“We are on a tax payment plan with the county. Can I still sell the inherited house?” I hear that on a lot of calls right now. The short answer from my side is yes. A plan with the tax office does not lock you into the house, and it does not lock you into the family either.
I’m Raul Bolufe. My company buys inherited houses and heir shares across Texas. I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. It is what we have seen on our deals.
This is the long version. It covers how families end up on a plan, what happens to it when the house sells, what happens when it falls apart, and who pays what. If you only have two minutes, skip to the short version near the bottom.
How do families end up on a tax payment plan?
It usually goes like this. Somebody passes away. The house stays in their name. The tax bills keep coming, and for a while nobody pays them, because nobody is sure whose job it is.
Then a letter shows up from the county’s attorneys. One heir, usually the one who lives closest or the one living in the house, goes down to the tax office and signs up for a tax payment plan. That is a good instinct. Somebody stepped up.
Then real life happens. That heir is now paying for a house the whole family owns. The brothers and sisters do not chip in. A payment gets missed, then another one.
A tax payment plan is a lot like a gym membership. Easy to sign up for. Hard to keep going when you are the only one showing up.
By the time families call me, they are tired. Some are still paying. Some stopped months ago. Almost all of them think the plan means they are stuck until it is paid off.
They are not. Nobody has ever called me because their inheritance was going smoothly, and I have never had a tax payment plan be the thing that kept a family from selling.
Can I sell an inherited house on a tax payment plan?
On our deals, yes. A tax payment plan is about the taxes. It is not a lock on the deed, and it does not have to stop a sale.
You have two ways to do it.
- Sell the whole house. If everyone in the family wants out, we buy it from all of you at once.
- Sell just your share. If your brother wants to keep paying and you do not, you can still sell your piece. We buy one heir at a time. Here is how selling your share of an inherited house in Texas works.
You do not need the heir who signed the plan to agree. You do not need to bring the plan current first. You need to own a piece of the house, and you need to call.
If the house is still in your parent’s name, that is normal too. Most of the houses we buy are. Our page on Texas heir property explains how that usually looks.
What happens to the tax payment plan when the house sells?
Once you sell to us, the remaining balance and the plan become our problem. You do not keep making payments on a house you no longer own a piece of.
Here is what that looks like from our side. We get the payoff numbers on the tax payment plan from the tax office and its attorneys. We find out what is owed, how many years, and whether anything has been filed. Then we pay it.
If you sold us the whole house, the taxes usually get paid off at closing and that is the end of the plan. If you sold us your share, we either pay it off or we keep it going until the rest of the family sorts itself out. Either way, it stops being your monthly bill.
On a house in Missouri City, a husband had died and his widow kept paying the mortgage in his name for years. The property taxes did not get the same treatment. They fell sixteen years behind. When the family sold, the back taxes came off at closing and the house left the family clean. Sixteen years of letters, gone in one afternoon at a title company.
Who pays the back taxes when I sell my share?
We pay the county. You do not write that check.
What you should know is that the back taxes are part of the math. When we put an offer together on a share, we look at what the house is worth, what is owed on it, and how much work it will take. The taxes come off the top before anybody’s piece is figured.
That surprised one heir on Boss Gaston Road in Richmond. He was sure he owned the whole house. He owned a fraction, and the back taxes came off of his part too, same as everybody else’s. Once he saw the math, he agreed. A tax loan paid the county, and we closed.
So the honest version is this. You do not pay the taxes out of your pocket. But the taxes are not free either. They are already in the number.
If the back taxes are the main thing keeping you up at night, we wrote more about inherited houses with back taxes in Texas.
Does the heir who paid the plan get credit?
Yes. On our deals, the heir who has been paying the taxes gets that money back, plus something on top.
I want to say something to the heir making the payments. You did a good thing. You kept the house out of trouble while everybody else looked the other way. That should not cost you.
Paying the taxes does not make the whole house yours. I have that conversation a lot, and it is never a fun one. But it does earn you credit, and we honor it. The heir who carried the tax payment plan for years should not walk away with the same check as the heir who never answered the phone. On our deals, they do not.
Tell us when you call. Tell us how long you have been paying and roughly how much. Receipts help, and so does a screenshot of the county tax page. Sometimes that means you get more than the other heirs. Sometimes we true it up after we resell the property.
And if you are the heir who has not been paying, you can still call. Your share is still your share. Plenty of the people who sell to us never paid a dime on the taxes, because nobody ever told them there was a bill.
What about penalties and interest?
They keep running. That is the part of a tax payment plan nobody likes to hear about.
Every month the taxes sit unpaid, the bill gets bigger. That is true even on a tax payment plan. Miss a payment on the plan and it gets bigger faster. By the time a lawsuit is filed, there are attorney fees and court costs on top of that.
We do not get penalties and interest knocked down. Property taxes get paid, all of it. Same with IRS liens. I would rather tell you that now than have you hear it from somebody else later.
Other liens are a different story. Child support, judgments, HOA bills, a city demolition order, those we call on, we negotiate, and we pay. In Willis, one heir had an old child support lien in his own name, and we negotiated a big chunk of it off as part of the deal. In West Columbia, a family had a six figure lien and a demolition order and figured they had to give the house to the city. We settled the lien for a small fraction, and the city lifted the demolition order. Liens are a normal Tuesday for my team.
What if the tax payment plan already fell apart?
This is the call I worry about most. The family stopped paying on the tax payment plan. The county’s attorneys filed a lawsuit. Now there is a letter with a date on it, and the family figures it is over.
It is not over until the date. Up until the sale, you still own your share, and you can still sell it.
What I need from you is simple.
- The address.
