ProTitleUSA · Marion County · Indiana
Property Title Search in Indianapolis, IN
O&E, two-owner, and 30-year title searches across Marion County and Central Indiana, with the Recorder’s index and the Clerk’s judgment docket both checked. PDF reports in 24 to 48 business hours, expedited in 4.
A property title search in Indianapolis answers three questions before closing: who holds record title, what is still secured against the parcel, and whether the taxes behind it are paid. ProTitleUSA reads the Marion County record and sends back a single PDF, findings on page one and source documents attached, in 24 to 48 business hours or about four on expedited service. Homebuyers order it, and so do investors, lenders, attorneys, and title companies. In Indiana the deed and the judgment sit in two different offices, and a search that reads only one of them misses half the record.
Recorder for the Deed, Clerk for the Judgment
The Marion County Recorder’s Office, Suite T-741 in the City-County Building at 200 E. Washington Street, holds deeds, mortgages, assignments, releases, plats, and recorded liens. Its free DirectSearch index works by party name, names have to match exactly, and there is no parcel-number search. Documents from 1821 to March 1964 have been scanned but not yet indexed, so the older links in a chain are pulled by instrument number.
Judgments don’t live there. Under IC 34-55-9-2, a money judgment becomes a lien on the debtor’s real estate in the county once it is entered in the circuit court clerk’s judgment docket, and it lasts ten years. Indiana Department of Revenue tax warrants go into the same docket. A judgment from a city or town court reaches real estate only after a transcript is filed with the clerk. So an O&E search runs every vesting name through both offices, then adds the current deed, open mortgages with their assignments, and the tax status by parcel.
Taxes Billed a Year Behind
Indiana taxes property in arrears. The lien for a tax year attaches on the January 1 assessment date (IC 6-1.1-22-13), but the bill is paid the following year, in spring and fall installments due around May 10 and November 10. A receipt marked paid usually covers the prior year, while the current year’s lien already sits on the parcel and survives the sale. That’s why closings here prorate taxes nobody has billed yet.
Then come the caps. The Indiana Constitution limits the bill to 1% of gross assessed value on a homestead, 2% on other residential property and farmland, and 3% on everything else. A house bought as a rental loses the homestead deduction, so the seller’s bill is a weak guide to the investor’s. In Marion County the Assessor, not the Auditor, stamps a deed for transfer, and the Recorder won’t take it without that stamp and, on a sale, a sales disclosure form. The search reports tax status by parcel from the Treasurer and the Assessor’s property card.
Indiana Title Search Pricing
Marion County’s indexed record starts in 1964, so most Indianapolis files move quickly, while older chains take more pulling. What a property title search in Indiana costs depends on depth and county. These residential rates are starting prices, with the lowest county price shown.
Type of Search | Cost |
|---|---|
O&E Report (Residential) | $87.95 |
Two Owner Search (Residential) | $137.95 |
30-Year Search (Residential) | $195.00 |
Title Update | $40.00 |
Deed Search | $35.00 |
Commercial O&E Report | $250.00 |
Rates vary by county and may change. Commercial and multi-parcel files are quoted individually; servicers and other volume clients get tiered pricing and API delivery. Expedited service adds $35 and returns most reports in about four business hours.
Liens That Reach Indianapolis Property
Unigov merged the city with Marion County in 1970, yet Beech Grove, Lawrence, Southport, and Speedway kept their own governments, so claims against one parcel can come from city, county, and town offices. The liens that turn up most:
- Property tax liens — attach every January 1 and stay with the parcel through a sale.
- Judgment and tax warrant liens — entered in the Clerk’s judgment docket, good for ten years, and absent from the Recorder’s index.
- Mechanic’s liens — a notice is recorded within 60 days after the last work on a home, or 90 days on other buildings, and the suit to enforce it must follow within one year.
- HOA liens — an association’s assessment lien attaches when its notice of lien is recorded.
