Marion County

Four days on GovEase, one township after another

The sale opens on Tuesday, October 13 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern with the nonprofit portion, a segment reserved for eligible nonprofits under Senate Enrolled Act 62 of 2022. The regular sale follows immediately and runs through Friday, October 16, and parcels nobody bought are reoffered right after it. Items go in item-number order, each starting with "49A", grouped by township: Center, Decatur, Franklin, Lawrence, Perry, Pike, Warren, Washington, Wayne, then the unsold parcels. There is no break between townships; the county emails registered bidders when it moves on.

Each parcel gets 90 seconds, or 45 seconds if no one places a call. A call is an offer to buy at the advertised minimum; once someone makes it, the parcel goes to the highest bidder, in increments the auctioneer sets according to how many people are bidding.

Registration opened on July 22 and closed on Wednesday, October 7 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, so this year's sale is now open only to bidders already approved. Regular bidders posted a $2,500 deposit in cash, wire, money order or a certified or cashier's check, never a personal or business check. First-time bidders without acceptable evidence of credit from a bank were capped at $100,000 for an individual and $250,000 for a company. Registration requires a Social Security or federal ID number and a W-9, and a business must give the treasurer proof of good standing with the Indiana Secretary of State or forfeit everything it buys (IC 6-1.1-24-5.1, -5.4). The sale in brief is in our Market Pulse note.

What is in the minimum bid

The minimum bid on each parcel is all delinquent taxes, penalties and special assessments now due, plus the fall installment of 2025-pay-2026 taxes, plus a $490 administrative cost: $325 for advertising and processing and $165 for the title search the Auditor uses to notify everyone with an interest before a deed. In Marion County that debt can include more than property tax. Sewer user charges, weed cutting, solid waste and storm water fees, Health and Hospital Corporation liens, and nuisance, trash, boarding and demolition fees are all sold at the treasurer's sale.

The figures move until the gavel. Owners could stop the sale by paying everything due, plus a $325 administration fee, by October 8 at 4:30 p.m., and partial payments lower a parcel's minimum bid without taking it off the list. That is why the county's three lists on GovEase are refreshed every night: the advertising list of parcels still available, the combination list of parcels sold and redeemed together for one combined minimum, and the status list showing why a parcel dropped out.

The seven-digit parcel number is the only thing that identifies what you are buying. The county warns that advertised addresses can be incomplete or misleading and that online maps can be wrong, and it sends bidders to the Assessor's records, MapIndy, the Recorder's office for liens, and Business and Neighborhood Services for repair, demolition and weed orders not yet certified to the treasurer.

Paying for what you win

Each win is charged to your GovEase account as the item closes. The county's two documents disagree on when it must be settled: the indy.gov bidder page says by 4:30 p.m. on October 13, while the 2026 procedures document says by the end of the day on October 16. Either way, a bidder who does not pay owes a 25% penalty on the bid (IC 6-1.1-24-8) and the parcel goes to the alternate bidder. All sales are final. Unspent deposits are refunded by county check within two to four weeks, and GovEase emails buyers when their tax sale certificates are ready, about four weeks after the sale.

What a redeemed lien pays

Owners of parcels sold at the sale have one year from the date of sale to redeem. When they do, the buyer receives the minimum bid plus 10% of it if the owner pays within six months, or 15% if they pay between six months and a year. Anything you bid above the minimum, the overbid, comes back with only 5% a year, and so do later taxes you paid on the parcel.

Take a parcel with a $3,000 minimum that you win at $5,000. If the owner redeems after four months, you get $300 on the minimum and about $33 of interest on the $2,000 overbid: roughly $333 on $5,000 tied up for four months. Had you won it at the minimum, the same redemption would have paid $300 on $3,000.

The procedures make paying the parcel's later taxes during the year optional, though you will owe them before any deed. A payment only counts if you record it. You request the bill in person from the Treasurer and then file the payment with the Auditor on a Form 137B. The procedures say plainly that unrecorded payments are not reimbursed when the owner redeems. The Auditor issues a 1099-INT for the interest and redemption fee you receive, so it needs a W-9 on file.

Overbid, surplus and the TP docket

Your payment covers the minimum bid first; the overbid goes into the county's tax sale surplus fund (IC 6-1.1-24-7(a)). If the owner redeems, the overbid comes back to you, and the Auditor's office keeps an Overbid Claim Form for buyers. If the owner does not redeem and a deed is issued, the surplus is the former owner's to claim. Money left unclaimed for three years goes to the county general fund, and a finder who signs up a former owner can charge no more than 10% (IC 6-1.1-24-7(f), -7.5).

In Marion County these claims run through the court. The Marion Circuit Court tells anyone objecting to a tax sale case or requesting a surplus to file a new case with the Clerk under case type "TP". The court reviews it and sets a hearing, and its tax sale and surplus dockets are heard in person at the Criminal Justice Campus, 675 Justice Way.

From lien to deed: a three-month window

During the redemption year you own a lien, not the house. Entering the property or acting as its owner is trespassing. Indiana's Good Samaritan law (IC 34-30-26) does let a buyer, at their own risk and expense, secure a vacant or abandoned property, clear trash, mow, and remove graffiti.

Marion County's Auditor does the legal work for buyers under an agreement with the Treasurer: the notices and title search under IC 6-1.1-25-4.5 and the petition for a deed under IC 6-1.1-25-4.6. But it does not start on its own. When the redemption period ends, you must ask for your deed in writing by emailing [email protected] and pay every tax, penalty and assessment that came due after the sale. Your lien expires three months after the redemption period ends, the Auditor has to issue the notices and file the petition inside that window, and late requests are refused with no refund. For a certificate bought at the October 2026 sale, the redemption year ends in October 2027 and the window closes in January 2028.

Two other limits apply. The IRS can redeem parcels carrying federal tax liens under its own rules (26 U.S.C. § 7425). And if a sale is found invalid before redemption or a deed, the buyer gets the purchase price back with 5% a year, not the 10–15% return. Parcels nobody buys have a shorter clock: 120 days to redeem, after which the county itself can seek a deed.

Four ways people lose money here

1. 1. Waiting for the county to start the deed

   The Auditor petitions only when you ask, in writing, once redemption ends. Miss the three-month window and the lien is void, with no refund of what you paid.

2. 2. Paying later taxes without filing Form 137B

   Subsequent taxes earn 5% a year only if the payment is recorded with the Auditor. Unrecorded payments are lost when the owner redeems.

3. 3. Bidding on an address

   Only the seven-digit parcel number controls. Combined parcels sell and redeem as one, and addresses and map pins can point to the wrong lot.

4. 4. Overbidding for a return that is not there

   The 10% or 15% is paid on the minimum bid only. Every dollar above it earns 5% a year.