Sell your house as-is in Dallas
Dallas is a city of very different houses wearing the same address label. A 1954 pier-and-beam bungalow in East Dallas and a 2004 brick house in Frisco are not the same transaction and they do not fail for the same reasons. We buy both in the condition they are in today.
What the housing stock here actually looks like
Inside the Loop the houses are older than most people expect. East Dallas, Oak Cliff and the streets around White Rock are full of 1920s to 1950s construction, much of it pier and beam, with original plumbing, small closets, and garage conversions that were done decades ago and never permitted.
North of that the pattern flips. Lake Highlands, Richardson, Garland, Plano and the far north suburbs are 1970s through 2000s subdivisions on slab foundations, and they age as a group. A 1998 build is due for a roof, a water heater and its first serious foundation adjustment within the same few years.
Foundation work, and why it changes the number
North Texas sits on expansive clay that swells when it is wet and shrinks when it is dry, so slab movement is a normal part of owning a house here rather than a rare defect. An earlier foundation repair is common and not automatically a problem. What matters is whether the work was engineered, whether it was permitted, and whether a transferable warranty came with it.
Texas seller disclosure asks about the foundation and slab, about soil movement, and about previous structural repair, so this is not a subject either side can quietly skip. We price the house with the engineering report or the repair history in front of us, not after an inspection surprises everyone two weeks in.
How a foreclosure actually runs in Texas
Most Texas residential foreclosures never see a judge. The loan documents give the lender a power of sale through a deed of trust, and a trustee runs the auction under Property Code chapter 51.
The notice of sale has to go out at least 21 days before the sale date, three ways: posted at the courthouse door of each county where the property sits, filed with that county clerk, and mailed certified to the borrower. Sales are held on the first Tuesday of the month between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the county courthouse. Before any of that, a residential lender owes a separate notice giving at least 20 days to cure.
Delinquent property taxes and the tax sale
Texas property taxes are due October 1 and become delinquent after January 31. The penalty is 6 percent for the first month plus 1 percent for each month after that, and a bill still unpaid on July 1 carries a flat 12 percent penalty, with interest of 1 percent a month running the whole time. Dallas County accepts partial payments and applies them to the oldest year first, but it has no authority to waive penalty or interest.
If the taxes stay unpaid long enough, the taxing units sue and the property can be sold at a tax sale. Texas gives the former owner a right to redeem: two years on a homestead, 180 days on everything else, with a premium of 25 percent in the first year and 50 percent in the second on a homestead. That right does not carry the right to live in the property or collect rent while it runs, and it cannot be sold or transferred to anyone else.
What as-is removes, and what it does not
As-is means you are not asked to repair, replace, clean or stage anything. It does not switch off Texas Property Code chapter 5.008, which requires a written seller's disclosure notice for a one-unit residential property. The form is answered to the best of your knowledge, and where you do not know, you say so, which is compliance rather than a loophole.
The statutory exemptions are about the kind of transfer, things like a foreclosure sale or a sale by a fiduciary, not about whether the buyer intends to renovate. Ask your attorney how the notice will be handled before closing.
The conventional sale, priced honestly
Listing is not free even in a strong market: commission, the title policy, a pre-listing repair list, and the taxes, insurance and mortgage you carry while the house sits. On a house with a foundation letter and a twenty-year-old roof, that list is long before the first showing happens.
None of that makes listing wrong. If the house is in good shape and you can wait for the right buyer, a retail sale usually nets more. An as-is offer is for the cases where the repair bill, the calendar, or the situation makes waiting expensive.
Common in Dallas
- Pier-and-beam houses with original cast iron plumbing
- Slab foundations with an older repair and no transferable warranty
- Roofs that have been patched after hail rather than replaced
- Garage and carport conversions built without permits
- Estates with several heirs and one house to divide
Common questions
Do you buy pier-and-beam houses, or only slab?
Both. Pier and beam is often the easier of the two here, because the plumbing and the subfloor can be reached. It is the cast iron drain lines and the sixty-year-old wiring inside those crawl spaces that drive the number.
Will you buy a house that has already had foundation work?
Yes. Send the engineering report and the warranty if you have them. An engineered repair with a transferable warranty is a different house from an unpermitted one somebody patched over, and we price accordingly.
Can you close before a scheduled trustee sale?
Sometimes, and we will tell you honestly when the date is too close. The sale stops when the loan is paid at closing, not when a contract is signed, so the closing has to land with real room before the auction rather than the day before it.
Does an as-is sale mean I skip the Texas seller's disclosure?
No. Chapter 5.008 requires the written notice on a one-unit residential sale, and it contains no as-is exemption. The statutory exceptions are about the type of transfer, such as a foreclosure sale or a fiduciary sale. Marking an item unknown where you genuinely do not know is allowed, and it is not the same thing as leaving the form out.
Do you buy houses with tenants already living there?
Yes. An existing lease carries on after closing, so the tenant keeps their home and their terms. Send the lease and the rent history early, because both change what the house is worth to us.
Related
Next step
Tell us the address and what is going on with it. We will look at the property and put a number in writing. Sending a message creates no obligation, and we will say plainly if we are not the right buyer for it.