How to sell part of your land in Texas

When selling part of your land counts as subdividing

You can usually sell part of your land. The catch is that Texas law may treat the split as a subdivision, which needs a plat approved by the county or city before it's legal. The law counts a division however it's made: a metes and bounds description in a deed, a contract for deed, or any other method. Writing a deed for "the north 5 acres" doesn't get around the rules.

Who approves the split depends on where the land sits:

The ETJ, or extraterritorial jurisdiction, is the band of land just outside a city's limits where the city can apply some rules. The city's planning department can tell you whether your land is in it.

What are the exemptions from platting?

Outside city limits

Local Government Code Section 232.0015 lists divisions a county can't require you to plat. The ones landowners use most:

• Every lot is more than 10 acres, and you don't lay out streets, parks or other parts for public use.
• Family divisions: four or fewer parts, nothing dedicated to the public, and every lot goes to a close relative (more on this below).
• Agricultural use: the land will be used primarily for farming, ranching, wildlife management or timber, with nothing dedicated to the public. If that use stops, the platting rules apply.
• A two-way split where you keep one part and the other goes to someone who will subdivide it through the normal plat process.
• Co-owners dividing among themselves, when every part goes to people who owned an undivided share of the original tract, and a plat is filed before any further development.

Counties can also classify divisions and exempt more by their own rules, and many have written subdivision regulations. A call to the county's development or engineering office before you sign a contract saves trouble later.

Inside a city or its ETJ

Under Section 212.004, dividing land into parts larger than 5 acres, where each part has access and no public improvement is being dedicated, isn't a subdivision that needs a plat. Cities can exempt other divisions too. You can ask the city in writing whether your split needs a plat, and it has to answer (Section 212.0115). That answer matters: utilities covered by the law generally can't connect land in the city or ETJ without that certificate (Section 212.012).

Splitting off land for family

Outside city limits, a county can't require a plat if you divide the tract into four or fewer parts, dedicate nothing to public use, and every lot is sold, given or otherwise transferred to someone related to you within the third degree. If any lot goes to someone who isn't related that closely, the platting rules apply.

Texas Government Code Chapter 573 defines the degrees:

• By blood: parents and children, brothers and sisters, grandparents and grandchildren, great-grandparents and great-grandchildren, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews.
• By marriage: your spouse, your spouse's relatives in those same degrees, and the spouses of your own relatives in those degrees.

Cousins fall outside the third degree. This exception is in the county rules only. Inside a city or its ETJ, family splits follow the normal city rules, including the over-5-acre exemption.

Septic rules have a similar break. Under the TCEQ's on-site sewage rules (30 TAC 285.4), a family split into four or fewer parts, each 5 acres or larger, doesn't need to submit subdivision planning materials. If you're giving land or selling it well below value to family, talk to a tax professional about federal gift tax reporting.

The survey and legal description

The piece you sell needs its own legal description. For unplatted land that means a metes and bounds description, which traces the boundary by courses and distances from a known point, prepared by a registered professional land surveyor. The standard TREC contracts call for a survey by a registered professional land surveyor acceptable to the title company.

Ask the surveyor to mark the new corners and, if possible, to describe the piece you're keeping as well. If a plat is needed, the surveyor usually prepares it too. Surveys take time in busy areas, so order one as soon as you have a likely buyer.

Selling part of land that has a mortgage

Your mortgage, or more precisely the deed of trust securing it, covers the whole tract. The buyer's title company won't insure their piece free of that lien, so you need the lender to sign a partial release covering the part you sell.

The lender decides whether to agree and on what terms. It may want a payment toward the loan from the sale proceeds, or to confirm that the land you keep still secures the loan. Call the lender before you sign a contract, and give yourself enough time in the contract to get the release.

Make sure neither piece ends up landlocked

This mistake is expensive to fix later. If you sell the road frontage, the land you keep may have no legal access. If you sell the back acres, the buyer's piece may have none. Texas courts can sometimes find an easement by necessity when a tract is split, but it takes a lawsuit and the facts have to fit.

The simple fix is a written access easement, recorded at closing, that describes the route, its width and who maintains it. Think about utility easements at the same time, for power, water or a septic line that has to cross one piece to serve the other. Our guide to selling landlocked land in Texas explains the access rules in more detail.

Septic and water on the new piece

If the buyer plans to build, they'll need a way to handle wastewater and get water. The TCEQ's septic rules set minimum lot sizes for new subdivisions that use individual septic systems: at least half an acre when the lots are served by a public water supply, and at least one acre when they aren't. Local permitting authorities can be stricter.

Check with whoever issues septic permits in your county, and with the local water supplier, before you promise a buyer the piece can be built on. If the piece will rely on a private well, the local groundwater conservation district may have well spacing rules.

Rollback taxes and ag valuation after a split

Selling land with an agricultural (1-d-1) valuation doesn't trigger a rollback tax by itself. A change of use does. Under Tax Code Section 23.55, when the use changes on only part of a parcel, the rollback applies only to that part. It covers the difference between ag-value and market-value taxes for the previous 3 years.

So if your buyer builds a house on 5 acres, the rollback falls on those 5 acres, and the rest of your land keeps its valuation as long as you keep using it the same way. Each piece has to qualify for ag valuation on its own, and small tracts can struggle to meet the appraisal district's standards. The TREC contracts say who pays any rollback. Our guide to the costs of selling land in Texas covers rollback in more detail.

When the appraisal district splits the account

After the deed is recorded, the appraisal district picks it up from the county clerk and eventually creates a new account for the piece you sold. Ownership is set as of January 1, so the change often doesn't appear until the next tax year. Travis Central Appraisal District, for example, tells owners that when a property bought after January 1 is being split, the ownership won't be updated until the following calendar year.

In the meantime, this year's tax bill will likely still cover the whole tract in your name. Ask the title company how it will split this year's taxes on the piece you sold, so you don't end up paying the buyer's share. Then check that next year's bills show two accounts.

Selling a piece to a neighbor

Neighbors are often the best buyers for a strip or corner, because the land adds to what they already own. The same rules still apply, with one twist: moving a line between two platted lots is a boundary change on the plat.

• Inside a city or ETJ, an amending plat can relocate lot lines between adjacent lots if all the owners sign, no restrictions are removed and no new lot is created (Section 212.016).
• Outside cities, the county's amending plat process is narrower and mostly fixes errors, including errors in the line between two lots (Section 232.011). Other changes may need a plat revision.
• For unplatted acreage, selling a strip is a division of your tract, and the county's rules and exemptions apply. Ask before you sign.

If an old fence doesn't match the true line, fix that at the same time. A recorded boundary agreement or a new survey saves a dispute later.

Step by step

1. Confirm whether the land is in a city, an ETJ or only the county.
2. Ask the county or city whether your split needs a plat or qualifies for an exemption.
3. Order a survey of the piece you're selling.
4. If there's a mortgage, ask the lender for a partial release.
5. Plan access and utility easements for both pieces.
6. Check septic and water rules if the buyer will build.
7. Sign a contract that covers the survey, rollback taxes and any easements.
8. Close through a title company and record the deed, easements and any plat.

Splits have more moving parts than selling a whole tract, and a Texas real estate attorney can review the plat question and the easement before you sign. If you'd rather sell the whole property, or want a second opinion on a split, here's how we work: you tell us about the land, we research it and agree on a price with you, and a Texas title company closes the sale.