Mary,
Please research tax sales. There are properties that do not have a mortgage on them and they are delinquent on their property taxes and they get foreclosed on. The following was taken from the Franklin county sheriff's website regarding tax sales(Franklin county is in Ohio):

Tax sales are foreclosures filed by the Treasurer’s Office for delinquent taxes. They are intermingled with the regular weekly foreclosure sales. The amount of delinquent taxes is the amount where bidding begins and is also the deposit amount required. Properties sold for taxes are not appraised.

In Ohio in order to protect the owne, the sheriff's sale place the minimum bid at 2/3 the appraised value of the houes. You will not be able to get a home by just paying off the delinquent taxes.

Sorry Levans, You can find the links to the Bank/Gov Databases and more here...
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/wiki/REO_Database_List.asp

http://www.biggerpockets.com/bank-reo.html

Levans, Here is the information for your county provided by the county about tax sales....
http://www.hcso.org/PublicServices/ExecutionSales/ExecProper…

http://www.hamiltoncountyohio.gov/treasurer/TaxLien2.html

For your state... http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/Ohio-Foreclosures-an…

This search engine is good for public record searches
http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/

If you are interested you can also take a look at the Bank/Gov Databases of properties for sale (REO/Foreclosures) provided to the public. They also have the Bid/Purchase info..
Sites like these... http://reosearch.fanniemae.com/reosearch/ ... http://www.wamuproperties.com/
http://www.pasreo.com/pasreo/public/propertySearch.do ... http://www.nhmsi.com/

Good hunting, Dunes

Tax sales don't happen often. Tax sales are handled at the sheriff's auction, but do not start at the 2/3 of the appraised value...the county only cares to get their taxes(different from foreclosures where the bank is foreclosing). The 3am infomercials don't tell you that there will be plenty of investors bidding on the properties and if not, then most likely it will be an abandoned, uninhabitable building. Keep checking the county sheriff's auction to find a tax sale. There was a tax sale in Fairfield county awhile back and although the deliquent taxes were only around $7k, the home went for $60k and the market value was about $90K and who knows how much work was needed to the property. Don't get me wrong, you can find great deals, but alot of people end up forfeiting their deposit because they can't obtain financing. Financing a sheriff's sale home is much more difficult. I've purchased many homes through the sheriff's auction, so please don't hesitate to ask any questions. Good luck.

That is not how it is in Ohio. All homes delinquent of taxes as well as those that are foreclosed due to mortgages have to be sold at a sheriff's sale through the county sheriff. The starting bid is set at least 2/3 of the appraisel value. You may be able to purchase a property for a good deal but usually not for just the amount of taxes. Search for the Hamilton county sheriff's website for those coming up for sale.
HUD has a website in which you can search for foreclosed homes through them. It is http://www.nhmsi.com. There are some good prices there but you will have to have an agent bid online for you.