The Texas resale contract form and its recent changes
How the TREC Resale Contract Shapes a Memorial Villages Purchase or Sale on a Set Move Date
Updated October 2026
What do the Texas contract forms mean for buying or selling a home in Memorial Villages before a fixed move date?
In October 2026, TREC's resale contract covers a Memorial Villages single-family resale timed to a move date, but not a condominium, a builder's new home or farm and ranch property.
Paige Martin, Houston Properties Team, Memorial Villages
Source: Texas Real Estate Commission page for the One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale), Form 20-19, October 2026.
Which TREC form covers a Memorial Villages resale, and which version applies?
Form 20-19, the resale contract from the Texas Real Estate Commission, is the form for a resale house in the Memorial Villages. TREC calls it the most frequently used contract form.
TREC says the form is used for the resale of a single family home, a duplex, a tri-plex or a four-plex. Its exclusions matter if your next home is a condominium or a new house sold by its builder. TREC says the form is not for either one.
The version in use also follows a schedule. TREC's notice says the remaining contract forms adopted by reference were available for voluntary use until January 3, 2025, when their use became mandatory. That notice changed the survey, mold remediation certificate and seller notice language.
It is not for use for condominium transactions, new homes being sold by a builder, or farm and ranch properties.
How do the Memorial Villages timing figures sit against a fixed move date?
Median days on market in the Memorial Villages was 36 days as of October 2026. That count runs from list date to an executed contract. The weeks from contract to closing come after it.
A seller with a set departure date can work backward from that date. Start with closing, then the contract period, then a marketing period near the median, then preparation.
Closings ran at 98.4 percent of the final list price. That ratio is measured against the final list price, so it understates what sellers who cut their price gave up against the original ask. A late reduction also uses calendar time a move date may not have.
For a buyer arriving on a set date, supply is the constraint. Only 204 homes sold across the six villages in the trailing twelve months, with 3.8 months of inventory as of October 2026.
The house that fits may appear only a few times a year. Settle financing, flood and zoning questions early so you can act when it does.
Which Memorial Villages records belong on the file before the contract is signed?
Each of the six villages (Hunters Creek, Piney Point, Hedwig, Bunker Hill, Spring Valley and Hilshire) is its own city with its own code and permit office. Ask the village the house sits in for its permit record.
Pull the parcel's Harris Central Appraisal District account. It lists the taxing units, the recorded exemptions and the reported living area. That living area can omit unpermitted additions.
Settle the flood plain answer for the address itself. Check the parcel in the Harris County Flood Education Mapping Tool. Then confirm it on the effective Flood Insurance Rate Map through FEMA's Map Service Center.
Paige Martin's team keeps its own research separating the areas that flood from the areas outside the flood plain. It shares those details with clients.
If campus zoning matters, ask Spring Branch ISD in writing for the zoned elementary, middle and high school for the exact address and school year. Houston ISD's published boundary map takes in the southern edge of Hunters Creek Village and Piney Point Village.
On a fixed date, these answers are easier to have in hand before the contract's deadlines start running.
How do you start with Paige Martin when the move date is already set?
Paige works with people seriously considering a Memorial Villages-area move in the next 6 to 18 months. Send the address, the move date, and whether you are buying, selling or doing both.
If you are selling, request a Memorial Villages home valuation. Ask which closed sales of similar age, lot size and condition in your village the range rests on.
Paige has sold over $100 million of Memorial Villages real estate since 2002. Her team's analysis covers over 512,000 Houston home sales across 20 years. Ask what that work says about resale value on the streets your move depends on.
Questions & answers
Memorial Villages questions, answered
Does a buyer have to order a new survey under the current TREC forms?
Not under the wording TREC adopted. Its notice says Paragraph 6C(2) now reads "Buyer may obtain a new survey" instead of "Buyer shall obtain a new survey." A condition comes with it. A buyer who ultimately fails to obtain the survey has no right to terminate under Paragraph 2B of the Third Party Financing Addendum because the survey was not obtained.
TREC made that change in lieu of providing a "no survey required" option. The survey paragraph stays in the form, and only its verb changed. The consequence lands on timing. A buyer working toward a fixed closing who wants a survey should decide early who orders it and when. A missing survey does not open that financing-addendum termination route. On a Memorial Villages lot, the survey sits beside the other address-level records: the village's permit file, the Harris Central Appraisal District account and the parcel's flood plain answer. Ask your agent which of those are already in hand before the option period begins.
Does the TREC contract mention mold remediation certificates?
Yes. TREC added Paragraph 6E(11) because Texas law requires a seller to give a buyer a copy of any mold remediation certificate issued during the five years preceding the sale. The paragraph appears in the contract forms except the Unimproved Property Contract. That means it is in the resale contract used for a Memorial Villages house.
The certificate comes from the remediation side. Under Texas Occupations Code Section 1958.154, the license holder who completes mold remediation gives a certificate to the property owner. The deadline is the 10th day after the work is completed. Sections of the Memorial Villages have flooded in the past. A house that took water and was repaired may therefore have one or more certificates in its file. A seller on a set schedule gathers them before listing, along with the repair invoices and any flood claim record. A buyer can ask for them during the option period instead of discovering them late.
What changed in Paragraph 6E(12) about notices a seller must give?
TREC modified Paragraph 6E(12) to add specific examples of the types of notices that should be listed there. It also added a caution. A seller's failure to provide required notices may give the buyer certain remedies, such as the ability to terminate the contract. On a fixed move date, a missing notice is a schedule risk as well as a paperwork one.
Read the examples on the current form, since that list belongs to TREC. Then match each example against the house. A Memorial Villages seller works from records. Those include the village's permit file for the property, the Harris Central Appraisal District account and the flood plain answer for the address. Where a notice applies, deliver it early so the buyer's remedy never comes into play near closing. A buyer reading the paragraph can ask one question before the option period ends. Has every notice it lists either been delivered or been confirmed as not applying?
Can I weigh more than one offer when my move date is fixed?
Yes. TREC's page for the resale contract says a seller may receive, review and negotiate several offers simultaneously. On a set schedule, you can compare price and terms side by side, including the closing date each buyer proposes. According to TREC, the listing agent represents the seller and has a duty to present every offer in a timely manner.
Before listing, agree with your agent on how offers will reach you and how quickly. One broker may end up representing both sides as an intermediary. In that case, TREC says the intermediary and any appointed license holders may not tell a buyer the seller will accept less than the asking price. Your written authorization is the only exception. Set your number from closed sales of similar age, lot size and condition inside your own village. A first price that holds means the calendar goes to contracts, not reductions.
Should I test the commute before signing a contract timed to a new job?
Yes, before the contract is signed. A typical weekday drive from the Memorial Villages takes about 20 minutes to downtown Houston and about 30 minutes to the Texas Medical Center. Rush-hour peaks run longer, and the spread depends on which of the six villages you start from. Drive your own route from the specific address at your own commute hour.
The roads a commute uses are few. Interstate 10 bisects the wider Memorial area, and Beltway 8 is its other principal freeway. Memorial Drive is the east-west arterial the villages grew along. It runs about 20 miles from Interstate 45 west to State Highway 6, passing through Hunters Creek, Piney Point and Bunker Hill. On a house-hunting trip, drive from the actual address to the actual destination at the hour you would leave. Note which village the listing sits in at the same time, since each of the six runs its own ordinances and permit office.