The Texas records that decide what a home really costs and what the seller has to tell you: disclosure law, property-tax reset, the official registry, and the FEMA flood map — sourced, with the county offices that hold the files.
Check the records behind the address before you offer.
Check any address — free previewThe legal standard: Texas Property Code 5.008 requires sellers of single-family residential property to deliver a written Seller's Disclosure Notice disclosing known conditions, including flooding history and floodplain status.
Texas sellers must deliver the Seller's Disclosure Notice (TREC OP-H) under Property Code 5.008. After Hurricane Harvey the notice was strengthened on flooding: floodplain status, prior flooding, flood-pool location, flood repairs and flood-insurance proceeds must be answered. It states the seller's knowledge only — still order an inspection and a flood determination.
Sources: comptroller.texas.gov · comptroller.texas.gov · sor.dps.texas.gov · legalclarity.org
Do not budget on the seller's bill: Texas values follow the market each year regardless of a sale, and a seller's 10% homestead cap and exemptions do not transfer to you. File your own homestead exemption after closing and protest the first appraisal notice you receive.
Homestead: A residence homestead gets a $140,000 exemption from school-district taxes under Tax Code 11.13(b) — raised from $100,000 when voters approved Proposition 13 (Senate Bill 4) in November 2025, effective for tax year 2025 (Comptroller), with additional local-option and over-65/disabled exemptions possible; you must apply to your county appraisal district.
Texas Public Sex Offender Website is run by Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), Crime Records. Search it by the home's address before you offer — and search again before closing, because registry data changes as people move.
Open the official Texas registry
You can also search every state at once through the federal National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW). A CurbFacts report shows the registry count for the home's ZIP — the same public data, organized for the decision.
The only flood map that decides a lender's insurance requirement is FEMA's — the National Flood Hazard Layer behind the official FEMA flood map viewer. Listing sites license private models that can and do disagree with it; when they conflict, the FEMA map is the one your lender and insurer use.
Check the exact parcel, not the ZIP code: flood-zone boundaries cut through streets, and two houses side by side can sit in different zones.
Many new subdivisions sit in a Municipal Utility District or Public Improvement District that levies its own tax or assessment on top of county, city and school taxes to repay infrastructure bonds; sellers must give a statutory Notice to Purchaser of Special Taxing or Assessment District (Texas Water Code 49.452 / Property Code 5.014), and the added rate can be substantial in newer communities.
The Comptroller sets the protest deadline at May 15 or 30 days after the appraisal district mails your notice of appraised value, whichever is later — a buyer who closes in spring can miss the first year's window if the notice goes to the seller.
What the Texas disclosure does and does not cover, section by section, and the questions it never answers.
Read the guideHow to run an address through the official Texas registry, and how to read what comes back.
Read the guideRecords live at the county level — assessor, recorder, permits. Pick the county for its records checklist.
Sourced registry counts and FBI-reported county crime for 1,749 ZIP codes in Texas — the registry figure is each ZIP’s own; the crime record is its county’s, labeled as such. Every figure dated.
Every CurbFacts report pulls the public records behind an address — flood determination, registry, tax reset, price history, permits, and what's planned nearby — and shows its sources.
Check any address — free preview