What Happens to Your Mortgage When You Sell 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
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
How the Payoff Actually Works at Closing 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 principa
Selling a Texas House With Foundation Problems 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 found
Selling a House in a Houston Flood Zone 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 whether the
The Texas Seller Disclosure and What You Must Tell Buyers
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 a House When You Relocate for Work A job relocation turns a house sale into a scheduling problem. The start date is fixed, the move is fixed, and the house is the one variable that refuses to cooperate. Most of the bad outcomes here come from treating it as a pricing question when it is really a timing question. Work out your actual deadline first. Not the start date — the date after which carrying two housing costs becomes painful. If the new city requires a dep
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