- City and utility liens — weed, trash, boarding, repair, and demolition charges from Business and Neighborhood Services, plus sewer and other municipal balances. Most never reach the Recorder; the Township Search for unrecorded liens is the add-on that checks for them.
Land Contracts: A Sale the Index May Not Show
Land contracts are a familiar way to buy and sell older homes in Indianapolis. The seller keeps legal title while the buyer pays in installments and usually moves in. Indiana doesn’t require these contracts to be recorded. The Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana counted more than 600 recorded in Marion County from 2018 to 2023, and the unrecorded ones never reach any index.
The contract buyer’s interest still counts. Since Skendzel v. Marshall (1973), Indiana courts have treated a land contract much like a mortgage, so a seller usually can’t just cancel it and keep the house. The search flags any recorded contract or memorandum against the parcel. If the record names one owner and someone else lives there, read the contract before you price the deal.
Buying at a Marion County Tax Sale or Sheriff’s Sale
The Treasurer and Auditor run the county tax sale online once a year, usually in October. The winning bidder gets a certificate, not a deed. The owner has one year from the sale to redeem, or 120 days on certificates sold by the county commissioners (IC 6-1.1-25-4), and only after that can the buyer petition for a tax deed. Read the record before you bid: the certificate price is only part of what the parcel costs.
Mortgage foreclosure in Indiana runs through the courts. The case is on the public docket from the day the complaint is filed, and the sheriff’s sale generally can’t take place until three months later (IC 32-29-7-3). The owner may redeem up to the sale, not after it. For a bidder, the search shows the foreclosing mortgage, anything recorded ahead of it, and the taxes that stay with the parcel.
ProTitleUSA Across Central Indiana
For a property title search in Indianapolis or anywhere among Indiana’s 92 counties, the product and the spec stay the same: Marion County, the ring of Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, Boone, Hancock, Morgan, and Shelby around it, and all 50 states.
Bidding on a certificate in the October sale, or buying a contract home in Center Township? Order a property title search in Indianapolis from ProTitleUSA, read both offices’ records in 24 to 48 business hours, and close knowing what the parcel owes.
Questions & Answers
Frequently Asked Questions
From Customers in Indianapolis
Will an Indianapolis title search show judgments against the owner?
It will, because the search reads the Clerk’s judgment docket as well as the Recorder’s index. Indiana judgments and state tax warrants become liens through the docket, not through recording. We run each owner’s name through both offices. The report lists any open judgment it finds with the case number, the date, and the amount.
Which search depth fits a refinance, a flip, or a purchase?
The right depth is the one your lender or underwriter signs off on. An O&E report on the current owner usually serves a refinance or a lien check. The Two Owner Search reaches one owner back and suits foreclosure bids and flips. A 30-Year Search fits purchases you plan to insure, quiet title work, and older chains.
Who usually orders a report like this?
Investors, lenders, attorneys, title companies, and homebuyers who need the record before money changes hands. It isn’t meant for curiosity about a neighbor’s house. It isn’t title insurance either: the search reports what the record shows, while a policy is what pays if a covered defect appears later. Many buyers order both.
Is the Recorder’s free online search enough to clear title?
Not on its own, and the county itself says so. Its site, indy.gov, notes that the Recorder isn’t licensed or bonded to do lien searches. DirectSearch needs exact name matches, has no parcel search, and leaves records before 1964 unindexed. It also can’t show judgments in the Clerk’s docket or city liens held by other agencies.
When will the finished report arrive?
Most orders come back within 24 to 48 business hours. Expedited service gets most search types back in roughly four business hours for $35 more. Chains that reach back before 1964, commercial files, and multi-parcel orders can take longer. If an order looks slow from the start, we say so when it comes in.
What should I add before buying a contract home or tax-sale parcel?
Add the Township Search for unrecorded liens, since city weed, trash, and demolition charges seldom reach the Recorder. After that, the title commitment and owner’s policy both rest on what the search finds. For portfolios, the Dashboard keeps liens, assignment chains, and tax status for every parcel in one view.
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