HOA Resale Certificates for Texas FSBO Sellers: What to Order, Who Pays, and How to Avoid a Closing Delay

If your Bexar County home sits inside a mandatory HOA — which is most of Stone Oak, Alamo Ranch, Cibolo, Schertz, Boerne, and the master-planned pockets in far north and far west San Antonio — you cannot close a For Sale By Owner transaction without a resale certificate. Title will not fund without it. As a FSBO seller you are the one placing the order, tracking it, and making sure the buyer gets it inside the timeframe the contract requires. Miss that and you have handed the buyer a free termination right.

Here is what the resale certificate is, what it must contain under Texas law, what it actually costs in the San Antonio market, and the specific ways FSBO sellers create problems for themselves on this one document.

What the resale certificate is under Texas law

Texas Property Code § 207.003 governs resale certificates for property subject to a mandatory property owners' association. When an owner (or their designee) requests one in writing, the association — or its management company — has 10 business days to deliver it. The certificate is a snapshot of the account and the community as of the date issued, and it must include, among other things:

• The current regular assessment and its frequency
• Any unpaid special assessments
• Any other amounts owed to the association by the current owner
• Capitalization fees, transfer fees, or working-capital contributions charged on resale
• Whether the property is in compliance with the deed restrictions, or a list of violations
• The style and cause number of any pending litigation involving the association (except delinquent-assessment suits against other owners)
• Whether alterations require approval and whether any are pending or unapproved on this property

Alongside the certificate, § 207.003 also lets the buyer request the subdivision information — a copy of the current dedicatory instruments (CC&Rs, bylaws, rules, architectural guidelines). Together these are what buyers, buyers' lenders, and the title company actually review before closing.

The TREC addendum that puts it in your contract

When you sell a home in an HOA using the TREC 1-4 (currently form 20-17), the correct addendum is the Addendum for Property Subject to Mandatory Membership in a Property Owners Association (TREC 36-10 in its current version). This addendum does three things you need to understand as a FSBO seller:

1. It names the association(s) and management company.
2. It states whether the seller or buyer pays for the subdivision information and the resale certificate.
3. It gives the buyer a termination right if the subdivision information is not delivered within the number of days the parties agree to on the addendum, and again if the buyer disapproves of the information within a specified review period after receipt.

Read the addendum before you sign. Whichever party the box says pays — that party pays. Do not assume it is customary for the seller to pay in San Antonio; the norm on FSBO deals is negotiable, and buyers' agents will often try to push the fee to the seller because that is what they are used to on listed deals. On a FSBO you have leverage to split it or pass it entirely.

What it actually costs in Bexar County

Resale certificate fees are set by the management company, not by statute, and the range in the San Antonio market is wide. As of recent cycles, expect somewhere between roughly $200 and $450 for a standard resale package, plus separate line items for a transfer fee, a capitalization fee (common in newer master-planned communities), and rush processing if you need it inside the 10-business-day statutory window. Some large management firms — FirstService Residential, Spectrum, Goodwin, Alamo Management Group, RealManage — process through online portals like HomeWiseDocs or CondoCerts. You pay by credit card at the time of order.

Do not guess these numbers when you write your contract. Call the management company before you sign the addendum and get the current fee schedule in writing. The transfer and cap fees often surprise sellers at the closing table because they only saw the certificate fee up front.

Master association plus sub-association: the Stone Oak / Alamo Ranch problem

A lot of north-side and far-west San Antonio homes are inside two associations, not one. A house in the Sonterra or Rogers Ranch area of Stone Oak (78258) may belong to a neighborhood-level HOA and a master association that governs the larger community. Alamo Ranch on the far west side (78253) is structured similarly, as are many Cibolo and Schertz communities off FM 1103 and FM 78.

You need a resale certificate from each association. You need to list each on the TREC 36-10 addendum. You need to pay each fee. Sellers who order only from the sub-association get to closing and find the title company waiting on a second certificate they never requested — and the 10-business-day clock starts over.

If you are not sure whether your property has a second association, pull your recorded deed restrictions from Bexar County Clerk's public records or ask the management company directly. Do not rely on "I've only ever paid one HOA bill" — some master fees are collected inside the sub-association assessment.

Timing the order against your contract dates

Work backwards from the closing date:

• Statutory delivery: 10 business days from written request under § 207.003.
• Buyer's review period on TREC 36-10: whatever the parties fill in (often 3–7 days after receipt).
• Lender underwriting typically wants the resale certificate and CC&Rs in the file at least a week before closing.

On a typical 30-day FSBO contract, order the certificate the day the contract is executed. Do not wait for the option period to end. If the buyer terminates during the option period you are out the fee, but that is a smaller loss than pushing closing because you waited.

Delinquencies and violations show up here

The resale certificate is where quiet problems become loud ones. If you are behind on assessments, it will say so, and the amount will be collected from your proceeds at closing. If the HOA has an open violation against the property — a fence out of spec, an unapproved paint color, a shed built without ARC approval — that violation is disclosed and, in practice, the buyer's lender or the buyer will want it cured before closing.

Order your own resale certificate before you go under contract if you have any reason to think there is a compliance issue. It costs the same, and it gives you time to fix a violation or negotiate credit language into the contract instead of scrambling in the last week.

What most people get wrong

• Confusing the resale certificate with the seller's disclosure. OP-H (Seller's Disclosure Notice, required by Texas Property Code § 5.008) is what you fill out about the property's condition. The resale certificate is what the HOA issues about the account and community. Both are required. They are not substitutes.
• Assuming the management company is fast. The 10-business-day statutory clock is a ceiling, not a promise. Some companies deliver in three days; others take the full ten and then some, particularly around holidays and end of month. Order early.
• Leaving the payor box blank on TREC 36-10. If you leave it blank or write in something ambiguous, you will fight about the fee at closing. Fill in the box. Initial the box.
• Missing the second association. Covered above. Common in Stone Oak, Alamo Ranch, Cibolo master-planned tracts, and any community with an "Estates at" or "Reserve at" sub-plat inside a larger development.
• Not reading the CC&Rs before the buyer does. Buyers who read the deed restrictions the first time during the review period sometimes find something they do not like — RV parking restrictions, short-term rental prohibitions, mandatory front-yard tree species — and terminate. If you know the restrictive covenants, you can address them in the marketing conversation instead of losing the deal at day 25.
• Forgetting the transfer and capitalization fees. These are separate from the certificate fee and are typically collected at closing. Ask up front so they appear correctly on the settlement statement.

When to bring in a professional

If the resale certificate discloses litigation, a special assessment in the pipeline, or a compliance dispute you did not know about, stop and call a Texas real estate attorney before you deliver documents to the buyer. Those disclosures interact with your OP-H obligations, and getting the sequence wrong creates post-closing exposure. This is not the place to guess.

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When you are ready to run your FSBO sale end to end, RentInSA lets you list your home for sale by owner free at /list-your-home, connect with a Texas-licensed agent at /agents if you decide you want representation, and review the rest of our Texas FSBO playbook at /resources.