The house came with a stack of HOA violations, someone living in it who was not going to leave on their own, and a mobile home with no paperwork. The family wanted out. We bought it.
I’m Raul Bolufe. My company buys inherited houses and heir shares across Texas, and a lot of them come with a folder of angry letters from a homeowners association. I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. It is what happened on a property in Montgomery County, and why we stuck with it for seven months to make about two thousand dollars.
A grandmother’s house and a folder of letters
The woman who owned the house was a grandmother. When she passed, the house went down to her grandchildren. A granddaughter I’ll call Donna, and her brothers.
They did what most families do with a house like that. Nothing. Not because they were lazy. Because nobody knew what the first step was, and every letter that came in made the pile look worse.
And the letters kept coming. The HOA had been writing up the property for a long list of violations. I will not pretend I remember every one. What I remember is that there were a lot of them, that each one had a fee attached, and that the family had no way to deal with any of it from where they were sitting.
There was also someone living in the house. Not paying. Not leaving.
Can you sell an inherited house with HOA violations in Texas?
Yes. We buy them. Here is the thing people do not understand about violations, liens, and the rest of it.
Once you sell to us, that becomes our problem. Not partly. All of it. We call the HOA, we find out exactly what they want, we fix what needs fixing, we negotiate what can be negotiated, and we pay it. You do not write a check to the HOA. You do not go to the meeting. You do not mow anything.
The family on this deal never spoke to the HOA again after they signed. That was the point.
What actually happened, beat by beat
- Donna and her brothers agreed to sell us the house. Notary, deed, done on their end. They were paid, and their part of this story was over.
- Then our part started. The person living in the house was not going to leave on a handshake, so we had to run a formal eviction. That takes time and it is not fun for anyone. We did it.
- Once the house was empty we did the cleanup. I have walked through a lot of houses. This was a huge one.
- We went through the HOA violations and cleared every one of them.
- Then title. The property was actually two tracts, lots 13 and 14. When the title company ran it, one of those two lots was sitting under the wrong entity name. That had to be fixed before anyone could insure the sale.
- There was a mobile home on the property too, and a mobile home does not pass with the land the way a house does. It needed its own bill of sale. So that got done.
- Seven months of back and forth later, we closed with Alamo Title in May.
Somewhere in the middle of all this I wrote a note to my team that said, and I quote, “after seven months of back and forth, we only make 2K.” That is not a typo. Two thousand dollars, before anybody on my team got paid for their time.
Why we finished it anyway
People ask me why I did not walk away when the numbers got that thin. Two reasons.
First, by the time we knew how bad it was, Donna and her brothers had already been paid. Their part was over. The eviction, the cleanup, the violations, the lot under the wrong name, the mobile home paperwork, all of that was mine. That is the deal I make with every family. You sell, you get paid, and whatever the house does after that is my problem. I do not get to hand it back when it gets ugly.
Second, a house that is half fixed is worth less than a house nobody touched. Once you start, you finish.
Did we make money? Technically. My accountant did not frame that one. But three grandkids who had been staring at a pile of HOA letters got paid and never heard about that house again. On the deals where we make more, and there are plenty, this is still the same service. This one just showed what it costs.
What this means for you
- HOA violations do not stop a sale. They change the price. They do not end the conversation.
- You do not have to fix anything. Once you sell to us, the violations, the fees, and the letters are ours to handle.
- Someone living in the house is our problem too. We handle the eviction after we own it. You are not the one knocking on that door.
- Title problems you do not know about are normal. Two lots, a wrong name, a mobile home with no paperwork. Nobody in the family knew any of that. Nobody needed to.
- Ask us early. The sooner we see the violation letters, the better we can price the deal and the faster you are done with it.
The short version
- A grandmother passed and her house went to a granddaughter and her brothers.
- The house had a long list of HOA violations, someone living in it, and a mobile home with no paperwork.
- We bought it, ran the eviction, did a huge cleanup, cleared every violation, fixed a lot that was under the wrong name, and got the mobile home its bill of sale.
- Seven months later we closed at Alamo Title and made about two thousand dollars.
- The family was paid at the start and never dealt with any of it.
If you inherited a house with HOA violations, or somebody living in it, or a pile of letters you stopped opening, call or text me at 936-380-6384 or fill out the form. Tell me the address and who passed away. Send me the letters too. I have seen worse.
About the author
Raul Bolufe has bought and sold real estate since 2012, closed more than 800 deals, and paid more than 100 heirs for their share of inherited property across Texas and Florida. He hosts the Flipping Miami Podcast. More at raulbolufe.com.
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