For Texas landowners who have held land for years
Maybe you bought a lot or a few acres years ago for a house, a retirement place, or something for the kids, and life went another way. Now the land is a tax bill every January, a mowing bill every summer, and something you think about more than you use. We're land investors, not agents. We work with the owner of record, we look up the parcel before we talk numbers, and we close through a Texas title company. No commission, no cleanup, no survey on you.
Texas has no state income tax, and it pays for schools, counties and cities largely through local property taxes. Land you aren't using carries that load with none of the protections a homeowner gets. Here is where the money goes, and why it tends to grow.
Your home in Texas can get a homestead exemption and a cap on how fast its taxable value rises each year. Vacant land gets neither. It is taxed on its full appraised value at the combined rate of every local taxing unit it sits in: the county, the school district, often a city, and sometimes a hospital district, college district or emergency services district. As builders pushed out from Austin, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, many appraisal districts raised raw land values sharply, and the tax bill followed. Owners who have never set foot on a lot in years often see the steepest jumps.
Many lots around Houston, Austin and the DFW suburbs sit inside a municipal utility district (MUD) or a public improvement district (PID), which adds its own tax or assessment on top of the regular rate to pay for the water, sewer and roads that were built. If the lot is in a deed-restricted subdivision there may be HOA dues as well, and unpaid dues can become a lien on the land. These charges keep coming whether or not anything is ever built.
Inside city limits, overgrown lots are a common code complaint. Texas law lets a city treat weeds over 12 inches as a nuisance, give the owner notice, mow the lot itself, bill the owner and file a lien if the bill isn't paid. Out in the county, the problems are usually illegal dumping, fences that need fixing and people using the land without asking. For an owner who lives hours away, or out of state, every one of these means a phone call, a contractor and a check.
Acreage with an agricultural (open-space) valuation is taxed on what it can produce, not what it would sell for, as long as the qualifying use continues: grazing, hay, crops or, after a prior ag valuation, a wildlife management plan. When the lease ends or the use stops, the valuation can be removed and the appraisal district recaptures the difference for the prior three years plus interest, known as the rollback. Owners who lose a grazing lease are often caught between a rollback risk and a bill that jumps to market value. A sale does not trigger the rollback by itself; a change in use does, and who carries it is written into the contract.
None of this is legal or tax advice, and the details differ by county and by parcel. Your county appraisal district can tell you how the land is valued and whether it has an ag valuation, and your tax office can tell you what is owed. What we can do is pull the record on the parcel, tell you what we see, and give you one number if selling makes sense.
Selling is not the only answer. Owners who have held land a long time usually choose between a few paths, and the right one depends on what the land is and what you want from it.
Keep it and lower the bill. You can protest the appraised value each spring, generally by May 15 or 30 days after the appraisal notice is mailed. If the land is big enough and suitable, leasing it for grazing or hay may qualify it for an ag valuation, though that usually takes years of qualifying use to establish. If you still plan to build or pass it to family, holding may be right.
Build on it. Before you do, price the real cost of getting a lot ready: a water tap or well, an on-site sewage (septic) permit where there is no sewer, an electric line extension, a driveway permit, platting if the land was never subdivided, and floodplain rules. Those costs are a big part of why some lots sit for decades.
Sell to a neighbor or list it with an agent. Adjoining owners are sometimes the best buyer for a small or odd-shaped tract. If the land has road frontage, utilities nearby and clean title, and you have time, a listing may get you more. If that is your situation, we'll say so.
Sell it as-is. If you don't use the land and don't want to keep paying for it, a sale ends the taxes, the mowing and the phone calls in one closing. Any taxes or liens owed are paid from the proceeds at the title company, and the rest goes to you.
The things that make a lot hard for one owner to build on are the things a builder deals with every week. A builder buying in your area already has the engineer, the utility contacts and the permitting experience, and is often looking for exactly the kind of lot that has sat untouched for years. That is why we work the way we do: we find the owner, we find the builder, and we put the two together through one contract and one closing.
Long-held land often ends up with more than one name on it, or with a deed still in a parent's name. If the land came to you by inheritance, our guide to selling inherited land in Texas covers heirship affidavits, probate and several heirs. If a tax year slipped along the way, our guide to back taxes on Texas land walks through penalties, interest and how back taxes are paid at closing.
Use the form or call. Tell us where it is, how long you've had it, and what you'd like to happen.
County deed records, taxes owed, any ag valuation, access, floodplain, utilities. We tell you what we see, good and bad.
We put the land under contract and usually assign that contract to a home builder buying in your area. That is written into the contract before you sign.
A Texas title company closes. Any taxes or liens are paid from the proceeds, and the rest is paid to you. You can sign remotely.
Owners of record, and heirs or executors of an estate. We work directly with the owner. We don't buy assignment contracts, we don't take wholesale deals on land, and we don't pay for leads. If keeping the land, or listing it with an agent, would clearly serve you better, we'll say so.
Tell us about your property and we'll get you a number. No obligation, no pressure.
No scripts, no pressure. A real conversation about your property with the person who'll actually handle it.
(512) 982-9406
Inherited land you don't need
Vacant lots eating up tax dollars
Tax-delinquent parcels you want off your plate
Code letters from the county
Listed properties that aren't moving
Out-of-state owners ready to let go
Often, yes. Land that sat for twenty years on the edge of a Texas metro may now be where builders are buying. We look up the parcel first (access, utilities nearby, floodplain, what is being built around it) and tell you plainly what we see, including when listing it or holding it would serve you better.
A sale by itself does not trigger a rollback; a change in use does. When the new owner stops the qualifying use, the appraisal district recaptures the tax difference for the prior three years plus interest. Who carries that is a contract term. When a builder will change the use, it usually sits on the buyer side, and we spell it out in the contract before you sign.
No. We take land as-is. You don't need to clear brush, haul off dumping, or order a survey. If a survey is needed for the closing, it is handled on the buyer side.
No. Closings run through a Texas title company, and the documents can be signed remotely, with a mobile notary or with remote online notarization, which Texas allows.
In most cases we put the land under contract and assign that contract to a home builder, and we tell you that in writing before you sign. Either way you get one number, one closing date, and no commission.
No. We work only with the owners of record, or the heirs or executor of an estate. We are not an end buyer for wholesalers, and we don't pay for leads.
No. Zero fees, zero commissions, and closing costs are covered. Any taxes or liens owed on the land are paid from the proceeds at closing.
Central Texas is home base. Pick your area for local details, or use the form above for anywhere in Texas.