Simulation: a fictional property for practice.

A Texas tax sale: the house you might have to give back

A constable is selling a house for unpaid taxes after a court judgment. The minimum bid is low. The owner’s buy-back right is long.

A fictional house at a constable’s tax sale in fictional Cedar Bend County, Texas, a county of about 400,000 people.

• Sale: Constable’s tax sale on the first Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., after a court judgment
• Judgment: $14,500 of taxes, penalties, interest and costs
• Value in the judgment: $160,000; the house was the owner’s homestead
• Taxes due after the judgment: $3,800

Mission 1: The minimum bid and your paperwork

Pick everything that’s true before you bid.

• The minimum bid is about $14,500 plus the costs of the sale: the lesser of the amount owed or the value in the judgment
• I need a county statement that I owe no back taxes, or a bidder registration, to get the deed
• I’ll owe the $3,800 of taxes that came due after the judgment
• I’m buying a tax lien certificate that earns interest

Get the bidder paperwork early, ask the tax office for post-judgment taxes, and confirm how your county takes payment. There’s no financing.

Mission 2: You won at $60,000. Now what?

The house was the owner’s homestead. What should you plan for?

• The owner can buy it back for 2 years after my deed is recorded, paying my price and allowed costs plus 25% in year one or 50% in year two
• It’s mine outright the day I pay
• Renovate now, so the owner pays back the work if they redeem

Keep receipts for insurance, required repairs and HOA dues. If the owner asks in writing for a list of what you spent, you have 10 days to send it.

Mission 3: Someone is living there

How do you get possession?

• Ask the court clerk for a writ of possession, 20 days or more after my deed is recorded
• Change the locks once the deed is recorded

The former owner has no right to live in or rent out the property during the buy-back period (34.21(h)), but removing anyone is the court’s job, not yours.

Would you bid on this house?

Buy, investigate or pass? Work through the drill to see what an experienced investor would weigh.