Short answer: FastCashAnyHome buys houses, condos and land in Houston for cash, as-is: no repairs, no showings, and no fees or commissions charged to you. It’s a cash sale, so there’s no bank loan or appraisal on your side. You get an initial cash offer, confirmed after a quick walkthrough, and closing is 30 days or less. Call or text 267-388-0347.
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If your Houston house is in good shape and you have a few months, an agent will usually get you more. A cash sale earns its keep when something else is in charge: a flood history that scares off lenders, a deed-restriction fight, an estate, a tax bill, tenants, or a first-Tuesday date on a notice. This page is about the Houston and Harris County parts of that decision.
Houston has no zoning, so the deed restrictions matter more
Here’s something that surprises people moving from almost anywhere else. The City’s own planning department puts it plainly: “Houston does not have zoning,” and “The City codes do not address land use” (City of Houston Planning and Development, Development Regulations).
What fills the gap in a lot of neighborhoods is the subdivision’s recorded deed restrictions. And the City itself goes to court over some of them. Under Chapter 212 of the Texas Local Government Code and Sections 10-551 through 10-555 of the City Code, the City “is authorized to enforce, by suit for injunction, certain restrictions that affect subdivisions within the City.” The Legal Department’s Deed Restriction Enforcement Team describes itself as “the section of the City that takes people to civil court” over those violations, and it runs a Deed Restriction Hotline at 832.393.6333 (City of Houston Legal Department, Deed Restrictions).
Why a seller should care:
- The buyer’s title company pulls the restrictions that apply to your lot. A carport, a home business, a commercial truck in the driveway or a garage apartment can all turn into a question at closing if the restrictions say no.
- If a neighbor or a civic club has already complained, there may be a demand letter or a lawsuit attached to the house. That doesn’t stop a sale, but it changes who will buy and at what price.
- Outside the city line, in places like Katy, Cypress or Spring, the City’s team isn’t the one enforcing. Whatever restrictions apply there are enforced by someone else, often a homeowners’ association.
We buy houses with open deed-restriction problems. We’ll want to see any letters you’ve received so the offer reflects what it would take to fix them, and we’ll tell you plainly what we found.
Flooding: what the Texas disclosure form asks, and the county’s buyout program
Houston sellers get asked about water more directly than sellers in most states. The Texas Seller’s Disclosure Notice, written into state law, asks whether the house has “Present flood insurance coverage,” whether it has had “Previous water penetration into a structure on the property due to a natural flood event,” whether it flooded from a reservoir release, and whether the lot sits wholly or partly in a 100-year or 500-year floodplain (Tex. Prop. Code 5.008).
Honest answers to those questions can thin out the buyer pool, especially buyers who need a loan and flood insurance. That’s where a buyer who doesn’t need a lender can matter.
Before you sell, know about one other door. The Harris County Flood Control District runs a voluntary Home Buyout Program. In the District’s words, buyouts are used “in areas several feet deep in the floodplain where structural projects … to reduce flooding are not cost-effective,” and the program “does not provide immediate flood recovery assistance.” Eligibility questions go to its Home Buyout Hotline at 346-286-4020 (Harris County Flood Control District, Home Buyout Program). If your street is in a buyout area, call them first. It may be the better route, and it costs nothing to ask.
If it isn’t, or the timeline doesn’t fit, we look at flood-damaged houses as they are. You don’t have to tear out drywall or treat for mold before we make an offer. Our guide to selling a house with water damage covers the repair-or-sell math in more detail.
Houston is mostly renters, and its houses are younger than you’d think
The Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey has a few Houston numbers worth knowing before you price anything (ACS 2024 1-year, Houston city):
- Only 40.9% of occupied homes in the City of Houston are lived in by their owners; 59.1% are rented. Across all of Harris County the owner share is 53.8%.
- More than a fifth of Houston’s housing units (22.1%) are in buildings with 50 or more apartments.
- The median value of an owner-occupied Houston home is $301,200, almost the same as Harris County’s $301,700 (table B25077).
- The median Houston home was built in 1985, and just 3.9% predate 1940. About 19.3% went up in 2010 or later (table B25034).
Two practical things follow. First, a lot of Houston houses that come up for sale are rentals, often with someone living in them. We buy houses with tenants in place, on the leases as written, so nobody has to be moved out for the sale to happen. Second, a median build year of 1985 means many Houston houses are old enough for original plumbing, roofs and foundations to be the conversation with a financed buyer’s inspector. Those are exactly the items we price in.
