Hiring an Agent in the Memorial Villages: Six Cities, and the Records Behind the Answers

Which of the six cities is the house in, and whose records answer for it?

The house is in one of six separate cities, and that city's own office answers for it: Hunters Creek Village, Piney Point Village, Hedwig Village, Bunker Hill Village, Spring Valley Village or Hilshire Village. The permit office, the inspection record and the ordinances belong to that city rather than to Houston, and they differ between the six, so the first question is which city the address sits in and whether the agent has dealt with that city's office.

The City of Bunker Hill Village publishes its own permit instructions. General and subcontractors register with the City before applying for and purchasing a permit. Permits are displayed on the job site. Inspection requests go through the city's portal and must be submitted no later than 3:00 p.m. to be scheduled for the next business day. The required inspections are listed on the permit, typically in the order they need to occur, and an inspector signs the permit to show approved or failed status. A failed inspection, or a permit not properly posted, carries a $100.00 re-inspection fee due before the re-inspection is scheduled. The city's own Permits and Development section lists Building Permits Issued and Registered Contractors.

The City of Spring Valley Village runs the same ground through a department of a different name. Its Community Development Department, through the Permits and Inspection Division, approves all new construction and proposed improvements of existing structures, and final approval of all plans, permits and inspections rests with that department. The city also lists the work that needs a permit beyond new construction, among it adding or removing walls, roofing, fences, patios, sidewalks and driveways, water heaters, remodeling and demolition, and it asks that the current International Code Council year be confirmed before plans are submitted.

The City of Piney Point Village states on its own home page what it is: a Type A General-Law Municipality incorporated in 1954, in the Alderman form, with the Memorial Villages Police Department for police services, the Village Fire Department for fire protection, and two school districts named for it, Spring Branch Independent School District and Houston Independent School District.

That is two of the six cities describing their own permit offices, and a third describing itself. What any of the six cities requires comes from that city's own ordinances and its own office. Ask an agent which city hall they would call for your address, then ask that office for its requirements in writing.

What should an agent already know about the flood questions on the seller's notice?

Item 6 and the definitions printed with it, because those are the statute's own words. Item 6 of the notice prescribed by Texas Property Code Section 5.008 asks whether the seller is aware of present flood insurance coverage, of previous flooding due to a failure or breach of a reservoir or a controlled or emergency release of water from a reservoir, and of previous water penetration into a structure on the property due to a natural flood event. Five location lines sit under those three.

The statute defines the terms beside the item. A reservoir is a water impoundment project operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers that is intended to retain water or delay the runoff of water in a designated surface area of land. A flood pool is the area adjacent to a reservoir that lies above the reservoir's normal maximum operating level and that is subject to controlled inundation under the management of the Corps.

Two conditions travel with the item, and a description that drops either one describes a different rule. Senate Bill 339 says in its own Section 2 that the amended Section 5.008 applies only to a contract for the sale of real property entered into on or after 1 September 2019, and that a contract entered into before that date is governed by the law in effect when it was entered into. Section 5.008(d) answers the case where nobody knows: "The notice shall be completed to the best of seller's belief and knowledge as of the date the notice is completed and signed by the seller." Where the information required by the notice is unknown to the seller, the seller indicates that fact on the notice, and by that act is in compliance.

The commission's form says the same thing about itself: it is a disclosure of the seller's knowledge of the condition of the property as of the date the seller signs it, it is not a substitute for any inspections or warranties the purchaser may wish to obtain, and it is not a warranty of any kind by the seller or the seller's agents. Take the current version from the commission's own form page on the day it is filled in.

On the reservoir line, the records belong to named bodies and nobody else. Writing during the 2017 storm, the Harris County Flood Control District recorded that the Corps owns and operates the Addicks and Barker reservoirs and that the district was in daily communication with the Corps on the level of stormwater in the reservoirs and on the release rates into Buffalo Bayou. That is the district's account of a storm rather than a statement about any address, and the storm itself sits on Selling a Memorial Villages Home With a Flood History: The Disclosure and the Records.

What does a house that took flood disaster assistance hand to its buyer?

