Who does what, and when
Five people are involved in buying a house and each one owns a different decision. Most of the confusion in a transaction is somebody asking the right question of the wrong person. Here is the running order — and where a new build diverges from a resale, because it diverges early.
7 min read · Kamesh Sista, NMLS #2719500
Buying a house in Texas puts you in a room with four or five professionals, none of whom work for the same company, all of whom appear at different moments, and most of whom will answer a question outside their remit rather than say "ask someone else."
That is where most of the confusion comes from. Not bad advice — misrouted questions. Your agent cannot tell you what you qualify for. I cannot tell you whether to offer under asking. The title company will not tell you either, and is the only one of us with no opinion at all, which is the entire point of them.
So: the cast, then the running order. If you are on the other side of this — or doing both at once — there is a companion for selling, where the decisions are different and so is the thing that goes wrong.
The cast
Your real estate agent represents you in the negotiation. They find the house, read the market, write the offer, negotiate repairs, and hold the deadlines. In Texas they are also the person who puts the contract together — the TREC forms are standard, and filling them in correctly is real skill. They are paid out of the transaction at closing.
Your lender — me — decides what you can borrow and on what terms. Not what you should spend. I underwrite the file: income, assets, credit, the property itself. I am the one who tells you a figure is real.
The title company is the neutral one. They research whether the seller genuinely owns what they are selling and whether anything is attached to it — liens, unpaid taxes, an easement, an heir nobody mentioned. They hold the money. They produce the closing figures and they conduct the closing. In Texas there is no requirement for a lawyer at the table; the title company does it.
The inspector works for you and only for you, on a resale. They tell you what is wrong with the house. They do not price the repairs and they do not tell you whether to walk.
The appraiser works for the lender, not for you, even though you usually pay for them. They tell me what the house is worth. That is a different job from the inspector's and the two get conflated constantly.
On a new build, add a builder's sales agent. They work for the builder. They are often the most helpful and most responsive person in the process, and they are on the other side of the table.
The running order
Buying — the running order
Who owns each step, and the three that happen at the same time rather than in turn. Open any step to see the ways it can go.
Full pre-approval
Documents read, not described. It decides which houses you walk into, and it is what makes an offer credible.
Credit comes back lower than you thought
Pricing moves in bands, so a few points either side of a threshold is worth knowing about before you shop. Some of what drags a score is fixable in weeks rather than years — a balance paid down before the statement cuts, a disputed item removed.
You are self-employed or on a corp-to-corp contract
Qualifying income is usually an average of two years of returns after expenses, which is almost never the figure you think of as your income. One year is accepted by some lenders where you were a W-2 employee in the same line of work. Bank-statement programmes exist and price higher.
You are on a visa or an EAD
Lenders differ more here than almost anywhere else. Some want a stated minimum left on the document, others accept any unexpired status with a renewal history, others look to the employer letter. It is a lender question, not an immigration one.
Find the house, write the offer
They read the market, know which ISD boundary runs where, and hold every deadline that follows.
There are competing offers
Price is one lever and often not the decisive one. A full pre-approval, a shorter option period, a larger earnest deposit and flexibility on the closing date all read as certainty to a seller. What a lender can genuinely help with is the speed and credibility of the financing.
The house is new construction
You are negotiating with a company working to a price sheet and a quarter, not a seller with one house. Headline price is usually the least movable part; incentives, upgrades and closing costs move more.
Contract executed
The clock starts. Earnest money and the option fee go to the title company, not to the seller.
You want to know what the deadlines actually are
Every date in the contract runs from the executed date, not from when you signed. Your agent should give you the option deadline, the financing deadline and the closing date in writing on day one. They do not move because a weekend got in the way.
Inspect
A Texas right to walk for any reason, for a negotiated few days. You hire the inspector. The dates do not move.
The inspection finds something significant
Three routes, and your agent negotiates which: the seller repairs it before closing, the seller credits you money at closing instead, or you terminate inside the option period and get the earnest money back. A repair done badly to close a deal is worth less than the credit.
It is a new build
Inspect anyway, and twice — at frame stage, when what is behind the walls is still visible, and before closing. A builder warranty is a promise to fix what is found, not a substitute for finding it.
Appraisal and underwriting
The file goes to work the moment the contract is executed. Expect to be asked for one more document than you expected.
The appraisal comes in below the contract price
The lender lends against the appraised value, not the price. So: the seller reduces, you bring the difference in cash, you split it, or — if the contract gives you that right — you terminate. A low appraisal is a negotiating position, not automatically a dead deal.
Underwriting asks for more documents
Normal, and not a sign of trouble. The common ones are sourcing a large deposit, explaining a gap in employment, and evidencing that a gift is genuinely a gift. Every one of them is easier answered in a day than in a week.
You change jobs mid-process
Tell the lender before you sign anything. Employment is verified again shortly before closing, and a change discovered then is a problem; a change known about in advance is usually just paperwork.
Search and commitment
Does the seller own it, and is anything attached to it. Read Schedule B — that is the list of what stays.
The search turns up a lien or an unknown heir
The seller has to clear it before closing — that is what the commitment is for. Most are routine: an old loan never released, a contractor's lien, an estate that was never fully settled. Some take weeks, which is why the search runs early.
