playbook A's cousin channel) are the direct route: deeds, at auction, on a published fall calendar. NYC liens reward specialists with capital; upstate deeds reward homework.

Radar Pro's NY coverage tracks both calendars — DOF lien-sale list drops and upstate county auction postings — so you never work from a stale list.