The Seller's Disclosure Notice (OP-H): What Texas FSBO Sellers Must Reveal

If you're selling your San Antonio home without an agent, the Seller's Disclosure Notice is the single most consequential document you'll hand a buyer — more than the contract, more than the survey. Texas Property Code § 5.008 requires it for almost every residential sale of a single unit, and the TREC/TAR promulgated form most sellers use is OP-H (the TREC version; TAR publishes a longer variant, form 1406). Fill it out wrong and a buyer can terminate before closing, rescind after closing, or sue you for fraud and DTPA damages years later.

This is what the form actually asks, what you are legally required to put on it, and where Texas sellers consistently get themselves in trouble.

The statute behind the form: Property Code § 5.008

Section 5.008 requires the seller of residential real property comprising not more than one dwelling unit to deliver a written notice of the property's condition to the buyer on or before the effective date of the contract. The statute lists the specific categories the notice must cover and provides a model form — OP-H tracks that model almost verbatim.

A few things the statute is clear about:

• The disclosure is based on the seller's actual knowledge as of the date signed. You are not required to inspect, test, or hire a professional to find defects you don't know about.
• If the buyer doesn't receive the notice before signing, they have a 7-day right to terminate after receiving it (§ 5.008(f)) and get earnest money back.
• Certain sales are exempt: court-ordered transfers, foreclosures, estate sales by an executor who never occupied the property, transfers between co-owners, and transfers to a spouse or lineal relative. An investor flip where the seller never lived there is not automatically exempt — you still must disclose what you know.

If you're a FSBO seller who has lived in the house, assume you owe the full notice.

What OP-H actually asks

The form runs four to five pages and is organized into sections. Walk through it in this order:

Section 1: Items in the property

A checklist of fixtures and systems — range, dishwasher, washer/dryer hookups, garage door openers, security system, pool equipment, sprinkler system, solar panels, smoke detectors, and so on. For each, you mark whether it's present and whether it's in working condition. "Not working" is a legitimate answer; lying that a broken item works is the problem.

The 2024 updates added more detail on solar (leased vs owned), smart-home components, and rainwater harvesting. If your Stone Oak house has a leased Sunrun system with a UCC-1 filing, that belongs here and in the contract addendum.

Section 2: Known defects

A grid covering interior walls, ceilings, floors, doors, windows, roof, foundation, basement (rare in Bexar County — most SA homes are slab-on-grade over expansive clay), plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and more. You check "Yes," "No," or "Unknown," and explain any Yes.

On a typical San Antonio slab home, foundation is where most disputes live. If you've had piers installed, if you have active cracks in sheetrock above doorframes, if a plumber ran a static test after a slab leak — those are known conditions. Disclose them.

Section 3: Conditions affecting the property

This is the long-tail list: active termites, prior termite treatment, wood rot, asbestos, lead-based paint (pre-1978 homes also need the separate TREC OP-L Lead-Based Paint Addendum), radon, underground storage tanks, prior fires, hazardous waste, endangered species habitat, wetlands, encroachments, unrecorded easements, lawsuits affecting the property, prior flooding, and the one that trips up the most San Antonio sellers — location in a 100-year or 500-year floodplain, or receipt of assistance from FEMA or the SBA for flood damage.

After the 2018 and 2021 updates, the flood section is explicit: you must disclose prior flooding into the structure, prior flooding onto the property, whether the property is in a reservoir, whether you carry flood insurance, and whether you've filed a flood claim. If your house near Leon Creek, Salado Creek, or Olmos Basin has ever taken water, that goes on the form.

Section 4: Repairs and improvements

Any room additions, structural modifications, or repairs made without required permits, and whether they were in compliance with building codes at the time. The garage conversion your neighbor did in 2014 without pulling a City of San Antonio DSD permit — if you bought the house that way and know about it, you disclose it.

