Sell Your Texas Land for Cash — Fast, Fair Offers

Texas farm real estate averaged $2,970 per acre in 2025, up 6.1 percent year over year, with cropland at $2,710 per acre, according to the USDA NASS Land Values 2025 Summary released that August. That single statewide number hides almost everything that matters, though, because Texas is too big and too varied to average cleanly. The Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center tracks rural land prices by region every quarter, and its data shows Hill Country recreational tracts, West Texas ranchland, Blackland Prairie row-crop ground, and East Texas timber trading on four different curves. A per-acre figure that fits Gillespie County means nothing in Hutchinson County.

Carrying costs are the other half of the math, and Texas runs them differently than most states. Texas levies no state property tax at all — property tax is entirely local, assessed by county appraisal districts and collected by county tax offices — and the statewide effective rate lands around 1.40 percent of market value, per the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. That is higher than many states, which is exactly why so many absentee owners eventually sell: an idle tract with no ag valuation keeps generating a real annual bill. Land in active agricultural use can qualify for productive-value appraisal under the state's 1-d-1 "ag exemption," which often cuts the taxable value by 90 percent or more — a break that reverses fast if the use changes, as the legal section below explains.

Most cash-buyer sites skip the part that actually decides what lands in your pocket — the statutes that govern how Texas land transfers, what an inherited parcel has to clear before it can sell, and how the state taxes the gain. We put the specifics here because they change the math on a real sale, and because Texas has a few rules that surprise sellers who assume every state works the same way. None of this is legal advice; a genuinely contested title or a tangled estate still calls for a Texas-licensed attorney.

Knowing the rules ahead of time is what keeps a closing moving instead of stalling. The paragraphs below walk through the four questions that come up most on rural Texas parcels: how inherited land clears title, what happens when several heirs own a tract together, what taxes a Texas sale does and does not carry, and the two Texas-specific traps — the homestead signature rule and severed mineral rights — that can void a sale if they are missed.

Inherited land, probate, and the affidavit of heirship

A large share of the rural Texas parcels we buy came to their owners through an estate, and Texas keeps some of the most seller-friendly probate shortcuts in the country. For a smaller estate with no unpaid debts beyond a mortgage, a will can be probated as a muniment of title under Tex. Est. Code ch. 257 — no administration is opened, and the order commonly issues in 30 to 60 days. When someone dies without a will, distributees can often use a small estate affidavit under Tex. Est. Code § 205.001, available when probate assets excluding the homestead and exempt property total $75,000 or less.

For rural land specifically, the workhorse is the affidavit of heirship under Tex. Est. Code § 203.001 — two disinterested witnesses sign a recordable affidavit establishing the chain of heirs, and it creates a rebuttable presumption of ownership after five years that Texas title companies rely on to insure a sale without a full probate case. Larger or contested estates still run through formal probate, though Texas allows "independent administration" under Tex. Est. Code ch. 401–404, where the executor proceeds with minimal court supervision. We build whichever path applies into the offer so the closing date is realistic rather than wishful.

Multiple heirs and the Partition of Heirs Property Act

Land that passed down through two or three generations without a formal estate often ends up owned by a scattered group of relatives, each holding an undivided fractional interest. Texas adopted the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act in 2017, codified at Tex. Prop. Code ch. 23A. The act gives co-owners a right of first refusal and a court-ordered appraisal at fair market value before any forced partition sale — protections that keep one heir from being pushed out cheaply and that did not exist under the older partition rules.

For a seller, the practical takeaway is simpler than the statute. We can buy one heir's fractional interest, or we can help coordinate all of the owners toward a single clean sale, and either way a local Texas title company confirms every signature the deed needs. Pair the partition act with the affidavit-of-heirship path above and most inherited Texas tracts can transfer without anyone setting foot in a courtroom. If your family's land is spread across several names and several states, say so at the start — it changes the paperwork, not our willingness to buy.

No transfer tax, no income tax, and what you keep

Here is where Texas beats almost every other state we buy in. Texas charges no state real estate transfer tax — one of only a handful of states without one — so there is no excise stamp skimmed off the sale price at closing. Texas also has no state personal income tax, a rule fixed in the constitution at Tex. Const. art. VIII, § 24-a, which means the state takes nothing off a land-sale gain. For an out-of-state heir used to a home state that taxes both, the difference in net proceeds can be real money.

Federal rules still apply on top. The IRS taxes long-term gains on land held more than a year at 0, 15, or 20 percent depending on income under IRS Topic No. 409, and raw land generally qualifies as a capital asset under 26 U.S. Code § 1221. Your basis — the stepped-up value at inheritance, or your purchase price plus improvements — sets the taxable gain. Recording the deed is a local cost, set county by county under Tex. Local Gov't Code § 118.011, and it is modest. We do not prepare returns, but every seller leaves with a clean closing statement an accountant can work straight from.

Homestead signatures, mineral rights, and the ag rollback

Two Texas rules trip up sellers and buyers who assume the deed is straightforward. First, the homestead. The Texas homestead is the strongest in the nation under Tex. Const. art. XVI, §§ 50–51, and a homestead can be conveyed only by a deed signed by both spouses, regardless of which spouse holds record title, under Tex. Fam. Code § 5.001. Selling from a married owner without both signatures is voidable, so we confirm marital status and homestead history early rather than at the closing table.

