You Inherited a House in Texas and You Do Not Live Here
Managing a Texas Property Sale From Another State Inheriting Texas property while living somewhere else combines two problems that are manageable separately and awkward together: establishing your authority to sell, and doing everything at a distance. Authority comes first. A title company will want proof that ownership passed properly. If there is a will going through probate, the executor generally has authority once the will is admitted and letters testamentary i
Selling a House With Work That Was Never Inspected Converted garages, enclosed patios, added bathrooms, a second structure out back. Plenty of Texas houses carry work that was done without a permit, sometimes decades ago by an owner who has long since moved on. It becomes your problem at closing. The first issue is simple arithmetic. If a bedroom was added without permits, it likely does not appear in the county records or the tax roll. An appraiser measuring the house w
Appraised Value, Market Value and What a Buyer Will Pay
What Your Texas House Is Actually Worth Three numbers get called the value of your house and they are not the same thing. Confusing them is behind most of the frustration sellers feel when an offer arrives. The first is the county appraisal district's assessed value, which exists to calculate property tax. Texas is a non-disclosure state, meaning sale prices are not public record, so appraisal districts estimate from the data they can get. That figure is often wrong in b
Selling As Is Does Not Mean Saying Nothing The single most common misunderstanding in a Texas home sale is that selling a house as is removes the obligation to disclose. It does not. As is describes who pays for repairs. Disclosure describes what the buyer is told. They are separate things and confusing them creates liability that survives closing. Texas requires a seller of residential property to give the buyer a written Seller's Disclosure Notice covering the property
Selling an Inherited Texas House From Out of State Inheriting Texas property while living somewhere else combines two problems that are manageable separately and awkward together: establishing your authority to sell, and doing everything at a distance. Authority comes first. A title company will want proof that ownership passed properly. If there is a will going through probate, the executor generally has authority once the will is admitted and letters testamentary issue
What Foundation Damage Does to a Texas Home Sale Foundation movement is close to a statewide condition in Texas. Much of the state sits on expansive clay that swells when it rains and shrinks in drought, and slab foundations move with it. Doors that stick in August and close fine in March are telling you about soil moisture, not carpentry. That ubiquity cuts both ways when you sell. Buyers here are less shocked by foundation work than buyers elsewhere, and a repaired fou