Closing a Bexar County FSBO Sale: Title, Survey, HOA, and the Real Sequence From Contract to Funding

A typical Bexar County FSBO closing runs 30–45 days from an executed TREC 20-17 to funding, and roughly 80% of that timeline is controlled by the buyer's lender and the title company — not by you. Your job between contract and closing is narrow: deliver the seller's disclosure on time, get the HOA resale certificate ordered the day you go under contract, decide whether you're delivering an existing survey with a T-47 affidavit or letting the buyer pay for a new one, and respond to title's requests within 24 hours. Everything else is sequencing.

This is the real order of operations once you and a buyer have signed a One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) — TREC 20-17 — on your Bexar County house without a listing agent.

Pick the title company before you accept the offer

In Texas, the contract names the title company in Paragraph 6A, and under Paragraph 6E each side pays its own title-policy costs per what's negotiated. As a FSBO seller, you don't have a broker steering you to a preferred office, so choose one before you're under contract. You want:

• A Bexar County branch you can walk into — Independence Title, Alamo Title, Texas National Title, Stewart, and Chicago Title all have multiple Bexar offices.
• An escrow officer who has closed FSBO deals and will talk to you directly rather than routing everything through a non-existent listing agent.
• Willingness to issue the title commitment within 7–10 days of receipt of the executed contract and earnest money.

Deliver the fully executed contract and the buyer's earnest money receipt to the escrow officer the same day you sign. The clock on the title commitment (Paragraph 6C) starts from receipt, not from the effective date.

The title commitment — read it, don't just forward it

Title will issue a commitment (Schedule A, B, C, D) within about 20 days under the contract, usually faster. As seller, look specifically at Schedule C — these are the items that must be cured before the policy can issue. Common Bexar County Schedule C items on a FSBO sale:

• An old deed of trust from a refinance that was paid off but never released — title needs a release from the prior lender.
• A mechanic's lien from a roofer or foundation contractor you forgot about.
• A probate issue on an inherited property — a missing affidavit of heirship or a muniment of title that never got recorded at the Bexar County Clerk.
• A divorce decree that awarded the house to you but was never followed by a special warranty deed from the ex.

Fix these yourself or authorize title to pursue them. Every day you sit on a Schedule C item is a day the closing slides.

Survey: existing plus T-47, or new

Under Paragraph 6C(1) of TREC 20-17, you as seller typically agree to deliver an existing survey along with a T-47 Residential Real Property Affidavit within a negotiated number of days. The T-47 is you swearing under oath that nothing has changed on the property since the survey — no new pool, shed, addition, fence line shift, or driveway extension.

If you built a deck in 2021 and the survey is from 2018, don't sign the T-47. Either:

• Order a new survey (typically $450–$700 in Bexar County for a standard residential lot, more for larger or irregular lots).
• Negotiate that the buyer pays for the new survey as part of closing costs.

A buyer's lender will not accept a T-47 that doesn't match what the appraiser sees at the property. Flagging this the day you open escrow saves two weeks of back-and-forth at day 25.

HOA resale certificate — order it on day one

If your property is in an HOA (Alamo Ranch, Stone Oak, Cibolo Canyons, Redbird Ranch, any master-planned community in Schertz/Cibolo), Texas Property Code § 207.003 governs the resale certificate. The HOA or its management company (Spectrum, Goodwin & Company, Associa, RealManage in most Bexar-area communities) must deliver the certificate within 10 business days of a written request. They can charge a fee — commonly $200–$400 — which is negotiated in the TREC HOA Addendum (form 36-9).

Order it the day you go under contract. HOA management companies are slow, they bill before they process, and some require the request through a specific portal (HomeWiseDocs, CondoCerts). The resale certificate discloses:

• Current dues and any special assessments
• Violations outstanding against the property
• Transfer fees due at closing
• Capital contribution or initiation fees the buyer will owe

The buyer gets a statutory right under § 207.003 to terminate if the certificate reveals a material issue, so delivering it late gives the buyer a late-stage exit.

The buyer's financing timeline controls everything else

On a financed deal, the buyer's lender is running a parallel track:

• Week 1–2: loan application, disclosures, buyer locks rate.
• Week 2–3: appraisal ordered. In Bexar County, appraisal turn time runs 5–12 business days depending on volume. VA appraisals (common around JBSA-Lackland, Randolph, and Fort Sam Houston) run slower and often require the Tidewater process if value is light.
• Week 3–4: underwriting conditions — usually a request for updated bank statements, an explanation letter on some deposit, and confirmation of homeowners insurance.
• Week 4–5: clear to close, then the Closing Disclosure (CD) is issued.

Federal TRID rules require the buyer to receive the CD at least 3 business days before consummation. Any material change resets that clock. This is why "we can close Friday" on Tuesday is almost never real on a financed deal.

The real closing-day sequence

On closing day in Bexar County, the mechanics usually run like this:

1. You sign the deed, the bill of sale, the T-47 (if not already signed), the FIRPTA affidavit, and the 1099-S acknowledgment at the title company. Sellers often sign in the morning; buyers sign later.
2. Buyer signs loan docs and brings wired funds (lenders won't accept cashier's checks over $10,000 in most Bexar offices anymore).
3. Lender funds — this is the trigger. On a purchase-money loan, funding and closing are not the same moment. Title receives the wire, then disburses.
4. Title sends the deed and deed of trust to the Bexar County Clerk for recording (now done electronically; recording is usually same-day or next-business-day).
5. You get your proceeds — wire or cashier's check. Request wire; it hits same day if title releases before the 2pm Federal Reserve cutoff.

Possession transfers per Paragraph 10 — almost always at funding, unless you negotiated a Seller's Temporary Residential Lease (TREC 15-6) for a leaseback.

What most people get wrong

• Treating the effective date as the close date. The effective date in Paragraph 23 is when the performance clock starts — option period, financing contingency, title objection. It is not a countdown to closing.
• Not notifying CPS Energy and SAWS. Electric goes through CPS Energy, water and sewer through SAWS — these are different utilities with different cutoff processes. Call both the day before funding with your final-read date. Don't rely on the buyer to handle it.
• Assuming the survey is fine because the house hasn't moved. A T-47 is a sworn affidavit. If a neighbor's fence encroaches two feet, or you replaced an HVAC pad with a bigger one, those are changes. Signing a false T-47 is perjury and voids the survey exception on the title policy.
• Missing the HOA transfer fee at closing. Buyers frequently negotiate for the seller to pay the transfer fee. If the resale certificate shows a $350 fee and you didn't flag it during negotiations, it comes out of your proceeds at closing.
• Negotiating repairs outside the amendment form. Any repair agreement after the option period must be on a TREC Amendment (form 39-9), signed by both parties, and delivered to title. A text message does not bind the contract.
• Canceling homeowners insurance at closing. Keep it in force until you confirm funding and recording. If a pipe bursts at 10am and funding happens at 3pm, you were still the owner of record.

After recording

Once the deed is recorded, file a change-of-address with BCAD if you had a homestead exemption, and confirm your mortgage payoff posted correctly — payoff errors show up two to three weeks later as a lien that was supposed to be released. For tax purposes, you'll receive a 1099-S; if the property was your primary residence and you qualify under IRC § 121, the capital gains exclusion applies, but confirm with a Texas CPA before spending the proceeds.

If you're selling FSBO in Bexar County and want the listing visible to buyers already searching the market, list it free at /list-your-home on RentInSA, browse comparable active listings at /rentals to read the market, or find a closing-focused Texas agent at /agents if the deal gets complicated before it gets to title.