What is Indiana’s Responsible Property Transfer Law?
A disclosure statute on certain transfers, named in the research we use for this page. It is not ISRA. It does not replace All Appropriate Inquiries (Source: EPA / 40 C.F.R. Part 312). Counsel confirms whether the facts trip it. This page does not publish a form number.
Steel, auto and RV, pharmaceuticals, food, and fabricated metal still go to Phase I and, if needed, Phase II. ASTM E1527-21 is the usual practice. Pieces generally go stale after 180 days. Disclosure and Phase I are stacked calendars, not substitutes. Skipping the study because “we already disclosed” is how a buyer’s counsel stops a close.
Compilations we checked do not cite a dedicated business-broker license rule. Business-broker licensing by state is the comparison. The building still needs a licensed real-estate broker. Counsel confirms the engagement. Jason Taken is a business broker.
Why is the typical Indiana plant larger than most states?
The Census County Business Patterns, 2023 file put Indiana eleventh, with 7,938 manufacturing shops and 524,995 jobs (Source: Census CBP). That is 66.1 people per location — well above the national 43.4 average. Only 57.9% of the shops have fewer than twenty employees, versus 68.4% of the 284,452 U.S. plants. About 2.15% have 500 or more employees.
Sixty-six people already implies shifts and a second chair. Write the replacement wage into the recast before anyone talks seller discretionary earnings. Auto and RV, steel, pharmaceuticals, food, and fabricated metal are the clusters we can name. Confirm a NAICS count before it appears in a teaser. Sub-sector hubs keep those packets apart.
If the plant sits in the capital, use sell a manufacturing business in Indianapolis. RV and related suppliers use sell a manufacturing business in Elkhart. Fort Wayne, Evansville, and South Bend are regions we name in a confidential teaser. A program buyer can still hear about a Fort Wayne file before any listing appears.
Owners who sell a manufacturing business here still have to decide whether the building is in the letter. Company plus plant, company plus leaseback, and a landlord already in place are three different files. The Responsible Property Transfer question often follows that choice.
Indianapolis and Elkhart are locations, not a multiple
Manufacturing business valuation stays national. BizBuySell still shows a 2.75x manufacturing SDE median on about $268k discretionary earnings. The same review’s 223-day median is a planning number, not an Evansville promise. A steel or pharma plant with reportable EBITDA does not belong in that SDE room.
| Plant that walks in | Usual price room | What still binds | What Elkhart does not raise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner still quotes every RV job | SDE after a named replacement wage | 2.75x median in the BizBuySell manufacturing set | “Elkhart supplier” in the first line |
| Operations already run without the seller | Adjusted EBITDA in national bands | Size band and process, not the flag | 7,938 shops in the Census file |
| Tired iron plus a cleaned peg beats earnings | Orderly liquidation | Floor test | A South Bend line with no coating packet |
The IBBA Q1 2026 pulse found 83% of deals over $5 million drew three or more offers. Indiana’s 2.15% large-plant tail can see that earlier than a tiny-shop state. It is not a bid on a $320k-SDE Fort Wayne shop. Buyer types recast operators to SDE, RV add-ons to the program, and steel buyers to the melt. Keep firm names off the CIM.
Elkhart and Indianapolis buyers who want SBA 7(a) still live under a $5 million cap and a 10% injection (SOP 50 10 8). Only a fully standby seller note — and only half the injection — counts as equity. An Indianapolis food company that cannot live in that box should say so before Elkhart tours.
A 66-person average already sits closer to the federal WARN test than a small-shop state. Count temps before anyone drafts a floor script. Responsible Property Transfer disclosure is a property-transfer fact, not a reason to skip Phase I on steel, RV finishing, or pharma chemistry. Elkhart program consent and northwest Indiana melt history are two different packets. Evansville food and South Bend metal sit in the same statewide count and do not share a buyer. Name the process before anyone tours.
How do you sell without the RV or steel customer finding out?
How it works stays an unnamed teaser, an NDA, a staged room, then a scripted visit. RV files leak through a program buyer. Steel files leak through a mill clerk. Pharma files leak through a quality auditor. Name a region — Elkhart RV supply, northwest Indiana steel, central Indiana food — not a bay door. Skip a customer-audit week.