- Who passed away.
- The date on the letter, if there is one.
I need the date more than anything else. If it is close, we move fast. If we have time, we sort out the family first. Either way, call before the date, not after.
What if there is already a tax lawsuit or a sale date?
Most families signed up for their tax payment plan before anything went to court. That is the easy kind. Sometimes it is later than that, and the plan is the thing standing between the house and a sale date.
Here is how it usually goes. One heir sells us their piece, the rest of the family is still deciding, and meanwhile the county already has a tax sale on the calendar.
When we ask the attorneys collecting the taxes what it would take to stop it, the terms are usually some fees, the court costs, a down payment, and monthly payments for about a year. That is what a tax payment plan looks like once a lawsuit is already on file. It costs real money up front, and it has to be in place before the sale.
The heir who sold to us is not the one paying it. That is the point of selling.
Sometimes there is no time for a plan at all. On six acres out on Shraderville Road outside Shepherd, the sale was already set. We paid the court costs, the fees, and part of the taxes in certified funds, and the tax attorneys pulled the property the day before the sale. Nine heirs in four states signed after that, and every deed got recorded. We have bought a lot of land in San Jacinto County, and that one was close.
A sale date is a deadline. It is not a sale.
What if somebody is living in the house?
That happens a lot, because the person living there is often the one who signed the tax payment plan.
You can still sell your share. On Walnut Ave in Odessa, three sisters had not spoken in years. The first one signed from a hospital bed, and the other two followed a couple of weeks later. A family friend was living in the house. She took cash to move out on a schedule that worked for everyone.
Once you sell to us, whoever lives there becomes part of our job. We talk to them. You do not have to.
How long does it take to sell with a tax payment plan in place?
It depends on the family more than the tax payment plan.
When the paperwork is clean, it can be quick. In Woodbranch, the probate was already finished and the house was in one heir’s name. We made a cash offer and closed through a title company. A normal, quick sale.
When the family is spread out or somebody is dragging their feet, it takes longer. But your piece does not have to wait for theirs. We buy one heir at a time, and we get title reports back fast because of our own team, which is a big part of why heirs get funded quickly.
The plan itself rarely slows anything down. The sale date is what sets the clock.
Keep paying, sell, or let it go?
This is not a legal chart. It is what we have seen on our own deals when a family was on a plan with the county.
| Keep paying the plan | Sell the whole house | Sell your share to us | Let it go to a tax sale | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who pays | Whoever signed the plan, usually one heir carrying everyone. | The back taxes come off at closing. Nobody writes a separate check. | We pay the county. The taxes are part of the math on the offer, and the heir who paid gets credit. | Nobody pays, and the family usually walks away with nothing. |
| What happens to the plan | It keeps going, with penalties and interest if a payment is missed. | It ends when the taxes get paid off at closing. | It becomes ours. You stop paying. | It already fell apart. That is why there is a sale. |
| How long | As long as the plan runs, often about a year once a lawsuit is filed. | As long as it takes everyone to agree and sign. | Your piece does not wait on the rest of the family. | Until the date on the letter. |
| Risk | One missed payment and the lawsuit or sale date comes back. | One heir who will not sign can hold it up. | The rest of the family is our conversation, not yours. | The highest. You lose your share and everything the paying heir put in. |
What this means for you
- A tax payment plan does not stop you from selling the house or your share.
- Once you sell to us, the rest of the balance and the plan are ours. You stop paying.
- The back taxes are part of the math. You do not pay them out of pocket, but they come off the top.
- The heir who has been paying gets that money credited back. Say so on the first call.
- Property taxes and IRS liens get paid in full. Other liens and violations, we negotiate.
- If the plan was missed and a sale date followed, call before the date.
The short version
- Lots of heirs call us while the family is on a tax payment plan.
- You can still sell. The whole house if everyone agrees, your share if they do not.
- After you sell, we handle the tax office, its attorneys, and the payoff.
- Once a lawsuit is filed, stopping a sale usually means fees, court costs, a down payment, and monthly payments for about a year. We carry that, not the heir who sold.
- In Shepherd, we paid in certified funds and the property was pulled the day before the sale.
- A sale date is a deadline. It is not a sale.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to finish the tax payment plan before I sell?
No. Once you sell to us, what is left on the plan becomes ours to handle. You do not have to clear it first.
Will the county lower the taxes if we sell to you?
No. Property taxes get paid, not negotiated, and that includes the penalties and interest. Other liens and violations are different. Once you sell, those are our problem, and we call, we negotiate, and we pay.
My brother set up the plan and wants to keep the house. Can I still sell?
Yes. You can sell your own share without him. We buy one heir at a time. If he wants to keep paying and keep his part, that is between him and us after you are out.
I have been paying the plan by myself for years. Do I get that back?
On our deals, yes. The heir who paid the taxes gets that money credited back, plus something on top. Bring whatever shows what you paid.
The plan fell apart and now there is a lawsuit. Is it too late?
Not until the sale date. You still own your share until then. Call with the address, who passed away, and the date on the letter.
Can I sell if the house is still in my dead parent’s name?
Yes. Most of the houses we buy are still in the name of the person who passed away. We build the family tree and handle the paperwork with the outside attorneys and paralegals we work with.
If your family is on a payment plan with the county and you are tired of carrying it, call or text me at 936-380-6384, or fill out the form. Tell me the address, who passed away, and whether there is a sale date. You can still sell. We will take it from there. You can also read how we buy inherited houses for cash in Texas.
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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.
Read next
- Back Taxes on an Inherited House in Texas
- How to Sell Your Share of an Inherited House in Texas, Even If the Other Heirs Won’t