Foreclosure in Harris County: the first Tuesday at the Bayou City Event Center
Texas forecloses most home loans without a lawsuit, by a trustee’s auction. In Harris County the Clerk says it plainly: “The first Tuesday of every month an auction is held at the Bayou City Event Center located at 9401 Knight Road.” Notices of Trustee Sale “are filed and posted 21 days in advance of the auction at the County Clerk’s Office at 201 Caroline, 3rd floor,” and they’re also on the Clerk’s website (Harris County Clerk, Public Records).
Before that notice can go out on a house the owner lives in, state law requires the servicer to send a letter giving at least 20 days to cure the default (Tex. Prop. Code 51.002). Put those together and the whole visible part of the process can fit inside about two months. That’s why the first thing we ask a Houston owner in this spot is: what’s the date on the notice?
A fast sale may help some homeowners avoid a completed foreclosure, but timing matters. If a sale date is already scheduled, contact your lender, an attorney or a HUD-approved housing counselor right away, the same day you talk to any buyer. A sale only helps if it can close before that first Tuesday, with the lender’s payoff coming out of the price. Our guide to selling a house in foreclosure goes through the general options.
Houses in Fort Bend or Montgomery County follow the same state law, but the sale happens at that county’s own courthouse or designated area, not at the Bayou City Event Center.
Tax auctions happen at the same place, by eight constables
Harris County’s delinquent property-tax sales also run on the first Tuesday of the month at the Bayou City Event Center, between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. According to the Tax Assessor-Collector, “Properties are auctioned off by the eight (8) Constables simultaneously,” in the order published in the Daily Court Review. The opening bid is the judgment (tax, penalty, interest and attorney fees) plus court and sale costs (Harris County Tax Office, Tax Sales).
A tax sale in Texas isn’t always the end. If the house was the owner’s homestead, state law lets the owner redeem it within two years by paying the buyer’s bid and costs plus a 25% premium in the first year or 50% in the second. For a rental or other non-homestead property, the window is 180 days (Tex. Tax Code 34.21).
Owners who are 65 or older, disabled, or qualifying disabled veterans have another option worth checking before anything else: an affidavit filed with the appraisal district can defer the tax on a homestead and hold off a tax suit or sale while they still live there (Tex. Tax Code 33.06).
When a sale is the right answer, the back taxes are paid from the sale price at closing, the same as any other lien.
This page is for general information only and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Anyone dealing with foreclosure, probate, liens, back taxes, deed-restriction claims, or a legal deadline should consider speaking with a qualified attorney, tax professional, or housing counselor before making a decision.
Inherited a house in Houston? Harris County has five probate courts
Probate in Harris County runs through five statutory probate courts. Courts 1 through 4 sit at 201 Caroline, and Probate Court No. 5 is at 1115 Congress Street, 5th Floor (Harris County Probate Courts).
Whether you need full probate depends on the estate. When someone dies without a will, the estate outside the homestead is $75,000 or less, and the house is the only real estate, Texas allows a court-approved small-estate affidavit that can be recorded to pass title to the homestead (Tex. Est. Code ch. 205). A will, or a bigger estate, usually means probate first.
Two things make an estate sale easier than people expect. An executor or administrator selling in the course of the estate doesn’t have to complete the Seller’s Disclosure Notice, which matters on a house nobody in the family lived in recently. And we can make an initial offer while the court part is still moving, so the sale is ready when the paperwork is. If the house has sat empty since the funeral, our guide to selling a vacant house covers insurance and upkeep in the meantime.
Where in and around Houston we buy
Inside the city limits, from older neighborhoods close to downtown to the subdivisions out toward the Beltway, the City’s no-zoning rule and its deed-restriction enforcement both apply, so we read the restrictions on every house.
Beyond the city line the rules change with the address. Pasadena and Baytown on the east side are their own cities with their own codes. Out west and northwest, in Katy, Cypress and Spring, the City of Houston’s deed-restriction team isn’t the enforcer, so we look at who is. To the south and southwest, Pearland and Sugar Land sit mostly in other counties, and in Fort Bend or Brazoria County the foreclosure notices, tax sales and probate filings all go through that county, not Harris. North of Spring, a house near Conroe is a Montgomery County matter.
We buy in all of those places, and the questions we ask change with the county and the city on the deed.
