Have a vacant lot or acreage in Houston? We're active Texas land buyers making fair cash offers with no fees and no agents — closing on your timeline.
Get Your Free Cash OfferHouston is the largest city in Texas and the only major American city without zoning, which makes it one of the most active infill land markets in the country. Townhouse and single-family builders are continually looking for lots inside the Loop, along the 610 corridor, and across the near northside and east end. Simul Fortis Holdings buys that land directly from owners. We are land investors, not agents. Depending on the property we either buy it ourselves or put it under contract and assign that contract to a builder in our network. Either way you get one number, one closing date, and no commission.
Because we already work with builders, we can make a fair cash offer and close fast on your Houston parcel — no listing, no commissions, no waiting for a retail buyer. Just share your property details.
Tell us about your Houston property — no obligation.
Houston has no zoning, and owners often take that to mean anything can be built on any lot. The opposite is closer to the truth: because there is no zoning map to read, the rules that decide what your land is worth are spread across Chapter 42 of the Code of Ordinances, the floodplain ordinance, and private deed restrictions. A builder prices your lot on what those three permit together.
Start with lot yield, because that is what a builder is actually buying. Chapter 42 sets the minimum lot size for single-family, and the history matters. The citywide minimum was 5,000 square feet until 1998, when the by-right minimum inside the 610 Loop was cut to 3,500 square feet, with lots down to about 1,400 square feet reachable in subdivisions that provide compensating open space or meet performance standards. In 2013 the city extended those inner-loop rules to land outside the Loop that has wastewater collection service. That single change is the reason a shared-driveway townhouse project now fits on parcels where it previously could not, and it is usually the difference between a lot worth one house and a lot worth three or four.
Then check whether your lot is actually allowed to be divided, because two Houston-specific overlays quietly override the Chapter 42 math. A neighborhood can apply for a Special Minimum Lot Size or Special Minimum Building Line designation, and the standard is set at the smallest lot size already met by at least 70 percent of properties in the application area. Inside one of those boundaries, new lots cannot be created below that minimum. Existing lots and houses are grandfathered, so nothing about your parcel looks different — but the subdivision math a builder was counting on is gone. We check for a designation before we quote.
Private deed restrictions do the same work from a different direction, and Houston is unusual in that the city will enforce them. A parcel in a deed-restricted subdivision can be limited to a single residence regardless of its size or what Chapter 42 would otherwise allow. We read the restrictions rather than assume them.
Floodplain is the largest single swing in Houston land value, and the rules changed substantially after Harvey. Under the Chapter 19 amendments effective September 1, 2018, new construction and substantial improvement — an expansion of 33 percent or more — must be built two feet above the FEMA 500-year floodplain elevation, and the zero net fill requirement now applies across the 500-year floodplain rather than only the 100-year. A lot in the 500-year is not unbuildable. It is more expensive to build on, because of fill, elevation and detention, and that cost comes directly out of land value. Owners are frequently quoting themselves off a pre-2018 comparable without knowing it.
Utilities and jurisdiction come next. Inside the city, overhead power along the street proves nothing about whether a wastewater main is present, and Chapter 42's small-lot path specifically depends on wastewater collection service. Outside the city limits, water and sewer usually arrive through a municipal utility district, so whether your tract sits inside a MUD, and what that MUD's tax rate is, changes both what a builder will pay and how fast he can move. Groundwater is not the easy answer it once was either: withdrawal in this area is regulated by the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, which is why most new development is served by a district or a surface-water supplier rather than a well.
Two more Houston specifics worth naming. Pipeline and utility easements are common across the region and an easement crossing a narrow lot can eliminate the buildable envelope entirely. And environmental history matters here more than in most Texas markets, because former industrial and commercial use is widespread along the ship channel and the east side, and a buyer will want that answered before he commits.
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding we hear. Chapter 42 still sets minimum lot sizes and platting rules, the floodplain ordinance still governs elevation and fill, and private deed restrictions still bind the parcel. No zoning means no zoning map, not no rules.
Lot yield under Chapter 42 first, then whether the lot can legally be divided at all, then floodplain, then utilities. Those four answer whether a builder can actually build and how many units he gets, and that is what he is paying for.
No. Since September 2018 new construction has to sit two feet above the FEMA 500-year elevation and meet zero net fill across the 500-year floodplain, so building costs more. That cost comes out of land value, but it is a discount, not a disqualification. We price it rather than walk away.
It is a neighborhood-initiated Chapter 42 overlay that freezes the minimum size of future lots in its boundary, set at the smallest size at least 70 percent of the area already meets. Your existing lot is grandfathered, but inside one of those boundaries a builder cannot subdivide, which changes what your land is worth to him.
Yes, regularly. The payoff can usually be handled at closing out of proceeds so nothing comes out of your pocket first.
Usually one of three reasons: the comparable closed before the 2018 floodplain rules and does not carry today's build cost, it sits outside a minimum lot size designation that your lot is inside, or it has wastewater service that your parcel does not. We price off what a builder can actually do with your specific lot.
No obligation, no pressure — just a fair number for your land. Get started above or reach us directly.
Call or Text (512) 982-9406