In Texas; Is the sale price of land or personal property public knowledge?

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greybeard

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It seems i remember most deed transfers simply stating something to the effect of " For the quantity of $10 I (name here) do transfer ownership of........ to (name here) etc"

Are sellers required to inform any part of local or state govt how much they sold (or bought) a piece of property for?

Is this considered private information?
 
I don't think so. Pretty sure it's private info in Texas. Local property taxes are figured off county appraisal with nothing to do with sale price. Deed transfer is a fixed rate with no relation to sale price.
Fwiw most counties no longer require a bill of sale on private automobile transfer. Just a filled out title. Since they no longer tax the transaction on sale price but on blue book value. They don't care how good a deal you got, you'll be taxed on what they think it's worth.

The IRS will need to know if money changed hand's.

If you gift land with your house on it to your kids it will immediately lose your grandfathered senior tax rate, expect a huge increase in property tax.

My two cents with a little experience.
 
Fwiw most counties no longer require a bill of sale on private automobile transfer. Just a filled out title. Since they no longer tax the transaction on sale price but on blue book value. They don't care how good a deal you got, you'll be taxed on what they think it's worth.
Yep, I found that out the hard way with a 16' trailer I bought a few years back.

If land is sold, I know the realtor (if one is used) will have a record of the sale price, and the title company will as well, but I'm not sure who else would be privy to that information........ not the public for sure.

My interest...
Texas Realtors Assoc members has all that data available to them via MLS, but it's proprietary information and is not to be shared but at the last central appraisal district meeting I attended, they put a motion to the BoD to piggybackoff Travis County's contract with a big data gathering company so the local CAD could have records of what everything in the county was bought/sold for. (Travis County offered that option to my county, and presumably other counties as well)

The problem is, that same company sells that data to just about anybody and the whole thing has left a sour taste in my mouth.
There are currently 2-3 lawsuits going on in Travis County about how this company operates, and according to TRA, one of the issues is that the company somehow got access to MLS data and sold it to Travis County and it ended up in both the Travis County CAD AND the local tax office. Tax office and CAD, according to State Comptroller are mandated to operate completely independent of each other, with the CAD merely to appraise property, assign a market value to it and administer any exemptions WITHOUT any pressure or influence in regards to the county's monetary requirements to provide services. Sharing sale prices with the tax office seems to be going down a pretty slippery slope to me.

I was one of only 4 public citizens at that public SJ County meeting so I doubt many in this county know what their county is up to.
 
Don't think the amount is public knowledge but realtors and lenders are required to file a 1099-s on the sale of the house.
 
Deed of Trust filed at the county clerks office is public record and would show amount financed.
 
Mmmmmm..maybe.
Looking closer, it evidently Depends what kind of deed it is I suppose.

Must deeds show the actual purchase price?

No. In fact, in Texas, it is customary to recite that the consideration paid is "ten dollars and other valuable consideration." Why? Confidentiality. While recording gives the public notice that a transaction has occurred, and therefore preserves the integrity of the chain of title, it is Texas tradition that it is not the public's business what the purchase price was. Of course, the parties can always choose to show the actual price if they wish.
 
A Deed of Trust is not a conveyance of land like a warranty deed. It is a record of the agreement between the buyer and the lender.

As far as the appraisal district not knowing what the sales price is, if that is what was being asked, the appraisal district uses comparable sales to appraise property.

 
The property I just bought was a private sale....no real estate agents involved.... but I do have a mortgage. So the appraisal was done with "comp values" to ascertain that the price was fair, and for the bank to "value" the property as being worthy of the amount borrowed.
 
A Deed of Trust is not a conveyance of land like a warranty deed. It is a record of the agreement between the buyer and the lender.

As far as the appraisal district not knowing what the sales price is, if that is what was being asked, the appraisal district uses comparable sales to appraise property.


Yes, I'm pretty familiar with how the Tx CADs appraise property, but in order to compare sales, it has to know the value of those sales and they say they have no easy way to find that data, thus their intent to use the 3rd party data gathering company..
 
GB title company will issue an owners title policy in an amount equal to the sale price and a mortgagees title policy in an amount equal to the amount of the mortgage if there is one.
 
It seems i remember most deed transfers simply stating something to the effect of " For the quantity of $10 I (name here) do transfer ownership of........ to (name here) etc"

Are sellers required to inform any part of local or state govt how much they sold (or bought) a piece of property for?

Is this considered private information?
When I was selling my house in Miami, I had to overpay 13% of the value of the house, this 13% included : "Preparing your home for sale (2%)" , "Realtor commission fees (5%)" , "Buyer incentives (2%)" , "Closing costs (2%)" , "Relocation expenses(2%)"
 

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