What a Texas Seller's Disclosure Can and Can't Tell You Before You Offer

Every Houston buyer gets a Seller's Disclosure Notice, skims it for anything alarming, and moves on. It deserves about fifteen minutes, because read properly it tells you where to point your inspector — and occasionally it hands you a way out of the contract.

Start with the box printed in capitals at the top. It says the notice is a disclosure of the seller's knowledge as of the date signed, and is not a substitute for inspections and not a warranty. That single sentence sets the ceiling on everything below it. A seller must disclose what they know. Nothing requires them to go find out.

Which is why a page of clean, unchecked boxes has two completely different meanings. Either the house is sound, or the seller bought it in 2022 and has no idea what happened in 2017. Those look identical on the form. Treat every "unknown" as a question rather than an answer, and hand the list to your inspector.

Three things I look at closely:

The date the seller signed it. The notice speaks as of that date. Signed eight months and one Houston summer ago, it's worth asking what's changed since.

"Wholly" versus "partly" on the floodplain questions. On plenty of Houston lots the back fence sits in the floodplain and the slab never has. "Partly" changes what you're buying, and the difference is often the whole conversation.

Sections 5 through 9 as one story, not five questions. Insurance coverage, claims filed, proceeds received, flooding history, federal assistance. Texas added an insurance section for 2026 that asks, among other things, whether the seller has ever been unable to insure the property — a question worth reading twice. A claim filed with no matching repair is exactly the gap to raise before you're under contract.

Now the part almost nobody knows. If the disclosure hasn't been delivered when you sign, Paragraph 7B of the Texas contract gives you a second exit. If it never arrives, you may terminate any time before closing with your earnest money refunded. If it arrives late, you get seven days from the day you receive it to terminate for any reason at all — including simply changing your mind. That clock is entirely separate from your option period, costs nothing, and doesn't start until the form is in your hands.

I've watched option periods expire while a live 7B right sat there unused. Worth knowing which clocks you're actually on.

Questions on a specific disclosure? Send me the address and the form. Kevan Pewitt, Houston Prime Realty, 281-500-7077.

Read more on the Houston Prime Realty blog

• Didn't Get the Seller's Disclosure? A Texas Buyer's Right to Terminate — Paragraph 7B line by line, all three boxes, and how the 7-day window is counted.
• Seller's Disclosure Insurance Questions: What Section 5 Now Asks — the 2026 insurance section, including the "ever been unable to insure" question.
• Houston's Flood Disclosure Questions, Mapped — eight checkboxes that are really two different questions: floodway, flood pool, Zone AE, and the FEMA/SBA line.
• Do You Have to Disclose That? The Texas Seller's Disclosure Explained — the same form from the seller's side, including who's exempt from providing one.
• The Texas Option Period: When It Starts, How to Count the Days, and What the Fee Buys — the other clock, and the 5:00 p.m. deadline that trips people up.