The cool blog 7768

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

What Goes on the Texas Seller's Disclosure Notice 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

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

Moving for a Job and Still Owning the House 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 de

Moving for a Job and Still Owning the House 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 de

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

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

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