Texas property not listed with county tax office, huh??

[Rlynne]

Recently I've been looking for a rural home to move to, I noticed something peculiar. I found property listed as 000 Paul Road, no real address just zeroes in front.

Not all of the property were vacant a few had homes on them. The ones with homes would tell how many bedrooms and baths but not always square footage.

Curious by this, I nonchalantly asked a realtor why was properties listed on her website as zeroes in front of the road name. She said, oh those weren't filed with the county yet which is why CAD info is unavailable, title companies usually do that when they sale it.

Huh? So when I was able to get internet access I looked up those properties listed with zeroes within the county tax office and they weren't listed.

Now I started to think if she's telling me the truth those properties aren't taxed, otherwise the county appraiser would've gave an appraised value and listed it within the county database.

Now I'm just theorizing here, but one would think as long as the people buying and selling their property don't use a title company or manually file with the county they won't be taxed.

Can anybody shed more light on this?

[weishaupt1776]

There is no law i am aware of that REQUIRES recording

[farmer_giles_of_ham]

I have heard about this from others, too. I knew of one case where there property never got recorded for 12 years, due to a subdivision. The old registration was cancelled, the new one never recorded. When recordation was finally made, thats when the taxes started!

So here is the method- legally subdivide the property, or join it to another property, and make sure the old file is eliminated, and just keep the deeds in a safe place. Voila! Free estate.

[Rlynne]

Well all I have to say is this new info has changed how I had been looking for a home. I think I could stand to live at a 000 address.

[fulltitle]

Originally Posted by Rlynne

Well all I have to say is this new info has changed how I had been looking for a home. I think I could stand to live at a 000 address.

Without Prejudice.
For all you know they acquired the land since it was 'unoccopied' and 'vacant', didn't pay a dime for it and then built houses on it for a profit.

[Rlynne]

Originally Posted byfulltitle
Without Prejudice.
For all you know they acquired the land since it was 'unoccopied' and 'vacant', didn't pay a dime for it and then built houses on it for a profit.

Yes you are correct the possibilites are there.

[ThomPaine]

I believe that Texas is the only Republic that never ceeded (sp) lands to the Federal Government. Therefore, there is a disproportionate number of granted, allodial and patented properties compared to other states in the union. A friend of mine just forwarded me the following pictures from a recent trip to the state capitol. From what I am told, its pretty easy to patent land in Texas Republic, even today.