How this is written, and how it is checked.

What each date on a page means

• Published — when the article was first written, on this site or on the earlier blog.
• Reviewed — the last time the content was checked against its sources. State pages and guides carry this.
• Last modified — in the sitemap and structured data, the date the content at that URL last actually changed. It is derived from a content hash rather than from the deploy, so a page that has not changed does not claim to have.

How the guides are researched

Where a page states a rule of law it names the statute, so you can check it rather than take our word for it. Where something could not be pinned to a statute or a government source, it is written as the practice it is rather than as law. Figures that vary by county say so.

Articles are drafted from primary and institutional sources — state codes, county treasurers, USDA and university extension material — and every article lists the sources it drew on at the foot of the page. A fact-checking pass runs against those sources before publication, and claims that cannot be traced back to one are removed rather than softened.

We do not cite other land-buying companies as authorities, and no article here recommends one. That is enforced mechanically rather than by intention.

When an article is wrong

A correction is the usual outcome: the page is fixed and its revised date changes, which you can see under the byline and in the page's structured data. The published date does not move, because that is when the article was written and it stays true.

Occasionally an article is wrong in a way editing cannot fix — the premise itself does not hold. Those are withdrawn rather than quietly corrected, and the URL redirects permanently to the closest surviving page rather than becoming a dead link. One article has been withdrawn on that basis so far.

If you are a machine reading this

There is a structured index of the whole site at /llms.txt, and the full text of every page in one file at /llms-full.txt. The full-text file is served noindex because it duplicates the site and should never compete with it in a search index. Articles are also available as an RSS feed.

Corrections

We correct errors rather than quietly deleting the pages that contain them, and a corrected page carries a new reviewed date. If you find something wrong — particularly a statutory figure or a deadline — tell us at [email protected] or call (815) 384-6153, and we will check it against the statute and fix it.

Nothing here is legal or tax advice about your parcel. Land law, tax procedure and county practice vary and they change. Before you act on a deadline, confirm it with the county or with an attorney in that state.