What Texas Requires You to Disclose When You Sell

If you're selling a house in Texas, the seller's disclosure notice is the one piece of paperwork worth slowing down for. Section 5.008 of the Texas Property Code requires you to give the buyer a written notice about the condition of the property on or before the effective date of the contract. Hand it over late and the buyer can terminate for any reason within seven days of receiving it. Never deliver it at all and they can walk any time before closing and take their earnest money with them.

Since September 1, 2019, the form also asks about flooding: whether the property sits wholly or partly in a floodway, flood pool, reservoir, or a 100-year or 500-year floodplain, and whether you have ever filed a claim or a request for assistance for flood damage, including with the National Flood Insurance Program, FEMA, or the SBA. In Houston those questions come up more often than sellers expect. The notice is completed to the best of your knowledge, and marking something unknown is allowed when you genuinely do not know. Answering a question incorrectly when you did know is what causes problems after closing.

I studied accounting at UH-Downtown, and I fill this form out the way I'd handle any document someone will read closely later: carefully, room by room, before the house goes live. If you're thinking about selling and want to walk through the notice together, call or text me at 281-818-8177.