What the Buyer Knows™

A landowner hears $30,000 an acre and it sounds like a big number. The buyer across the table may be thinking in square feet, and in what the land turns into once it's built on. Those two ways of counting can hide a lot of money.

Before You Buy

Two checks come up right after your offer is accepted on a Texas home: earnest money and the option fee. First-time buyers ask about these more than almost anything else, and the most common question is, "Do I lose it?" Here's how they work in the standard Texas resale contract.

If you're thinking about buying or selling a home in Taylor, you've probably heard two stories: prices are about to take off, or prices are falling. Here's what the numbers actually show, with the source and date for every one.

Two tracts of the same size on the same county road can be worth very different amounts. The difference is rarely the dirt. It's what can be built there and how hard it is to get there. Before you make an offer on land around Taylor, Thorndale, Thrall, Granger, Coupland or Hutto, check these five things.

A lot of the land around Taylor, Thorndale, Granger and Rockdale has been in the same family for generations. When a parent or grandparent passes, that land often goes to several people at once: brothers, sisters, sometimes cousins who live in different states. Selling it starts with a question most families haven't had to answer before: who actually owns it now?

If your land sits just outside Taylor, Hutto, Thorndale or another city, it may be in that city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ. That matters: in the ETJ, the city's subdivision rules can apply even though you're outside city limits. Since 2023, Texas law has given many landowners a way out.

A lot of the land around Taylor, Granger, Thrall and Coupland is taxed on agricultural valuation, often called an "ag exemption." It isn't technically an exemption. It's a special appraisal under the Texas Constitution's open-space (1-d-1) rules, and it can make a big difference in a tract's tax bill. If you're selling land, or buying land with plans to change how it's used, here's what to know.

What the Buyer Knows™

"There's a sewer line right across the road." I hear it often, and I understand why. It sounds like the land is ready to go. But a line across the road and the right to use it are two very different things.

What the Buyer Knows™

Two families own tracts that touch. Same county road, same soil, close to the same acreage. One sells for a number the other family can hardly believe. What happened?

Usually, nothing about the dirt. The difference is what a buyer's team found when they looked at what each tract could become.

Welcome to Beyond the City Limits

Beyond the City Limits is the Top Notch Properties blog about land and rural real estate in East Williamson and Milam Counties: Taylor, Thorndale, Thrall, Granger, Coupland, Hutto, Rockdale and the county roads in between.