Most Texas foreclosures never go to court. The loan is secured by a deed of trust, and a trustee sells the property at a public auction on the first Tuesday of the month. The notice of that sale is usually the first public record that a foreclosure is under way, and Propertiz reads those notices in Houston.
How a Texas trustee sale works
The process is set by Texas Property Code §51.002. For a residence it runs in four steps.
- Notice of default. The servicer must first send the borrower a 20-day notice of default and a chance to cure, by certified mail (§51.002(d)). It isn't recorded, so nobody outside the loan can see it.
- Notice of trustee's sale. The first public signal is the Notice of Trustee's Sale, or Notice of Substitute Trustee's Sale. It is filed with the county clerk, posted at the courthouse and mailed at least 21 days before the sale (§51.002(b)).
- Online posting. Every county must post filed notices on its website, free and without registration, with the date, time and location of the sale (§51.002(f-1)).
- The sale. It is a public auction between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month, in the courthouse area the commissioners court designated. When the first Tuesday is January 1 or July 4, the sale moves to the Wednesday (§51.002(a), (a-1), (h)).
Some loans take a longer road. Home-equity loans under the Texas Constitution (art. XVI §50(a)(6)) and home-equity lines of credit need an expedited court order under Rule 736, applied for in district court, before the trustee can sell. A few lenders still foreclose through a regular lawsuit. So Texas foreclosures are mostly out of court, with exceptions.
Why the timing is tight
Twenty-one days is the legal minimum between the notice and the sale. In practice notices often go in earlier: in Harris County, notices for a given sale are filed up to about three months before it. Notices also disappear. Clerks may dispose of them after the sale date (§51.002(f)), so a county's posting shows the sales ahead and may not keep the ones that are past. Propertiz reads the Harris County Clerk's notices every day.
Tax sales follow their own track
Unpaid property taxes lead to a different kind of sale. Taxing units sue the owner in district court. After a judgment and an order of sale, the sheriff or a constable sells the property, also on the first Tuesday (Tax Code §34.01). The commissioners court may authorize online bidding (§34.01(a-1)). The owner can still redeem after the sale: homestead and agricultural land for two years after the deed is recorded, with a 25% premium in the first year and 50% in the second, and other property for 180 days with a 25% premium (§34.21). Propertiz doesn't have unpaid Texas property taxes yet, in Harris or in Dallas.
A non-disclosure state: no sale prices
Texas doesn't make sale prices public. The appraisal district rolls carry the date of the last deed, but no price. That changes three numbers on every Texas lead.
- Value. Propertiz uses the appraisal district's market value for the tax year. It is also the value each Texas lead is underwritten with.
- Last sale. Only the date of the last deed is shown.
- Equity. Without a purchase price there is no way to estimate the loan from the purchase. Equity shows as unknown until a mortgage record is found, so on Texas leads it is often unknown.
Property taxes need care too. Texas taxes the appraisal district's market value. A homestead's taxable value can rise at most 10% a year, but a buyer doesn't keep that cap, so today's bill can understate a new owner's. Propertiz computes the tax at your purchase price for the DSCR estimate.
What Propertiz reads in Harris and Dallas
All data is public under the Texas Public Information Act (Gov't Code ch. 552). Foreclosure-sale notices come from the county's online postings (Prop. Code §51.002(f-1)).
Harris County (Houston)
Parcels and owners come from the Harris Central Appraisal District, about 1,628,000 parcels. On top of that, Propertiz reads the notices of trustee's sale filed with the Harris County Clerk and the eviction cases filed in the county's Justice of the Peace courts. The Clerk's notices are scanned images, so Propertiz reads the property from the scan with text recognition. Most notices give a street address. Some give only a legal description.
Not in Harris yet: unpaid property taxes, code cases, probate filings and sale prices. See the Harris County page for the current list.
Dallas County
Parcels and owners come from the Dallas Central Appraisal District, about 762,000 parcels, with bedrooms, baths and year built. The distress signal is the City of Dallas 311 code-compliance requests, which cover the City of Dallas only.
Not in Dallas yet: foreclosure notices, unpaid property taxes, probate filings, evictions and sale prices. The Dallas County Clerk posts trustee-sale notices as scanned PDF bundles, one per city and sale month, and Propertiz doesn't read them yet. See the Dallas County page and the Texas overview.
Contacting owners in Texas
Contact owners respectfully. Mail first. Texas requires telephone solicitors to register with the Secretary of State unless exempt (Bus. & Com. Code ch. 302); follow it, the Texas no-call list and federal rules (TCPA, Do Not Call) for calls and texts.
No leaseback or "save your home" offers to owners in foreclosure. If you assign contracts, Texas requires you to disclose the nature of your contract interest in writing to the seller and to every potential buyer (Occ. Code §1101.0045).