Selling in McKinney
A Historic County Seat Inside A Fast-Growth County
McKinney is two things at once. It is the seat of Collin County, with a genuine nineteenth-century downtown and a ring of older housing around it, and it is one of the fastest-growing suburbs in the country, with subdivision after subdivision built in the last twenty-five years.
Those two halves behave nothing alike. Near the square, the housing is old, small, sometimes historically designated, and desirable to a specific buyer who wants exactly that. Out west and north, the housing is new enough to still be under builder warranty in places and it competes on condition and finish against houses that are nearly identical.
Both halves sit under Collin County property taxes, which have risen substantially, and most of the newer housing sits under a homeowners association. For a seller, those two facts shape the cost of waiting and the mechanics of closing more than anything about the building.
Associations, And Old Houses With Designations
On the newer side, the association is the recurring friction. A Texas sale of an HOA property needs a resale certificate from the association, and any unpaid dues, fines, or improvements made without approval have to be reconciled at closing. In a large subdivision the certificate can take longer to arrive than the title work.
On the older side, historic designation changes what can be altered, which matters to a buyer planning to renovate and therefore to what the house is worth. Meanwhile the houses themselves carry pre-war systems: original wiring, pier-and-beam foundations with settlement, and roofs on their third replacement.
Both halves share the North Texas hail problem. An original roof that took storm damage and was never replaced becomes uninsurable, and an uninsurable house cannot be mortgaged, which removes almost every retail buyer at once.
Collin County, Where The Courthouse Is Local
McKinney is the Collin County seat, so the clerk who records your deed and the probate court that would handle an estate are both here. The title company handles the recording at closing, and Texas taxes are billed in arrears and prorated to the closing date.
Because Collin County tax bills are large, the proration line on the settlement statement is a real number rather than a rounding item, and the closing date affects it. If you hold an over-65 tax ceiling or have been deferring taxes, ask the title company how that is settled before you choose a date.
The association is the other timing variable, and it is usually the binding one on a cash purchase. Order the resale certificate as early as you can. It is one of the few parts of a closing here that neither we nor the title company can speed up.
