Texas’s home-buying process runs through the same broad sequence as most states — offer, inspection, financing, title, closing — but two things about the money side are genuinely distinctive: there’s no attorney requirement and no transfer tax at all, and property taxes run high enough that the state’s homestead exemption and appraisal cap are worth understanding before you sign, not after your first tax bill arrives. Here’s where Texas’s process actually diverges from the generic version.
Closings run through title companies, no attorney required
A Texas title company serves as the closing agent for the large majority of residential purchases: running the title search, holding earnest money in escrow, preparing closing documents, and issuing title insurance, all without an attorney required to be in the room. It’s worth keeping in mind that the title company is a neutral party to the transaction — it doesn’t represent you or the seller — which is why some buyers still choose to bring their own attorney for anything with real complexity: a disputed lien, an estate sale, or a title history that isn’t straightforward. Texas law specifically allows title companies and attorneys to split closing fees when both are involved, so pairing the two isn’t unusual even though only one of them is required.
Where the records live: Appraisal District and County Clerk
Property is valued by each county’s Appraisal District, headed by a Chief Appraiser, and real property is recorded by the county’s County Clerk. RefPages’ County Records directory links to your specific county’s Appraisal District and County Clerk, which is where a title search runs against the property’s recorded history before closing.
No transfer tax — genuinely, not just a low one
Texas doesn’t charge a real estate transfer tax at all — not at the state level, and no Texas city or county levies one either, which puts it among a relatively small group of states with no transfer tax whatsoever. You’ll still see the usual closing-cost line items — title insurance premiums, a modest per-page recording fee for the deed, lender fees if you’re financing — but nothing calculated as a percentage of the sale price the way a documentary stamp or conveyance tax works in most other states. It’s one of the more meaningful, if easy-to-overlook, cost differences between buying in Texas and buying almost anywhere else.
The Seller’s Disclosure Notice, and its limits
Texas Property Code § 5.008 requires the seller of a home with no more than one dwelling unit to provide a written Seller’s Disclosure Notice on or before the effective date of the purchase contract — covering the condition of the structure, systems, known defects, and specifically whether the property sits in a FEMA-designated flood plain or has flooded in the past five years. If the notice arrives late, you get a real remedy: the right to terminate the contract for any reason within seven days of receiving it. The notice is filled out to the best of the seller’s knowledge, not independently verified, and several categories of sale are exempt entirely — new construction that’s never been occupied, foreclosure and trustee sales, and transfers between family members or co-owners among them. Worth checking which category your purchase falls into before assuming a disclosure is coming.
No state income tax, high property taxes, and the homestead exemption that softens them
Texas has no state income tax, and its property tax rates run correspondingly higher than the national average to help fund local government and schools — a trade-off worth planning for if you’re moving from a state that leans the other way. Two mechanisms are worth understanding once you own a home here. A homestead exemption, claimed with your county appraisal district once the property is your primary residence, reduces the taxable value used to calculate your bill; the exact exemption amount is set by the Texas Legislature and has changed through recent legislation, so confirm the current figure with your appraisal district rather than relying on an older number. Separately, once a homestead exemption is in place, Texas’s 10% appraisal cap (Tax Code § 23.23) limits how much your property’s taxable appraised value can increase in a single year, regardless of how much the market value itself has risen — though the cap only starts protecting you the tax year after you first qualify, and it applies to the assessed value used for taxation, not to the home’s actual market value.
If the property needs permitted work
If an inspection turns up something that needs a permit — electrical, an addition, or older unpermitted work — RefPages’ Building Permit Departments directory links to the relevant city or county permitting office.