Sell My House As-Is, in Any Condition

What Does Selling a House As-Is Mean?

"As-is" is a specific legal term in a Texas contract, not just marketing language. When a seller and buyer agree the property is sold "as is," the Texas Supreme Court has held the buyer is agreeing to make his own appraisal of the property and accept the risk that he may be wrong about its condition — "the seller gives no assurances, express or implied, concerning the value or condition of the thing sold" (Prudential Ins. Co. of America v. Jefferson Associates, Ltd., 896 S.W.2d 156, 161 (Tex. 1995)). A valid as-is clause shifts responsibility for judging condition onto the buyer — it's what lets a buyer skip repair demands or price renegotiations after inspection, because the condition was already priced into the offer.

What it doesn't let a seller get away with: an as-is clause is not a shield for hiding known problems. Texas courts have been clear that "a seller will not be protected by an 'as is' clause that the seller induced the buyer to enter into through fraudulent representations or by concealing information" (Prudential, 896 S.W.2d at 162). Selling as-is means you don't have to fix or promise anything about condition — it does not mean you can lie about a defect you know exists.

You Still Have to Complete the Seller's Disclosure Notice

Selling "as is" changes what you promise about condition. It does not change your paperwork obligation. Texas Property Code § 5.008(a) requires a seller of residential property comprising not more than one dwelling unit to give the purchaser a written notice — the statutory Seller's Disclosure Notice — regardless of whether the sale is "as is," unless the transfer falls under one of the exemptions in § 5.008(e) below.

Who Is Exempt From the Disclosure Notice?

Texas Property Code § 5.008(e) exempts certain transfers entirely, including a transfer "pursuant to a court order or foreclosure sale" and a transfer "by a fiduciary in the course of the administration of a decedent's estate, guardianship, conservatorship, or trust." Outside those eleven listed exemptions, the notice is still required — even for an as-is cash sale. Under § 5.008(f), "the notice shall be delivered by the seller to the purchaser on or before the effective date of an executory contract binding the purchaser to purchase the property"; if a contract is signed first, the buyer gets seven days after receiving the notice to terminate.

Selling a House With Fire or Storm Damage As-Is

Fire and storm damage are exactly the kind of condition an as-is sale is built for. You are not required to repair the roof, rebuild a fire-damaged room, or replace flooring before you sell — you disclose what you know, and the buyer prices the damage into the offer instead of asking you to fix it first.

Disclosure Still Covers What You Know

The disclosure form asks whether you're aware of defects in the roof, in "other structural components," and in the property's systems, plus whether the property has taken on water from a flood event (Tex. Prop. Code § 5.008(b)). Fire or storm damage you know about goes on that form even in an as-is sale — the as-is clause changes who pays for the fix, not whether you have to say it happened. If the insurance claim is still open, or you never filed one, that's fine.

What Happens When Deferred Repairs Have Piled Up?

A house with years of deferred maintenance — an aging HVAC system, a roof past its expected life, plumbing patched instead of replaced — doesn't have to be brought current before you sell it as-is. Once a buyer inspects the house and still completes the purchase, Texas courts treat that inspection as an independent basis for the deal: "a buyer's independent inspection precludes a showing of causation and reliance if the buyer continued to complete the purchase after the inspection revealed the same information that the seller allegedly failed to disclose" (Lutfak v. Gainsborough, No. 01-15-01068-CV, 2017 WL 2180716, at *5 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] May 18, 2017, no pet.) (mem. op.)). Selling as-is turns the deferred-repair list into the buyer's problem to price, not yours to finish first.

Selling a House With Code Violations or Open Permits

An open code violation, an unpermitted addition, or a city order to repair or vacate doesn't have to be cleared before you sell. Texas law gives municipalities the authority to order the "vacation, relocation of occupants, securing, repair, removal, or demolition" of a building found "dilapidated, substandard, or unfit for human habitation" (Tex. Loc. Gov't Code § 214.001(a)) — that authority exists whether or not the house is for sale, and it doesn't go away because you found a buyer. An as-is cash sale doesn't erase the violation; it just moves the job of clearing it to whoever owns the house next — we factor an open violation, an active repair order, or an unpermitted structure into the offer the same way we factor in a bad roof, by pricing the cost of resolving it rather than asking you to resolve it first.

Selling a Hoarder House or a Full Cleanout Situation

Years of accumulated belongings, trash, or storage filling every room is a labor problem, not a legal one — Texas law doesn't require a seller to empty a house before closing. You can leave furniture, boxes, and debris where they are; the cleanout gets priced into the offer, the same as a bad roof or a cracked foundation. Full-cleanout houses are sometimes inherited houses — if that's your situation, our sell an inherited house page covers the probate and estate side in more detail.

How We Price a House in As-Is Condition

Pricing an as-is house starts the way an appraiser would: recent comparable sales for similar houses in similar condition, then a deduction for what it costs to bring the house to a sellable, financeable condition — roof, systems, structural items, cleanout, and anything else on the Seller's Disclosure Notice. The deduction is tied to what those repairs actually cost to complete, not a guess.

If you want a number on the house, we buy houses dallas tx and can put a written cash offer in front of you after we see the property — the same is true in a nearby city like Garland, where we're also a regular cash home buyer garland. If repairs piled up because you're behind on payments too, our sell my house in foreclosure page covers the foreclosure-specific timeline.