Do you have to disclose past fire damage in Texas?
Yes. A Texas residential seller must give a written Seller’s Disclosure Notice (Tex. Prop. Code §5.008), and “previous fires” is a specifically listed item you have to disclose — even if the damage was fully repaired. Skipping it is where sellers get into real trouble, so disclosure isn’t the risk; hiding it is.
Can you sell a fire-damaged house as-is in Texas?
Yes. Texas follows caveat emptor, and most contracts sell the home “as is,” which is a normal, legal way to sell a damaged house without promising repairs. The one hard limit: an as-is clause is void if the seller fraudulently conceals or misrepresents known damage. Disclose the fire, sell as-is, and the as-is protection actually holds.
Who controls the insurance money?
If the home has a mortgage, your lender is typically named as loss payee on the fire policy and has rights to the claim proceeds — usually directing them toward repairs or the loan balance rather than cutting you a free check. That’s a big reason a straightforward cash sale can be simpler than fighting the carrier and the servicer over a repair escrow.
Why sell instead of rebuild?
Rebuilding means contractors, permits, an insurance holdback released in stages, and months of carrying a house you can’t live in. A cash sale takes the damaged house off your hands as-is, on your timeline.
A fire-damaged Texas house, in numbers
- Median sale price
- $356,000 (Redfin state market tracker, May 2026)
- Property tax while it sits
- ~1.8% a year (#6 highest of the 50 states and D.C.), about $534 a month on a median-priced home, owed whether or not anyone can live in it
- Cost of a traditional sale
- about $24,493 on the median: $20,933 commission (5.88%) + $3,560 closing costs
- Transfer tax rule
- No state real estate transfer tax. Title company closing is standard.
- Market clock
- 56 days median to go under contract once listed (Redfin state market tracker, May 2026)
- Closing custom
- title or escrow closings are standard in Texas
What an unlivable Texas house costs each month
A house you cannot live in still sends every bill. At Texas's roughly 1.8% effective property-tax rate, a median-priced home owes about $534 a month (about $6,408 a year), and the mortgage, the insurance on a vacant structure and the utilities that keep it from freezing or flooding keep running while adjusters and contractors schedule visits. And if the plan is to repair and list, the median Texas listing still needs about 56 days to go under contract (Redfin state market tracker, May 2026), roughly $983 more in property tax alone.
Rebuild and list: the Texas selling costs still apply
Rebuilding doesn't skip the cost of selling. On the Texas median of about $356,000 (Redfin state market tracker, May 2026), a traditional listing gives up roughly $20,933 in commission at 5.88%, about $3,560 in seller closing costs, with no state transfer tax on the typical sale, about $24,493 in all, leaving roughly $331,507 before the mortgage payoff and before the repair bill itself. Compare any as-is offer against that after-cost number, not against the list price.
If the property taxes fall behind
With the household displaced and the claim dragging, the tax bill on an empty house is easy to miss, and Texas's collection process runs on its own deadlines. After a property-TAX foreclosure sale: homestead (and agricultural) owners may redeem within 2 YEARS from the date the purchaser's deed is recorded, paying the bid amount plus costs plus a 25% premium in year one or 50% in year two. Non-homestead property: 180 days, 25% premium. Clock runs from deed recording, not auction day. (Tex. Tax Code §34.21) If notices are going to the damaged address, have them forwarded and get the county's payoff figure early.
The honest math on a fire-damaged Texas house
Between the insurance holdback, a lender-controlled claim check, and Texas property taxes that keep running on a home nobody can occupy, a fire-damaged house bleeds money and time while you wait on adjusters and contractors.
The real comparison is a clean as-is cash sale — disclosed, closed in days — against months of repair coordination for a house you may not want to keep anyway. Weigh the certainty against the retail upside; for many owners after a fire, done beats maximized.
