Recently Sold Homes
A track record of closed transactions across Greater Houston.
Closed transactions I've represented across the Houston area. In Texas this record carries more weight than it would elsewhere, for a reason worth understanding before you price a home.
Texas is a non-disclosure state
Texas does not require sale prices to be recorded in public records. What a home actually sold for is not in the county deed record and is not something a public search will reveal — verified sale prices exist in the MLS and essentially nowhere else.
This has three consequences that matter to you. Automated online estimates are working from thinner data here than in states that publish sale prices, so they are less reliable in Texas than their nationwide accuracy claims suggest. The county's tax-assessed value is an assessment for taxation, not an appraisal of market value, and using it to price a home usually misleads. And an agent's MLS-verified closed history is one of the few genuinely verifiable records of what homes in your area are actually trading for.
How to read a sold record
Look at close date first — a sale from a materially different rate environment tells you less about today. Then compare the sold price against the original list price and note whether the listing was repriced along the way, which says something about how it was positioned initially.
Seller-paid closing costs and concessions are negotiated separately and are not always visible in a headline sold price, so two sales at the same number may not represent the same net outcome. Square footage in listing data typically comes from appraisal district records rather than a fresh measurement, and can differ from an appraiser's own calculation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't I just look up what my neighbor's house sold for?
+
Because Texas is a non-disclosure state — sale prices are not required to be recorded in public records. Verified sale prices live in the MLS, which is why a licensed agent can pull them and a public records search cannot.
Why are online home value estimates less accurate in Texas?
+
Automated valuation models lean heavily on recorded sale prices. In non-disclosure states like Texas that input is largely missing from public data, so the models are working from thinner information here than in states that publish sale prices.
Is the county's tax-assessed value a good estimate of what my home is worth?
+
No. Assessed value is produced for property taxation on the appraisal district's own schedule and methodology, and it routinely differs from market value in both directions. Pricing a home off the assessed value is one of the more common and more expensive seller mistakes.
What should I look at when comparing sold homes to mine?
+
Close date, how the sold price compared to the original list price, whether the listing was repriced, and whether concessions or seller-paid closing costs were part of the deal. Also check where the square footage figure came from, since listing data usually reflects appraisal district records rather than a fresh measurement.
