Sell my house fast in Houston, TX

Houston is the only major American city that never adopted a zoning code. What a lot can be used for is set by deed restrictions recorded against the subdivision, if there are any, and by whatever the city allows through its development ordinances. Texas law lets a city without zoning enforce those deed restrictions itself, in court, unless a property owners' association gets there first.

For a seller that cuts two ways. A house in a subdivision with strong, actively enforced restrictions holds its value as a house. A house on a lot with no restrictions, or expired ones, may be worth more as a lot than as a house — and may be sitting next to a townhome development or an auto shop that arrived last year. When we price a Houston house we pull the restrictions, or confirm there are none, before we look at the kitchen.

It also means the neighborhood inside the loop that was all 1920s bungalows ten years ago may be half three-story townhomes now. That is not a problem for a seller. It is the reason a lot in Third Ward or Near Northside can be worth what it is.

Inside the 610 Loop, the older neighborhoods are pier-and-beam bungalows and cottages from the 1920s to the 1950s, many with original wiring, original plumbing, and a foundation that has settled with the clay it sits on. Between the Loop and Beltway 8, the stock turns to slab-on-grade ranches from the 1950s through the 1970s, and then to 1980s and later subdivisions further out.

Houston clay moves. Every house in the city sits on soil that swells when it rains and shrinks when it does not, and foundation movement is the single most common condition issue we see here. A pier-and-beam house can be levelled; a slab house that has moved is a bigger conversation. Either way we would rather know than guess, and neither one is a reason we decline.

Older houses in the city also tend to come with older work: room additions, garage conversions, and second units that were done without a permit and would not pass one now. Common, workable, and part of the number.

Every Houston seller has a Harvey story, and a lot have a Tax Day or Memorial Day story before that. The Texas seller's disclosure form asks about it directly: whether there is flood insurance on the house, whether it has flooded because of a reservoir failure or release, whether water has come into the structure in a natural flood, and whether the property sits in a 100-year or 500-year floodplain, a floodway, a flood pool, or a reservoir.

We ask the same questions, and the honest answer — including 'I do not know' — is the one we want. A house that took water and was repaired properly is a house. A house that took water and was repainted is a different house. Tell us which, and if you do not know because you inherited it or never lived there, say that.

Code enforcement inside the city is handled by Community Code Enforcement, which now sits inside Houston Public Works. Complaints come in through 311. A dangerous-building case goes before the Building and Standards Commission, which can order a house secured, repaired, or demolished, and if nothing happens the city can do the work and put a lien on the property for the cost. An overgrown lot the city mows becomes a lien too, at 10 percent interest, ranking behind only tax liens and street assessments.

We buy houses with all of that open. The recorded liens are paid from the proceeds at closing, the same way a mortgage is. An open order becomes ours to satisfy. We have a separate page on code violations that goes through the process in detail.

Houston is large enough that a city-wide average means nothing. The number comes from your side of your bayou.

We use a title company, which pulls the title commitment, clears whatever is on it, and handles settlement. On an older Houston house the search is where the surprises live — a deed from decades ago that was never recorded properly, a co-owner nobody mentioned, an estate that was never opened. Harris County keeps five statutory probate courts busy for a reason.

None of those are fatal and all of them take time, which is why a purchase takes days rather than hours. You do not pay for any of it. We cover standard closing costs, and there is no commission because there is no agent. What comes out of the proceeds is what is owed against the house: the mortgage payoff, delinquent property taxes, and any liens.