Real Property or Personal Property, and Why It Matters
Selling a Manufactured Home in Texas Selling a manufactured home in Texas is a different transaction from selling a stick-built house, and the difference is not cosmetic. It comes down to whether the home is legally treated as real property or as personal property, and that determines almost everything else. In Texas, manufactured housing is overseen by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Ownership is evidenced by a Statement of Ownership rather t
What a Flood History Does to a Houston Home Sale If your house sits in a Harris County flood zone, or has taken water at any point, you already know it changes the conversation with buyers. What surprises most sellers is how much of that conversation is set by law rather than by negotiation. Texas requires a seller of residential property to give the buyer a written disclosure notice covering the property's condition, and flooding is dealt with directly. The form asks wh
What an Unpermitted Addition Does to a Home Sale 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 wil
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
Selling a House You Still Owe Money On Most people sell a house they still owe money on, and most have only a rough idea of the mechanics. The mortgage does not transfer and it does not simply vanish. It gets paid off out of the proceeds at closing, and the order in which that happens explains several things that otherwise look strange. At closing the title company requests a payoff statement from your lender. That figure is not your remaining principal. It is principal
Appraised Value, Market Value and What a Buyer Will Pay 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 figur
What an Empty House Costs You Every Month An empty house is not a paused house. It is a house that is quietly deteriorating and costing money, and in the Texas climate it does both faster than owners expect. Start with the insurance problem, because it is the one that turns an inconvenience into a loss. Most standard homeowner's policies contain a vacancy clause that limits or voids coverage once a property has been unoccupied beyond a set period, commonly thirty or sixt
Why Vacant Texas Houses Get Harder to Sell An empty house is not a paused house. It is a house that is quietly deteriorating and costing money, and in the Texas climate it does both faster than owners expect. Start with the insurance problem, because it is the one that turns an inconvenience into a loss. Most standard homeowner's policies contain a vacancy clause that limits or voids coverage once a property has been unoccupied beyond a set period, commonly thirty or six