Second, minerals. Texas has one of the most developed mineral-rights regimes anywhere, the mineral estate can be severed from the surface, and once severed it is the dominant estate — regulated by the Texas Railroad Commission. Rural Texas tracts frequently have minerals retained by a prior owner, so we verify whether minerals convey rather than assume. One more surprise catches owners of ag-valued land: changing the use triggers a rollback of the prior three years of tax savings under Tex. Tax Code § 23.55. When any of these appear in a title search, we tell you what we are seeing — the county probate and title matters are heard in that county's court under the Texas Judiciary system, and your title company coordinates the rest.

Texas has 254 counties — more than any other state — and we buy land in every one of them. The seven counties profiled above are where our Texas activity is heaviest right now, but a written cash offer does not depend on your parcel sitting in a target county. Rolling Plains ranchland up near the Red River, a Trans-Pecos section out past the Pecos River, a Blackland Prairie quarter near Waco, a Big Thicket tract in the shadow of Big Thicket National Preserve — the process is the same, and so is our interest in buying.

The list below groups all 254 counties by region so you can find yours quickly. Texas regions blend at their edges, and a county near a boundary can carry traits of both, so treat these groupings as geography rather than hard lines. We do not yet publish a separate page for each county, so these are plain text rather than links — but every county here is one we will make an offer in.

Panhandle and South Plains. Dallam, Sherman, Hansford, Ochiltree, Lipscomb, Hartley, Moore, Hutchinson, Roberts, Hemphill, Oldham, Potter, Carson, Gray, Wheeler, Deaf Smith, Randall, Armstrong, Donley, Collingsworth, Parmer, Castro, Swisher, Briscoe, Hall, Childress, Bailey, Lamb, Hale, Floyd, Motley, Cottle, Cochran, Hockley, Lubbock, Crosby, Dickens, King, Yoakum, Terry, Lynn, Garza, Kent, Gaines, Dawson, Borden, Scurry.

West Texas, Permian Basin, and Trans-Pecos. El Paso, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Presidio, Brewster, Terrell, Pecos, Reeves, Ward, Winkler, Loving, Crane, Upton, Reagan, Ector, Midland, Andrews, Martin, Howard, Glasscock, Sterling, Crockett, Val Verde.

Concho Valley and the Big Country. Tom Green, Irion, Coke, Concho, Schleicher, Sutton, Menard, McCulloch, Runnels, Mitchell, Nolan, Taylor, Jones, Shackelford, Callahan, Fisher, Haskell, Stonewall, Throckmorton, Stephens, Eastland, Coleman, Brown, Comanche, Mills, San Saba.

Rolling Plains and Red River Valley. Wichita, Wilbarger, Foard, Hardeman, Knox, Baylor, Archer, Clay, Montague, Cooke, Wise, Jack, Young.

Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex and North Central Texas. Tarrant, Dallas, Denton, Collin, Rockwall, Kaufman, Ellis, Johnson, Parker, Hood, Somervell, Palo Pinto, Erath, Hill, Bosque, Navarro.

Northeast Texas. Grayson, Fannin, Lamar, Red River, Bowie, Delta, Hopkins, Franklin, Titus, Morris, Cass, Hunt, Rains, Van Zandt, Wood, Camp, Marion, Upshur, Harrison, Gregg, Smith.

East Texas and the Piney Woods. Henderson, Anderson, Cherokee, Rusk, Panola, Shelby, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine, Angelina, Houston, Trinity, Polk, Tyler, Jasper, Newton, San Jacinto.

Central Texas and the Brazos Valley. McLennan, Falls, Limestone, Freestone, Leon, Robertson, Milam, Brazos, Burleson, Madison, Grimes, Walker, Bell, Coryell, Hamilton, Lampasas, Williamson, Bastrop, Lee, Fayette, Washington, Travis, Hays, Caldwell.

Hill Country and Edwards Plateau. Llano, Burnet, Blanco, Gillespie, Mason, Kimble, Kerr, Kendall, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Medina, Uvalde, Real, Edwards, Kinney, Bexar, Wilson, Gonzales, Karnes.

Gulf Coast and the Golden Triangle. Montgomery, Harris, Fort Bend, Waller, Austin, Colorado, Wharton, Matagorda, Brazoria, Galveston, Chambers, Liberty, Jefferson, Orange, Hardin.

Coastal Bend and South Texas. Victoria, Goliad, DeWitt, Lavaca, Jackson, Calhoun, Refugio, Aransas, San Patricio, Nueces, Live Oak, Bee, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Kenedy, Brooks, Duval, McMullen, Atascosa, Frio, La Salle, Dimmit, Zavala, Maverick, Webb, Jim Hogg, Starr, Zapata, Hidalgo, Willacy, Cameron.

Rural Texas land sells slowly next to a house, and that gap is where the wrong method costs the most. Listing a Piney Woods timber tract or a Hill Country ranch parcel with an agent commonly runs six to twelve months, and the 5 to 10 percent commission — plus the closing costs sellers typically cover — comes straight off the top. Selling it yourself (FSBO) saves the commission but hands you the whole job: pricing a parcel with few nearby comparable sales, vetting buyers who never close, and lining up a Texas title company on your own — harder still when the estate was never probated and the chain of title still needs a muniment-of-title order or an affidavit of heirship before anyone can sign.

Selling to us trades a maybe-higher price someday for a written number now — a cash offer in as little as 24 hours, no commission, no repairs or showings, closing costs on us, and a closing that can run in 14 days once title is clear. It is not the right call for every tract; land with real development upside and time to wait can do better listed. But for an idle hunting lease, a tax-burdened parcel, or land tied up in an unsettled Texas estate, the direct sale usually wins on net proceeds and speed. The table below lays out all three side by side.