Key Takeaways
- The commonest delay is an old lien that was paid but never released. Administrative, not serious, but it takes time.
- Inherited property is the other big one: the deed still names someone who has died and the heirs were never formally established.
- An affidavit of heirship is evidence, not a court determination. Title companies weigh it differently, so never assume it is enough.
- A cash buyer removes the lender from the timeline. It does not remove the title work.
Most Delayed Closings Are Not About The Buyer
When a sale slips, sellers usually assume the buyer got cold feet or the money fell through. Far more often the delay is in the chain of title: something in the recorded history of the property that has to be resolved before an insurer will certify ownership.
The good news is that almost all of it is fixable, and most of it is administrative rather than serious. The bad news is that it takes time you did not budget, and it is discovered after you have already agreed a price and a date.
A cash buyer removes the lender from your timeline. It does not remove the title work. Anyone who tells you a cash sale means no title process is either inexperienced or not being straight with you.
The Problems, In Rough Order Of How Often We See Them
| Problem | Usual cause | Usual fix |
|---|---|---|
| Unreleased lien | An old loan or judgment was paid but nobody recorded the release | Obtain a release from the lienholder and record it |
| Deed still names a deceased owner | Inherited property where the estate was never formally handled | Probate, an affidavit of heirship, or a recorded transfer on death deed |
| Missing or unlocatable heir | Several heirs, one out of contact or one who has also died | Legal work to establish the interests; sometimes a court |
| Judgment or child-support lien | A creditor recorded against the owner, often years earlier | Payoff from proceeds, or a release if already satisfied |
| Property tax arrears | Unpaid years, accruing penalties and interest | Paid from the sale proceeds at closing |
| Ambiguous legal description | An older deed described the land loosely, or a lot was split | A new survey, and sometimes a correction deed |
| Undisclosed easement or encroachment | A fence, shed or driveway crosses a boundary or a utility easement | Survey, then agreement, relocation or an exception on the policy |
| Mineral or royalty reservation | A prior owner kept the minerals; extremely common in Texas | Usually nothing. It becomes an exception, not a defect |
| Prior owner's HOA lien | Unpaid assessments recorded against the property | Payoff at closing from proceeds; get the HOA statement early |
| Forged or defective prior deed | Rare, and serious. A break in the chain of ownership | Legal action; this is the one that can genuinely kill a sale |
Note what is absent from that table: how long each takes. That is deliberate. Clearing time depends on the county clerk's backlog, how responsive a lienholder is, and whether a court is involved. Anyone quoting you a fixed number of weeks for a title problem they have not seen is guessing. The title company can estimate once it has the commitment in hand, and that estimate is worth asking for.
The Mineral Reservation That Panics People Unnecessarily
Texas separates surface and mineral estates more than most states, and it is extremely common for a prior owner decades ago to have kept the minerals. Sellers who read their commitment for the first time sometimes conclude they do not really own their property.
In most residential sales this is a non-event. It appears on Schedule B as an exception, the policy does not insure the mineral estate, and the sale proceeds normally. It is worth understanding rather than worrying about, and what a title company actually does explains how the schedules work.
Why Inherited Property Is Its Own Category
Almost every inherited-property sale has a title item, because the whole point is that ownership has moved without a normal transaction. Three specific traps.
First, an affidavit of heirship under Estates Code Chapter 203 is evidence of who the heirs are, not a court determination. Title companies weigh it very differently from one another. Never assume the affidavit that satisfied one company will satisfy the next, and never plan a closing date around it until the title company has said in writing that it is enough.
Second, informal family transfers accumulate. A house passed down twice without paperwork can have a deed naming somebody two generations back, and establishing the current owners means documenting both deaths and both sets of heirs.
Third, every owner has to sign. One heir who will not cooperate stops the sale, and that is a legal matter rather than something a buyer can route around. Selling an inherited house in Texas and transfer on death deeds versus probate cover the routes.
What You Can Do Before You Have A Buyer
This is the genuinely useful advice in this article, and almost nobody does it: open a title file early. You do not need a signed contract to ask a title company to run a commitment. It costs little or nothing to start, and it converts every unknown into a list.
- Ask a title company to open a file and produce a commitment. Then read Schedule C, which is the list of what must be fixed.
- Search the county records yourself for your own address. Most Texas counties allow this online, and you will occasionally find a lien you had forgotten or a release that was never filed.
- Get your mortgage payoff in writing, not your remaining principal.
- Get an HOA statement if you have an association, including any transfer fee and outstanding assessments.
- Find your survey, if one exists. An existing survey plus a T-47 affidavit is often enough and saves ordering a new one.
Sellers who do this arrive at a negotiation knowing what their own house will and will not support. Sellers who do not are the ones whose closing moves twice.
Who Pays To Fix It
Generally the seller, because a title defect is a flaw in what you are selling. Payoffs come out of the proceeds rather than your pocket, which is the part that reassures people: unpaid taxes, liens and judgments are settled at closing from the sale money, not funded by you in advance. Legal work to establish heirs is the exception, since that is usually paid up front.
How We Handle Them
We expect a title item on most of what we buy, particularly inherited and long-held property. We would rather work through one than walk away, and we will tell you plainly if something looks like it will take months rather than weeks so you can decide with real information.
What we cannot do is skip it. If a buyer offers to close next week on a property whose deed names somebody who died in 2009, they either do not understand the file or they are planning to assign the contract to somebody else. How to read a cash offer covers how to tell.
This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Texas procedure turns on the specific documents in your file and the dates on them. For anything involving a court, an estate, a lender or a taxing authority, talk to a Texas attorney or a HUD-approved housing counselor as well as to us.
Sources
- Texas Property Code Chapter 13 (recording) — why recording order matters
- Texas Estates Code Chapter 203 (affidavit of heirship) — evidentiary weight
- Texas Department of Insurance, title insurance — what a commitment is