It hands the buyer a written notice, and the duty sits on the person transferring the property. Under 42 U.S.C. Section 5154a, on the transfer of a property described in paragraph (3) the transferor shall, not later than the date on which the transfer occurs, notify the transferee in writing of the requirements to obtain flood insurance in accordance with applicable Federal law where the property is not so insured as of that date, and to maintain it, and that written notification is contained in the documents evidencing the transfer of ownership. Paragraph (3) is the condition, and it arrives with the duty rather than after it: the property is one for which federal disaster relief assistance made available in a flood disaster area was provided, before the date of transfer, for repair, replacement or restoration of the property, where that assistance was conditioned upon obtaining flood insurance. The duty reaches that property, not every house that has ever flooded and not every mortgaged house. So the question for an agent is whether they have asked the owner what assistance the property received and on what condition.

What has to be on paper before an estate can sell a house here?

Letters testamentary, and then whatever that file's title company writes on Schedule C. Letters testamentary are a certificate of the clerk of the court that granted them, attested by the court's seal, stating that the executor or administrator has qualified in the manner required by law, the date of the qualification and the name of the decedent. Issued under the court's seal by the clerk of the court that granted them, they are sufficient evidence of the appointment and qualification of the personal representative of an estate and of the date of qualification. The court grants them before the 21st day after the date a will has been probated, if permitted by law, to each executor appointed by the will who is not disqualified and is willing to accept the trust and qualify according to law, and the clerk issues any number of letters as and when the holder requests them.

The title half is what turns this into a question rather than a list. The promulgated Commitment for Title Insurance is a contract to issue a policy subject to the commitment's terms and requirements, rather than an opinion or report of title. Schedule C lists the requirements that must be satisfied or the company will refuse to cover them, and the commitment ends ninety days from its effective date unless the policy is issued sooner, or unless the failure to issue the policy is the company's fault. What one estate must produce is written on that schedule, file by file, so ask the agent whether Schedule C has been requested in writing and read.

The authority documents and the title file are set out in Probate in Memorial: Letters Testamentary and What a Title Company Needs, and the disclosure side of an estate sale is set out in Selling a Memorial Home As-Is After a Death in the Family.

How would an agent settle which campus an address is zoned to?

By putting the address through the district's own tool and asking the district to confirm the answer in writing before an offer, rather than answering from memory. Spring Branch ISD states the rule on its Find My Zoned School page: an attendance area is established for each Spring Branch ISD school, and students attend the school located in the attendance area in which they reside.

The way to settle a specific address is the locator. Spring Branch ISD SchoolSearch is an interactive application that answers for one address and leaves no document behind, which is why the record a purchase file keeps is the district's own written reply. One of the six cities, Piney Point Village, names two districts on its own home page, and the second district publishes an address lookup of its own, School Navigator.

Campus figures, each cited to the body that published it, sit in Memorial Villages Schools by the Numbers, Ratings Cited to the Issuing Body. The question for an agent here is narrower: will they run the exact address through the district's own tool and ask the district to put the answer, for that address and that school year, in writing before an offer goes out.

Which party does the agent represent, and when does Texas put that in writing?

Texas answers both halves in statute: the broker who represents you is your agent, and the written notice about representation is due at the license holder's first substantive communication with you about specific real property. The vocabulary most readers meet first comes from elsewhere. The National Association of REALTORS consumer guide on agency and non-agency relationships says these relationships are defined by state law and that the options available vary widely between states. It says a licensed real estate professional is your agent when you have hired them to represent you, that a seller's agent has fiduciary duties to the seller and that sellers usually establish that relationship in a listing agreement, and that a buyer's agent works with the buyer to represent their best interests. It names single agency, dual agency, subagency and designated agency as arrangements some states permit, and describes non-agency relationships, where the professional gives advice or assistance without acting on behalf of a buyer or seller and generally has no fiduciary duties. Every one of those is a description of what varies by state. The guide carries two qualifiers of its own: an opening note that consumer guides do not constitute any change in association policy, and a closing line that practices may vary based on state and local law.

