Redemption amount
The redemption amount is what it actually costs to reclaim foreclosed property in Minnesota. It is not the mortgage balance and it is not the property's value.
The components#
The sum bid at the sheriff's sale. Where the foreclosing lender bid its own debt — the usual case — that is close to the amount owed. Where a third party bid more, the redemption amount is that higher figure.
Interest from the sale date, at the rate stated on the sheriff's certificate. Where the certificate states no rate, the statutory fallback under Minn. Stat. 580.23 is six percent per annum.
Further sums under Minn. Stat. 582.03 and 582.031 — property taxes, insurance premiums, assessments and other costs the certificate holder has advanced to protect the property since the sale. The holder must provide the sheriff an affidavit of these allowable costs.
It grows every day#
Interest accrues daily. A figure quoted through the fifteenth is short if the money arrives on the nineteenth.
This is not a rounding matter. A redemption that arrives short does not partially redeem — it fails, and the redemption period does not reopen because the shortfall was small or the delay was somebody else's fault.
Any quote must therefore come with a good-through date and, ideally, a per diem so the correct figure can be calculated for a later date.
Getting the figure#
The sheriff's office computes it, and the process varies by county.
Hennepin County requires a written request with a fee and takes about a week to respond. Other counties have their own procedures and timescales.
The practical instruction: request it early. Not when the money is ready — when the decision is made. A week of processing plus wire timing plus a margin for error is the difference between a redemption that completes and one that misses by two days.
Why third-party bidding changes everything#
Most sheriff's sales see only the foreclosing lender bid, and the bid is the debt.
Where a third party bids competitively, the redemption amount rises to whatever they paid. An owner planning to redeem should understand that an active sale raises the price of their own recovery.
Conversely, where the property is worth substantially more than the debt, a competitive sale can produce surplus proceeds — a separate and much less well-known entitlement.
Redemption is not reinstatement#
Worth restating because the confusion is expensive.
Before the sale, the number is the reinstatement figure — arrears plus costs, often a few thousand.
After the sale, the number is the redemption amount — the full sale price plus interest, frequently two orders of magnitude larger.
The date those two numbers swap places is the sheriff's sale, and nothing about it can be extended.