How a sale to us runs
- Call or text 267-388-0347, or use the form. Give us the address, the rough condition, whether anyone lives there, and anything we should know about flooding, restrictions or the estate.
- Get an initial cash offer. We look at what nearby houses sold for, the condition, and what the repairs would cost, and we show you that math. The number is confirmed after a quick walkthrough; if something changes, a person tells you what and why.
- Close through a title company. A neutral, third-party title company handles the paperwork and the money. Closing: 30 days or less, with flexible closing dates so you can move on your terms. An estate waiting on the court, or a title being cleared, sets its own pace, and we wait for it. We work out closing costs as part of each deal.
- Get paid at closing. No fees or commissions to you. Any mortgage, liens or back taxes come out of the sale proceeds, as in any sale.
Your options, side by side
- List with an agent. Usually the most money for a house that a lender will finance and an inspector will pass. You pay the commission, and the flood questions on the disclosure form can make the wait longer.
- Sell it yourself. Saves the commission. You handle the showings, the disclosure form and a financed buyer’s inspection and appraisal.
- Apply for a county buyout. If the house is in a Harris County Flood Control District buyout area, the buyout program may fit better than any private sale.
- Keep it and rent it. Houston is a renters’ city, and a rental can carry itself. It also means being a landlord; our guide to selling a rental with tenants covers the exit when you’re done.
- Sell as-is for cash. No repairs, no showings, no fees or commissions to you, and a closing date you can plan around. The trade-off is a price below what a fully repaired house would bring on the open market. Our as-is selling guide lays out that trade honestly.
If listing would clearly put more in your pocket, we’ll say so.
Want to see what a direct sale could look like for your Houston house? Call or text 267-388-0347 for a no-obligation cash offer.
Houston FAQ
Does it matter that Houston has no zoning when I sell?
It can. With no zoning, a subdivision’s recorded deed restrictions often decide what’s allowed on a lot, and the City’s Legal Department can sue over some violations inside the city. Expect the buyer’s title company to pull the restrictions, and keep any letters you’ve received.
Will you buy a Houston house that has flooded?
Yes, we’ll look at it as-is. The Texas disclosure form asks about past flooding and floodplain location; we price that in rather than asking you to repair first. If your street is in a Harris County Flood Control District buyout area, call the buyout hotline at 346-286-4020 too.
When are foreclosure auctions in Harris County?
The first Tuesday of every month at the Bayou City Event Center, 9401 Knight Road, according to the Harris County Clerk. Notices are filed and posted 21 days before the auction at 201 Caroline and on the Clerk’s website.
Where do I go for probate on a Houston house?
Harris County has five statutory probate courts: Courts 1 through 4 at 201 Caroline and Court 5 at 1115 Congress Street. A small estate without a will may qualify for a small-estate affidavit; an attorney can tell you which path fits.
The house has tenants. Will you still buy it?
Yes. We buy houses with tenants in place, on the leases as written, so no one has to move out before the sale.
Is your first number final?
It’s an initial cash offer, confirmed after a quick walkthrough. If something changes, a person explains what changed and why.
Are there fees or commissions?
No fees or commissions to you. A mortgage, liens or back taxes are paid from the sale proceeds at closing, as in any sale, and we work out closing costs as part of each deal.
More of Texas
This page covers Houston and Harris County. The statewide rules, from the transfer tax to married sellers, are on Sell My House Fast in Texas. We also have pages for San Antonio, where the city’s vacant-building registration is the big local rule, and for Dallas, where rentals have to be registered every year.
Sources
- City of Houston Planning and Development, Development Regulations, read 2026-10-11
- City of Houston Legal Department, Deed Restrictions, read 2026-10-11
- Harris County Flood Control District, Home Buyout Program, read 2026-10-11
- Texas Property Code 5.008, Seller’s Disclosure Notice, read 2026-10-11
- Harris County Clerk, Public Records (foreclosure notices and auction), read 2026-10-11
- Texas Property Code 51.002, read 2026-10-11
- Harris County Tax Office, Tax Sales, read 2026-10-11
- Texas Tax Code 34.21 and 33.06, read 2026-10-11
- Harris County Probate Courts, read 2026-10-11
- Texas Estates Code ch. 205, read 2026-10-11
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year, Houston city, read 2026-10-11
FastCashAnyHome · 267-388-0347 · We buy houses in Houston and across Texas · General information, not legal or tax advice. No obligation. Your information stays private.