The Texas floor sits in Texas Occupations Code Section 1101.557. A broker who represents a party in a real estate transaction, or who lists real estate for sale under an exclusive agreement for a party, is that party's agent. That broker must inform the party if the broker receives material information related to a transaction to list, buy, sell or lease the party's real estate, including the receipt of an offer by the broker, and shall, at a minimum, answer the party's questions and present any offer to or from the party. The words at a minimum make that a floor, so what sits above the floor is the thing you are actually asking about when you interview somebody.

The notice is the document you can hold. Texas Occupations Code Section 1101.558 requires that, at the time of a license holder's first substantive communication with a party about specific real property, the license holder provide written notice in at least a 10-point font that describes the ways in which a broker can represent a party, including as an intermediary, the basic duties and obligations a broker has to a party it represents, the basic obligations a broker has to a party it does not represent, and the name, license number and contact information for the license holder and that person's supervisor and broker, if applicable. The commission prescribes the text of that notice by rule.

Subsection (c) names three situations in which that notice is not required: a proposed transaction for a residential lease of less than one year where a sale is not being considered, a meeting with a party the license holder knows is represented by another license holder, and a communication at a property held open for any prospective buyer or tenant where the communication concerns that property.

An earlier and simpler duty sits in the same section. A license holder who represents a party in a proposed real estate transaction discloses that representation, orally or in writing, at the time of the license holder's first contact with another party to the transaction or with another license holder who represents another party. The notice sits in this site's footer.

What changes when one broker represents both the buyer and the seller?

The duties change rather than double: a broker must agree to act as an intermediary under the subchapter if the broker agrees to represent both a buyer or tenant and a seller or landlord in a transaction, and Texas Occupations Code Section 1101.561 states the consequence in one sentence: "The duties of a license holder acting as an intermediary under this subchapter supersede the duties of a license holder established under any other law, including common law."

Texas Occupations Code Section 1101.559 sets the conditions. A broker may act as an intermediary only where the broker obtains written consent from each party, and where the written consent of the parties states the source of any expected compensation to the broker. A written listing agreement to represent a seller or landlord, or a written agreement to represent a buyer or tenant, that authorizes the broker to act as an intermediary is sufficient to establish consent only where that agreement specifies in conspicuous bold or underlined print the conduct prohibited under Section 1101.651(d). An intermediary shall act fairly and impartially. Under Section 1101.560 the broker may appoint an associated license holder to communicate with and carry out the instructions of one party and another to the other party, but only where the parties' written consent authorizes the appointment and the broker gives written notice of it to all parties, and only an appointed license holder may provide opinions and advice during negotiations to the party that license holder is appointed to.

The prohibited conduct is the block to look for. A broker acting as an intermediary, and any broker or sales agent appointed under Section 1101.560, may not disclose to the buyer or tenant that the seller or landlord will accept a price less than the asking price, unless otherwise instructed in a separate writing by the seller or landlord; may not disclose to the seller or landlord that the buyer or tenant will pay a price greater than the price submitted in a written offer, unless otherwise instructed in a separate writing by the buyer or tenant; may not disclose any confidential information or any information a party has instructed in writing not to disclose, unless separately instructed in writing by that party, unless disclosure is required by the chapter or by a court order, or unless the information materially relates to the condition of the property; may not treat a party to a transaction dishonestly; and may not violate the chapter.

Two questions come off that page for a reader holding an agreement. Is the bold or underlined block in the document in front of you, and what does the consent say about where compensation to the broker is expected to come from?

What can this page not tell you?

It cannot tell you what any of the six cities requires: each city's own ordinances and office answer that. It cannot tell you the flood zone, floodplain status or elevation of any address, street or village, since none was read and none may be published. It cannot tell you which campus any address is zoned to, since that is settled by the district for one address at a time.

It cannot tell you what any particular title company will require, since those requirements are written on Schedule C file by file. It cannot tell you what a written agreement in front of you says, since it is a private contract and its terms are whatever the parties wrote. It cannot tell you whether any particular rule reaches a particular sale, which is a question for your own attorney.

An owner or buyer in the Memorial Villages who wants these questions answered for their own address can put them to Paige Martin of Real Broker, LLC.