You are wondering whether to shop title companies
In Texas the premium is set by the state, so the price is the same wherever you go. What differs is service and how quickly somebody answers the phone in the week of closing.
Sign, and the keys
Figures three business days ahead, by federal rule. They should match the Loan Estimate you started with.
The figures do not match what you were quoted
Some charges may not increase at all, some only within a tolerance, and some freely. That is the entire reason the Loan Estimate and the Closing Disclosure use the same sections in the same order — they are built to be compared line against line.
The final walkthrough turns up a problem
Raise it before you sign, not after. Once funded, a dispute with a seller stops being part of the transaction and becomes a separate matter entirely.
A new build diverges before any of this: the builder's own contract rather than a TREC form, an option period that is often absent, and an appraisal near completion against a price agreed months earlier.
Before you look at anything. Talk to a lender. Not because it is my trade — because the number you get back changes which houses you walk into, and walking into the wrong ones is the most expensive way to spend a Saturday. A full pre-approval means I have looked at documents, not just listened to you describe them. It is what makes an offer credible.
Choosing an agent. Do this roughly alongside. A good one for this corridor knows which ISD boundary runs down which street, which subdivisions carry a MUD or PID, and which builders negotiate.
The offer. Your agent writes it, you sign it, the seller accepts it. The contract is now live and the clock starts.
The option period. This is a Texas thing and it matters more than almost anything else in the process. You pay a small option fee for a negotiated number of days — often around a week — during which you may terminate for any reason or none and get your earnest money back. It is the period in which you inspect. Treat the dates as immovable, because they are.
Earnest money and the option fee go to the title company, not to the seller. That is the first thing they do for you: hold the stakes.
Inspection, inside the option period. You hire the inspector. You get a long report, most of which is minor. What you are looking for is structural, roof, foundation, electrical, plumbing, HVAC — the expensive five. Your agent negotiates repairs or credits based on it.
The lender's work runs in parallel. The moment the contract is executed, I order the appraisal and the file goes to underwriting. You will be asked for documents, and then usually for one more thing you thought you had already sent. That is normal and it is not a sign of trouble.
Title work runs in parallel too. The title company searches the record and issues a commitment — a document saying what they will insure and what they will not. Read Schedule B. It lists the exceptions, which is to say the things that stay attached to the property. Your agent should walk you through it.
The survey. Either the seller's existing one plus a sworn statement that nothing has changed, or a new one. Your agent will tell you which applies. It matters because it shows where the fence actually is relative to where the line actually is.
Closing. The title company produces the final figures and you sign at their office. Federal rules give you the Closing Disclosure three business days before — use them. The figures on it should match the Loan Estimate you were given at the start, and the guide on reading a Loan Estimate explains which numbers are allowed to have moved and which are not.
Where a new build is different
It diverges earlier than people expect, and the differences are not small.
| Resale | New construction | |
|---|---|---|
| The contract | TREC form, negotiated | The builder's own, largely not |
| Option period | Standard, and your protection | Often absent or much narrower |
| Who you negotiate with | A seller with one house | A company with a price sheet and a quarter to hit |
| Timeline | Weeks | Months, sometimes many |
| Inspection | Before you are committed | Usually at frame and at completion |
| Appraisal | Early | Near completion, on a price agreed long before |
| The lender | Yours | Theirs, incentivised |
Three consequences worth planning for.
The long timeline is a rate problem. Agreeing a price in March for a house finishing in November means your rate is unknown for most of the process. Builders know this and often offer a forward commitment or a buydown through their lender. That can be worth real money — enough that taking it is frequently the right call, which I have written about honestly in the builder's lender guide.
The builder's incentive is a trade, not a gift. It is usually tied to using their lender and their title company. That is legal and it is normal. It is also worth pricing: the question is whether the incentive beats what the loan costs over the years you will actually keep it.
You should still inspect. A new house is not a defect-free house. Independent inspections at frame stage and before closing are the two that find things, and a builder's warranty is not a substitute for finding them.
How to compare lenders without wasting anyone's time
Ask each lender for a Loan Estimate. It is a federally mandated form: the same three pages, the same sections, in the same order, from everyone. That is what makes it the only honest comparison tool in the process.
Get them close together, because rates move daily and a quote from Tuesday against one from Friday compares two different markets rather than two different lenders. Compare the whole of page two, not the rate — an attractive rate with large origination charges is a worse deal that looks better.
Do not let anybody tell you a credit check from multiple lenders will damage your score. Mortgage enquiries inside a short shopping window count as one.
The thing worth remembering
Each of these people owns exactly one question.
What can I borrow, and on what terms — the lender. What is this house worth and what should I offer — your agent. Does the seller really own it and is anything attached — the title company. What is wrong with it — the inspector. What will the bank lend against it — the appraiser.
When something feels stuck, it is usually because a question is sitting with the wrong person. Ask me anything about the financing, including whether the deal in front of you is a good one. For the rest, I will tell you who to ask.
Want this applied to your situation?
General advice only gets you so far. Tell me your numbers and I'll tell you what they mean.
This is general information, not advice about your specific circumstances, and is not a commitment to lend. Loan programs, guidelines and limits change. Kamesh Vai Sista, NMLS #2719500, an agent of The Mortgageist Inc., NMLS #2710734. Equal Housing Opportunity.