Public boards create inbound and screenshots. On 7,938 shops the default is still a controlled list. A 66-person average does not make a screenshot safer.
Employees hear on a planned day, usually late, with a script. Indiana does not add its own mini-WARN clock in the layoff-notice lists we checked. Federal WARN can still apply at 100 full-time employees and 60 days (29 U.S.C. § 2101). WARN is the federal page. A 66-person average shop sits closer to that test than a 25-person Florida shop. A plant in the 2.15% tail may already be over it.
Sales tax on machinery is often a manufacturing-exemption or occasional-sale question. Successor tax is fact-dependent. An Indiana CPA writes those sentences. HedgeStone will not.
What belongs in an Indiana readiness packet?
Unfinished RV jobs and steel holds need separate classes in the working-capital peg before exclusivity. Copy a retailer peg into an Elkhart letter and the true-up will invent a fight after the wire.
The complete guide to selling a manufacturing business is the national sequence. This page only adds Indiana disclosure, shop-size, and notice facts.
| Packet | Ready means | Indiana note |
|---|---|---|
| Recast | Three years, year-to-date, add-backs documented | Replacement wage for the 66-person chair |
| Property transfer | Counsel reads the Responsible Property Transfer Law | Disclosure, not a New Jersey cleanup clock |
| Phase I | Land or wet process in the deal | Stacked with disclosure; pieces stale after 180 days |
| Concentration | Trailing twelve and thirty-six months | Program and melt names wait for the NDA |
| Quality | IATF, pharma, or food certificates current | Access gate, not a logo |
| Equipment | Serial numbers and liens | Floor test versus a hoped-for multiple |
| Notice | Temps counted in the headcount | Federal 100 / 60; no extra Indiana mini-WARN in the lists we checked |
National wage prints from BLS OEWS May 2025 — machinist $58,750, welder $53,750 — stay national. They are not an Elkhart wage series. If the file cannot name who quotes Evansville work when the owner is gone, it is not ready for a tour.
Auto and RV hide program consent. Steel hides coatings and slag history. Pharmaceuticals hide quality systems. Food hides code dates. Fabricated metal hides finishing. Write those packets separately. The 524,995-employee count does not merge them.
Related-party rent in Indianapolis that sits below market is a gift to the first offer. Put a market rent in the recast. The disclosure question belongs on the process calendar. It is not a reason to skip a real-estate broker when a Fort Wayne building transfers.
August 2026 ISM at 54.6 and July 2026 Fed utilization at 76.0% describe the year. They do not become an Elkhart RV premium. Most of the 7,938 shops still have fewer than twenty people, even on a 66-person average. South Bend belongs in the second sentence of a teaser, never in the first. On a 66-person floor, a bay address is a leak.
Form 8594 and IRC § 1060 still split equipment, goodwill, and the building. An Indiana CPA writes the machinery-tax sentences. Jason Taken is a business broker, not that CPA. Counsel still confirms the disclosure statute. No Indianapolis close date is promised.
An Elkhart RV book that still depends on one owner to quote every program is not “a 66-person plant” in the offering memo. Name the second chair first. If the only buyer who will tour wants “any Indiana shop,” send them away. Eleventh place in the Census file does not repair that list.
An Indiana food earn-out that is not named-account gross profit will be re-traded. Floor it. Cap it. A seller note with current pay is credit, not SBA equity.
Eleventh place on the Census map is a sourcing fact, not an Elkhart multiple. The matching buy-side door is buy a manufacturing business in Indiana. Book a confidential intro call when the recast and the disclosure question can travel.
Responsible Property Transfer disclosure and Phase I are stacked calendars. Treating one as a substitute for the other is how a steel or RV close stalls. A 66-person average already sits closer to the federal WARN test than a 25-person Florida shop. Count temps. Fort Wayne, Evansville, and South Bend stay regions in the teaser. Indianapolis and Elkhart have their own pages. If the only buyer who will tour wants “any Indiana shop,” send them away. The 7,938-shop count does not repair that list.