Resources
Free help, and how to look things up yourself
Most of this has nothing to do with us. If you can keep your house, these are the people who can help you do it.
Free help
Not us. Start here if you want to keep the house.
- Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network, 1-877-GET-HOPE (1-877-438-4673)Free, state-certified housing counselors, run by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. They can talk to your lender with you.
- HUD-approved housing counselorsFree or low-cost counseling from agencies the federal government approves. Search by ZIP code.
- Indiana Legal ServicesFree civil legal help for people who qualify by income.
- Indiana Legal HelpThe state courts' plain-language guides and forms, including foreclosure and probate.
- Indiana Free Legal AnswersPost a civil legal question online and a volunteer Indiana attorney answers it, if you qualify.
Finding your own attorney
For when you want someone in your corner.
- Lake County Bar Association lawyer referral, (219) 738-1905Covers Lake and Porter counties. Fill in their form and they give you three local attorneys for your kind of case.
- St. Joseph County Bar Association lawyer referral, (574) 235-9657A $25 fee covers a 30-minute first meeting with a local attorney.
In LaPorte or Elkhart County, ask either referral service or the free legal aid groups above for someone near you. Look for an attorney who handles foreclosure or probate.
Look up your court case
Every Indiana foreclosure is a public court case.
Search your name on MyCase, Indiana's public court site. A foreclosure case number has MF in the middle, for example 46D03-2608-MF-000117. The page lists everyone in the case, the lender's attorney and phone number, and every filing, including any judgment and when a sheriff's sale was requested.
If you were served papers, the case number is printed at the top of the first page.
Get your payoff amount
The exact number it takes to pay the loan off on a given date.
Ask your loan servicer, the company you send payments to, in writing. Federal rules generally require a servicer to send a payoff statement within seven business days of a written request. A loan already in foreclosure can take longer, so ask early.
If you inherited the house, you can ask too. Tell them you are the borrower's heir or the estate's representative and ask to be confirmed as a successor in interest, which lets the servicer share loan details with you.
Copy this letter, fill in the brackets, and send it to the payoff or correspondence address on your mortgage statement:
[Date] [Loan servicer's name] [Servicer's address for payoff requests, printed on your statement] Re: Payoff statement request Loan number: [loan number] Property address: [street, city, Indiana, ZIP] Borrower: [name on the loan] Please send a written payoff statement for this loan, good through [date about 30 days out], showing the total amount due and a per-day amount after that date. Please send it to: [your name, mailing address, email, phone] [If you are not the borrower:] I am the borrower's [daughter / son / personal representative of the estate]. The borrower passed away on [date]. Please also tell me what you need to confirm me as a successor in interest. Thank you, [your name and signature]
Once a judgment is entered, the lender's attorney (named on MyCase) can also give a payoff.
Taxes and sheriff's sale dates
By county.
| County | Property taxes owed | Sheriff's sale dates |
|---|---|---|
| Lake | County treasurer | County sheriff, or the case on MyCase |
| Porter | County treasurer | County sheriff, or the case on MyCase |
| LaPorte | County treasurer | County sheriff, or the case on MyCase |
| St. Joseph | County treasurer | Usually sold online through SRI Services; confirm with the county sheriff |
| Elkhart | County treasurer | Elkhart sheriff, sold online through SRI on the 4th Wednesday |
Sale dates move. Postponements and cancellations are common, so check close to the date.
Inherited a house
Someone has to have authority to deal with it.
When the owner dies, the house usually does not pass to the family automatically. Someone, usually a personal representative, gets authority from the probate court to deal with the house and the lender.
Indiana has a short-cut affidavit for small estates (up to $100,000 for deaths after June 30, 2022), but it covers personal property, not the house. Real estate usually needs an estate opened, or a separate affidavit a probate attorney can prepare.
The Indiana Legal Help probate guides explain the steps, and the attorney referral services above can find you a probate attorney.
Several heirs, siblings who don't talk, or probate already done? Our inherited house page answers those.
Money left over after a sheriff's sale
If the house sells for more than what's owed, the rest belongs to the owner.
The extra is called surplus. The county clerk holds it until someone claims it, and it takes a court order to release it, usually by writing to the court in the foreclosure case with the case number. Heirs can claim it too.
Unclaimed surplus eventually goes to the Indiana Attorney General's unclaimed property division. Be careful with anyone who calls offering to "recover" it for a large cut: you can claim it yourself, and a local attorney can help for far less.
If you sell to us
What closing looks like.
- We agree on a price in writing, after one walk through the house.
- A licensed Indiana title company searches the title and orders the payoff from your lender.
- At closing, the title company pays the lender and anyone else owed directly from the sale.
- Whatever is left is yours, by wire or check from the title company. You can call them yourself to confirm the funds.
Questions? Call or text James at (219) 419-4114.
Links go to outside organizations we do not control. Nothing here is legal advice. Last checked October 20, 2026.