By Gren · September 17, 2026
Most states that regulate wholesaling regulate the contract. Indiana regulates the mailer.
That is the thing to understand about IC 32-21-16.5, added by HEA 1068 in 2024. It does not care much what your purchase agreement says. It cares what your postcard said, what your cold-call script said, what your website said, and whether your legal name was on any of it. If you have been auditing your contracts and ignoring your marketing, you have been auditing the wrong half of the file.
The rule in one paragraph
If you do not hold an Indiana real estate license and you solicit to buy or sell a residential single-family home, every solicitation must carry a disclosure telling the homeowner you are not a licensed real estate professional, along with your legal name and the legal name of the expected purchaser. This applies to agreements entered into or renewed after June 30, 2024. If your disclosure was deficient, the homeowner can nullify the agreement within two days.
The sentence Indiana prescribes
IC 32-21-16.5-4 does not describe what to communicate. It gives you the words:
This solicitation is not from a licensed real estate professional.
That exact sentence. Not a friendlier version, not one that softens it, not one with your company name spliced in. The statute prescribes it.
Written form has to be legible and in plain sight. Spoken form has to be clear and audible — which means it goes in the call script and the voicemail drop, not just the mailer.
Then you add the names. The solicitation must identify the legal name of the solicitor and the legal name of the expected purchaser if that is a different person or entity.
Model clause (seller-facing marketing): This solicitation is not from a licensed real estate professional. Solicitor: [legal name]. Expected purchaser: [legal name of buyer or assignee, if different].
Put the same block on the signature page of the purchase agreement too. Not required, but it costs nothing and it means the disclosure is stapled to the deal rather than sitting in a mail house's archive.
"Solicitation" is broader than you think
IC 32-21-16.5-2 defines it about as widely as a statute can. Television. Radio. Print. Billboards. Mailers. Yard signs. Websites. Email. Texts. Phone calls. Social media. And any other print or electronic method.
There is no carve-out for the channel you happen to prefer. If it reaches a homeowner and it is asking about buying their house, it is a solicitation.
Whether your disposition marketing to investor-buyers is also covered is genuinely unsettled. The statute reaches solicitations to buy or sell a single-family home, which on a plain reading could take in your buyers-list blast, and I found no case or agency opinion resolving it. The disclosure costs one line on a dispo email. Include it.
The exemption you probably do not qualify for
IC 32-21-16.5-3 exempts several categories: home builders, 501(c)(3) organizations, government, persons already exempt under IC 25-34.1-3-2(b), and mere inquiries about availability.
It also exempts a buyer who intends to take title, record the deed, and use the home as a residence or an investment.
Read that carefully, because people cite it as the wholesaler exemption and it is not. It turns on intending to take title and record. A pure assignor does not fit it. If you never intend to close and record, you are not the buyer that exemption describes. Genuinely double closing is a different conversation, but then be able to show the recorded deed.
Timing, and the two-day rescission
- Disclosure timing: every solicitation, from first contact onward. There is no "we'll disclose at signing" version of this.
- Changed information: under IC 32-21-16.5-5, before a written agreement is signed, you must tell the homeowner whether any of the disclosed information has changed. New expected buyer? New entity? Say so, in advance, in writing.
- Rescission: under IC 32-21-16.5-6, if the disclosure was deficient, the homeowner may nullify the agreement within two days of entering it, by written rescission delivered to you or your agent, with no liability on their side. The statute says "days," not business days.
Two days is short, and it only triggers on a deficient disclosure. The practical effect: no Indiana deal is firm until the contract is more than two days old with no written rescission in the file.
There is no registration requirement and nothing to file.
Where the usual write-ups get Indiana wrong
Indiana is one of the more misdescribed states out there. Five corrections.
"The disclosure needs four elements: assignment intent, a fee amount or estimate, and contact information." No. The statute requires the exact sentence plus the legal names of the solicitor and the expected purchaser. There is no fee disclosure requirement in IC 32-21-16.5. Adding an invented fee estimate to satisfy a checklist does not help you and may create a representation you have to live with.
"Indiana has no cancellation right." It does. IC 32-21-16.5-6 gives a two-day written rescission when the disclosure was deficient. That is a small window, but telling an operator there is no rescission at all is how a deal falls apart on day two with nobody prepared for it.
"The contract is voidable by the buyer or the seller." Only the homeowner can rescind. You do not get to use a bad disclosure of your own as an exit.
"The law is about buyer-facing marketing." It primarily targets solicitations to homeowners. Frame it that way internally, or your team will audit the wrong assets.
Three things usually left out entirely: the take-title-and-record exemption, the duty under -5 to report changed information before signing, and the June 30, 2024 applicability line. That last one matters for anything renewed or extended near the date.
Licensing and marketing limits
Market the contract or equitable interest, not the house. The licensing exemption at IC 25-34.1-3-2(b)(8) covers acts on real estate the person owns, which is not a description of a pure assignor.
Brokering for others for consideration without a license is a Class A infraction under IC 25-34.1-6-2. The fine adds in any fee you earned, and each transaction is a separate violation, so volume works against you rather than diluting risk. I have not verified the current infraction fine cap under IC 34-28-5-4, so do not anchor on a number you read somewhere.
There is no frequency threshold that flips you into needing a license. Nobody gets a free first deal. And a disclosure violation is separately a deceptive act the Attorney General may enforce under IC 24-5-0.5-11.
Red flags in a file
- No copy of the solicitation that produced the contract.
- A disclosure that is reworded, shrunk, or buried.
- A buyer entity on the contract that differs from the name given in the solicitation.
- An assignee who was never disclosed as the expected purchaser.
- A wholesaler claiming the investor exemption while assigning rather than closing.
The short version
Indiana polices your marketing, not your contract. One prescribed sentence in every solicitation, in every medium, plus your legal name and the expected purchaser's. Tell the homeowner if anything changes before they sign. A deficient disclosure gives them two days to rescind in writing. The take-title exemption does not cover assignors.
Keep the mailers, the scripts, and the screenshots. In Indiana the marketing is the compliance file. Size the deal with the free MAO calculator, then go read your own postcard.
Cut the noise. Catch the signal.
— Gren
This is general information about Indiana law as of September 2026, not legal advice. Statutes change and facts differ. Before you rely on any of it for a specific deal, talk to an Indiana real estate attorney. Citations: Ind. Code §32-21-16.5-4; Ind. Code §32-21-16.5-5; Ind. Code §32-21-16.5-6; Ind. Code §25-34.1-6-2.