Author: Keith Sant

Price to Stage a House Texas

How Much Does It Cost to Stage a House in Texas

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A rented sofa in a Katy living room can cost you more each month than your water bill, and you don’t get to keep it. That’s the part of home staging that surprises sellers once the invoice shows up. Staging can work, and the real cost to stage a house in Texas depends on more … Continued
Selling Investment Property Texas

How to Sell Investment Property in Texas Without Losing Money

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Four tenants in six years. A roof replaced once, a water heater twice, and an appraisal notice that climbs every spring. I hear some version of that story from Texas landlords most weeks. It usually comes right before they ask whether it’s time to cash out of a rental property they’re tired of babysitting. Selling … Continued
Selling a House With Crawl Space Water in Texas

How to Sell a House with Water in the Crawl Space in Texas

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Drive the older blocks of Harlingen, Brownsville, or Corpus Christi, and you’ll spot them. They’re houses lifted a foot or two off the dirt on pier-and-beam foundations. Those crawl spaces were built to breathe. After a week of Gulf moisture and a stalled storm, plenty of them hold standing water instead. One August, a seller … Continued
Tax Implications When You Sell a Home in Texas

Tax Implications of Selling a Home in Texas

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Texas doesn’t tax the profit on your house. The IRS still might, and that gap is where sellers get blindsided in April. I’ve been buying houses in this state for years, from brick ranch homes in Garland to apartments east of downtown Houston. Sellers ask me about prices and closing dates. Capital gains tax comes … Continued
Can a Seller Refuse Repairs After an Inspection Harlingen

Can a Seller Refuse Repairs After Inspection

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Thirty-two items on an inspection report, and eleven of them are burned-out bulbs, sticky doorstops, and a missing outlet cover. That’s a normal report. Sellers open the repair request, count the line items, and feel shaken down over a house they’ve kept up for twenty years. So can a seller refuse repairs after inspection? Under … Continued
Can an HOA Really Take Your House in Harlingen

Can an HOA Take Your House

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A quarterly dues bill of a few hundred dollars can end with a stranger holding the deed to your front door. Sounds absurd, until you read the statutes. Your HOA doesn’t need permission from your mortgage lender, and in most states, it doesn’t need you to be behind on that mortgage at all. Can an … Continued
FSBO Costs When Selling Texas

FSBO Costs in Texas and What Home Sellers Actually Pay

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Selling your own home sounds like a smart way to save money. Skip the listing agent, keep the fee, and close on your own clock. Plenty of Texas sellers start there. Then the pricing turns difficult, the lowball offers roll in, and the state paperwork turns out to be longer than the online math ever … Continued
Breaking Down the Typical Costs of Selling a Home in Texas

How Much Does It Cost to Sell a House in Texas

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Most sellers in Texas are stunned when they see the final settlement statement. They expected to walk away with a check for roughly their sale price minus the mortgage balance, but instead they’re staring at a column of deductions they never planned for (closing costs alone can run into the thousands). Knowing what’s coming before … Continued
What Every Texas Home Seller Should Know About Termite Infestations

Can You Sell a House With Termites in Texas

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A seller called me on a Tuesday, practically whispering into the phone. She’d just gotten back from her own home inspection and found out she had an active termite colony chewing through the floor joists under her main bedroom. Her first question wasn’t about treatment. It was, “Does this mean I can’t sell?” The answer … Continued
Preparing Your Texas Apartment for a Successful Sale

How To Sell an Apartment in Texas

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You list your property, field a few showings, and then the phone goes quiet. Weeks pass, then months, and the listing gets no offers. I’ve watched it happen to good people with perfectly solid properties in Sugar Land, Cedar Park, and Pflugerville. Listings go stale, confidence drops, and sellers start making desperate concessions they never … Continued
What Happens If a Seller Chooses Not to Close In Texas

What Happens if a Seller Refuses to Close

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You’d probably be surprised how many homeowners make the same mistake I used to. I figured once a seller signed a contract, they couldn’t just walk away without consequences, but turns out seller’s remorse is real. Knowing what happens if a seller refuses to close is what keeps a buyer from losing the house and … Continued
May I sell my house for under market value In Texas

Can I Sell My House Below Market Value

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It’s surprisingly common for people to sell their property for less than it’s worth. Sometimes they do it to assist a relative to buy a house, or because they’re facing foreclosure, or just to avoid the hassle of a standard listing. But it’s not just a matter of generosity or haste. There are a lot … Continued
Selling a Condemned House in Texas

How to Sell a Condemned House in Texas: Tips for a Successful Sale

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Selling a Texas home that has been condemned is undoubtedly difficult, but knowing how to overcome certain challenges makes it much easier. This guide explains how to sell a condemned home in Texas and the obstacles homeowners face. This guide will help homeowners learn how to sell a condemned property in Texas by identifying marketable … Continued