Transactional Funding in Austin

Not if you follow Texas Occupations Code section 1101.0045. That statute lets you acquire an option or an interest in a contract to purchase real property and then sell the option or assign the contract without a license, provided you don't use the contract to engage in real estate brokerage and you disclose the nature of your equitable interest in writing. Since SB 1577 took effect on January 1, 2024, that written notice has to go to the seller as well as to a potential buyer. Skipping the disclosure is treated as brokering without a license under section 1101.351, and a wilful violation of the chapter is a criminal offense under section 1101.756. Texas has a second disclosure statute that older templates miss: Property Code section 5.0205 requires its own written notice before you enter into the contract to sell an option or assign a purchase contract, telling the potential buyer that you are assigning an interest and do not hold legal title, and telling the property owner that you intend to assign. It is a separate duty from the 1101.0045 disclosure, not the same one restated. We're a lender, not your counsel, so run your contract and disclosure language past a Texas real estate attorney before you use it.

We fund the double close. Section 1101.0045 is written around assignments: you sell the option or assign the contract, with the equitable-interest disclosure in writing. A double close is different in structure. It is two separate purchase-and-sale transactions, A to B and then B to C, and it's the route wholesalers take when a contract is non-assignable or when they'd rather the end buyer not see the A-to-B price. Our transactional funding covers the first leg and is repaid out of the simultaneous resale. Which structure fits your contract is a legal question for your attorney, not a lending one.

Texas forecloses without going to court, and the sales all happen on one day a month. Under Texas Property Code section 51.002, sales are held on the first Tuesday of each month between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at a designated spot at or near the courthouse of the county where the property sits. If that Tuesday falls on January 1 or July 4, it moves to the first Wednesday. Notice has to be posted at the courthouse door and filed with the county at least 21 days before the sale. For a wholesaler that means distressed supply arrives in a predictable monthly batch, and the 21-day posting window is the lead time you get to line up an end buyer and confirm funding before a date that doesn't move.

A title or escrow company, not a closing attorney. A closing attorney is not customary in Texas. The title or escrow company acts as neutral escrow agent, holds the funds, coordinates signing, and disburses after closing. That makes your title company the single most important vendor on a back-to-back deal, because not every one of them will run two closings in a day off the same file. Confirm the company handles double closings before you go under contract, not the week of your close.

No, and that's the point. Texas title insurance rates are promulgated by the Texas Department of Insurance, so the premium is the same no matter which title company you use. Texas also has no state real estate transfer tax, so a second closing on the same day doesn't trigger a state transfer levy the way it would in some other states. Since price is fixed by the state, shop title on service and on whether they'll handle your structure. That's a rare spot in a deal where being picky costs you nothing.

$25 for the first page and $4 for every page after it, and the number is the same in all three metro counties. Travis, Williamson and Hays each charge $25 for the first page of a real property record, $4 per additional page, and $0.25 for every name indexed past the first five. They match because the base is statutory rather than local: Texas Local Government Code section 118.011 fixes the real property filing fee and caps the records management fee, and the counties build the rest on top of it. A two-page warranty deed records for $29, so a double close that records two deeds carries roughly $58 of recording, plus any deed of trust. None of the three fee schedules lists a transfer tax, a deed tax or a documentary stamp, and Texas has no state transfer tax, so the second deed costs you the recording and nothing else. In a transfer-tax state that second deed is the high-cost part of the structure, which is the strongest economic argument this structure has in Texas.

That is where the three counties actually diverge, and the exposure is not symmetric. Travis charges $3.00 for the first deficient page and $2.00 for each additional deficient page, and separately $20.00 or twice the recording fee where the grantee's mailing address is missing. Williamson charges a flat $25 for a missing grantee mailing address and, citing Local Government Code section 191.007(h), can return a page filed with insufficient fees unless funds are provided at twice the filing fee. Hays states that documents not meeting requirements may be rejected or charged double the recording fees set out by statute. So in Travis a defective deed is a small surcharge, while in Williamson or Hays it can be a doubling or a return. A rejection on the A-to-B leg is what breaks a same-day close, so check the grantee address block before the deed goes to the clerk. Travis adds one formatting rule with a price on it: the last page needs at least 3 inches of space at the bottom or an additional page fee applies.

In Travis and Hays you can plan against what the clerk publishes. In Williamson you have to call. Travis says recordings are completed immediately once received in the County Clerk's Office, that most documents other than plats are processed, assigned an instrument number, scanned and returned the same day, and describes e-recording as occurring in real time with immediate confirmation and file-stamped copies on acceptance. It publishes five e-recording submitters authorized under Local Government Code section 195.003. Travis will not record a copy, so paper filings need original signatures. Hays publishes three e-recording vendors and states documents will be processed within a 24-hour period. Williamson County publishes no e-recording vendor list and no turnaround commitment on its County Clerk pages, so schedule a Williamson leg against a call to the county clerk at (512) 943-1515 rather than against an assumed same-day.

Not under the Texas good funds rule, and that rule is statewide rather than an Austin preference. Texas Insurance Code section 2651.202 bars a title insurance company, agent or direct operation from disbursing funds out of a trust fund account until good funds related to the transaction have been received and deposited in amounts sufficient to fund the disbursement. The implementing rule is TDI Procedural Rule P-27 in the Basic Manual of Title Insurance, which states that good funds in an amount equal to all disbursements must be received and deposited before any disbursement may be made, and defines good funds as cash and wire transfers, cashier's, certified and teller's checks, uncertified funds under $1,500, and a short list of government checks. That is the mechanical reason the first leg needs separately sourced money instead of the end buyer's. How your escrow agent applies it to your particular file is a question for them, so confirm it before you go under contract.

More than you would have two years ago. As of August 2026 the Austin area was carrying roughly 5.9 to 6.0 months of inventory, a median 68 days on market, and about 55.6% of active listings have already taken at least one price cut. Your B-to-C buyer is underwriting into that, and if they're a flipper their own exit is slower and softer than the spread on paper suggests. On a double close the risk lands on you, because our funding is repaid from the simultaneous resale. Have the end buyer's proof of funds and their lender's timeline in hand before you commit to a closing date.

No credit check and no appraisal. Transactional funding exists to fund the A-to-B leg of a double close and it is out again the same day, so there is nothing to underwrite against you. Pricing is a flat fee, not a rate. What we do need is a clean, scheduled simultaneous close and a real end buyer.

Up to 100% of the purchase price on the A-to-B leg. You are not bringing a down payment, because the B-to-C proceeds retire the loan the same day. The risk you are carrying is not leverage, it is end-buyer fallout: if C does not fund, you own A. Price that risk into the spread before you sign. Subject to underwriting.