Key Takeaways
- The title company is a neutral third party. It does not work for you or for the buyer, which is precisely why it protects you.
- The title commitment is the document to read: Schedule A says who owns what, Schedule B lists exceptions, Schedule C lists what must be fixed before closing.
- Schedule C is what sets your real timeline. A cash buyer removes the lender, not the title work.
- Liens, judgments and back taxes are paid from the proceeds at closing rather than by you in advance.
The One Party In The Deal Who Is Not On Anybody's Side
In a cash sale the buyer has an interest, you have an interest, and the title company has neither. It is a neutral third party that holds the money, examines the chain of ownership, and will not release anything until the conditions are met. That neutrality is not a formality; it is the reason a stranger can hand you a large sum for your house and both of you can rely on the outcome.
Sellers often treat the title company as paperwork to be endured. It is more useful to treat it as your free due-diligence department. It has no incentive to talk you into anything, and the documents it produces will tell you things about your own property that you may not know.
The Title Commitment, And How To Read It
The single most useful document you will see is the title commitment: a written promise to issue a title insurance policy, subject to conditions. It arrives in schedules, and each one answers a different question.
| What it says | Why it matters to a seller | Action needed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule A | The property, the current owner of record, the policy amount and the type of policy | Confirms the county records agree with who you believe owns it | Check the legal description and your name are exactly right |
| Schedule B | Exceptions: easements, restrictions, mineral reservations the policy will not cover | Usually normal and permanent; occasionally reveals something a buyer will ask about | Read it, but most items stay as they are |
| Schedule C | Requirements: payoffs, releases, missing signatures, heirship documents | THIS is what sets the closing date. Every item must be cleared first | Work through it immediately; it is the critical path |
| Schedule D | Disclosure of who receives the premium | Transparency about the underwriter and agent | None, informational |
Read Schedule C first. It is the list of things that must be resolved before closing, which means it is your real timeline. Everything else is context.
If you take one thing from this article: Schedule C is your timeline. When a buyer tells you a closing date, what they are really predicting is how long Schedule C will take to clear. A cash buyer removes the lender from the process. It does not remove the title work, and no honest buyer will tell you otherwise.
What The Title Company Actually Does, Step By Step
1. Opens escrow and holds the earnest money
The buyer's earnest money goes to the title company, not to the buyer's pocket and not to you. If a buyer proposes holding it themselves, that is worth questioning. See how to read a cash offer for why that detail matters more than the headline number.
2. Examines the chain of title
Someone reads the recorded history of your property looking for gaps, competing claims, unreleased liens and ambiguous descriptions. This is where inherited property most often produces surprises, because the deed may still name a person who has died.
3. Issues the commitment
The schedules above. Read them, and ask questions. The escrow officer is generally willing to explain what an item means, and you are entitled to understand it.
4. Requests payoffs
Your mortgage servicer, any second lien, the county tax collector, an HOA, a judgment creditor. Each provides a figure good through a specific date. This step is a common source of delay because it depends on third parties responding.
5. Prepares the settlement statement
The line-by-line accounting of what comes in and what goes out. Ask for a draft before closing day. It is much easier to query the tax proration or a payoff figure two days early than at the table with a pen in your hand.
6. Closes, funds and records
You sign, the buyer funds, the title company disburses, and the deed is recorded with the county. Recording is what makes it real to the world.
What A Survey Is For, And Whether You Need A New One
A survey shows the boundaries and what sits inside them. In many Texas cash sales an existing survey plus a T-47 affidavit, in which you swear nothing has changed since it was made, is sufficient. If a fence has moved, a structure has been added, or no survey exists, a new one may be required.
This matters to sellers mainly as a timing item. A new survey takes days to weeks depending on the surveyor's workload, and it can appear on Schedule C, which means it is on the critical path.
Who Pays For What
Texas title insurance premiums are regulated: the rate is set on a schedule published by the Texas Department of Insurance and varies with the policy amount, so no single figure applies to every sale. Which party pays which cost is negotiable and set out in the contract.
On our purchases we pay the standard closing costs, and there is no commission because there is no agent involved. What we do not do is invent a fee schedule for this article: check the current rates at the Department of Insurance, linked in the sources below.
The Most Common Reasons Closing Slips
- An old lien that was paid but never released. Extremely common, administrative, and it still takes time to obtain the release.
- A missing or unlocatable heir on inherited property. See selling an inherited house.
- A slow payoff statement from a servicer that is not in a hurry.
- A judgment or child-support lien nobody knew about, surfacing on the commitment.
- An ambiguous legal description in an older deed.
Title problems that delay a Texas sale goes through each of these and roughly what clearing them involves.
Two Things To Ask For
Ask for the commitment as soon as it exists, not a summary of it. And ask for the draft settlement statement before closing day. Both are routine requests, both are yours to see, and both prevent the two worst experiences in a sale: discovering a title problem late, and discovering a number you did not expect while sitting at the closing table.
If you want the whole process rather than the title portion, how it works covers it end to end, and how Texas property taxes affect your sale explains the proration line you will see on that statement.
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 Department of Insurance, title insurance basics — regulated premiums, what a policy covers
- Texas Insurance Code Title 11 (title insurance) — statutory framework