Section 5: HOA, fees, assessments, and litigation

Mandatory HOA, the name and contact, dues and special assessments, common area, and any lawsuits. For a house in a master-planned community like Alamo Ranch (NISD), Cibolo Canyons, or Rogers Ranch, this is where the resale certificate process starts.

What you must disclose vs. what's genuinely optional

The categories on the form are not optional. You cannot leave boxes blank or write "as-is" across the page. Texas courts have repeatedly held that "as-is" language in a contract does not waive the statutory disclosure duty or a fraudulent-inducement claim when the seller concealed a known defect.

What is genuinely discretionary:

• Deaths on the property. § 5.008(c) specifically says a seller has no duty to disclose a death by natural causes, suicide, or accident unrelated to the property's condition. A homicide in the kitchen is murkier — many attorneys advise disclosing to avoid a later fraud claim, but the statute doesn't compel it.
• Prior occupants with HIV or other protected medical conditions. Federal fair housing law prohibits disclosure.
• Registered sex offenders nearby. Not required; the buyer can search the Texas DPS public database themselves. Don't volunteer it.
• Repairs you made yourself that went fine. If you replaced a water heater in 2019 and it works, you don't need to list it, though disclosing it in "Additional information" can actually help the sale.

Everything else on the form — if you know it, you disclose it.

Timing: before the contract is executed

Deliver OP-H to the buyer before they sign the TREC 20-17 One to Four Family Residential Contract, and reference it in Paragraph 7B(1). If you deliver it late, the buyer gets the 7-day termination window after receipt. Most Bexar County FSBO deals that blow up over disclosure blow up because the seller handed over the form at the title company two days before closing — the buyer reads it, sees a foundation repair from 2016 the seller hadn't mentioned, and walks with earnest money returned.

Update the form if anything changes between signing and closing. A new roof leak during option period is a new known defect.

What most people get wrong

• Checking "Unknown" to avoid liability. "Unknown" means you genuinely don't know. If you've lived in the house eight years and you know the upstairs AC doesn't cool past 78° in July, checking Unknown on HVAC is evidence of fraudulent misrepresentation, not protection from it.
• Treating "as-is" as a shield. As-is in Paragraph 7D(1) means the buyer accepts condition — it does not unwind § 5.008 or give you cover for lying. Sell as-is and disclose fully.
• Omitting cosmetic-looking issues that have structural causes. The diagonal crack above the back door in your Helotes home on clay soil isn't cosmetic; it's a foundation symptom, and an inspector will flag it. Disclose and describe what you know ("noticed 2022, no movement since") rather than hoping it goes unseen.
• Forgetting prior insurance claims. Buyers pull a CLUE report. If you filed a hail claim in 2021 and a water-damage claim in 2023, they'll see both. Your disclosure should match.
• Ignoring the flood section because the house isn't in a mapped FEMA zone. The form asks whether the property has ever flooded, not whether it's in Zone AE. A 2013 flash flood that pushed water into the garage is a yes, regardless of the map.
• Using an old version of the form. TREC updates OP-H periodically. Download the current PDF from TREC's forms page the week you list; don't reuse a 2019 copy from a prior transaction.

When to get a lawyer involved

If the property has a material issue with a history — active foundation movement under warranty, a settled mold lawsuit, an unpermitted addition tied into the main structure, a boundary dispute with a neighbor over a fence that crosses the platted line — have a Texas real estate attorney review your disclosure and the contract addenda before you deliver them. An hour of attorney time is cheaper than a post-closing DTPA suit, where treble damages and attorney's fees are on the table under Business & Commerce Code § 17.50.

A licensed inspector is not a substitute for the seller's disclosure, but a pre-listing inspection can tell you what you don't know, so you can decide what to disclose and what to repair before you go to market.

When the disclosure is done and the house is ready, list your San Antonio home FSBO free at /list-your-home, or explore the full FSBO and contract walkthroughs at /resources. If the disclosure surfaces something you'd rather not handle alone, find a Bexar County listing agent at /agents.