Austin, TX
We buy houses in Austin — cash offers across Travis County.
A Mueller townhome bought in 2021 on a relocation package, and the employer just called everyone back to California. A 1930s Hyde Park bungalow that needs pier work no lender will finance. An East Austin family home held for three generations, with heirs in three cities and a tax bill that outran the paycheck years ago. A Bouldin Creek Airbnb that stopped penciling when the ordinance changed. These are the Austin files we work — from our DFW base, through Travis County title companies.
BBB Accredited Business, rated A. Who we buy from in Austin
The seven situations driving Austin cash sales right now
Austin ran harder than any Texas metro from 2020 to 2022 and has corrected harder since — values are down somewhere between 18 and 28 percent from the spring 2022 peak, depending on how you measure. That reversal, layered over one of the heaviest urban property-tax loads in Texas and a century-old close-in housing stock, produces seller situations the MLS process is not built for. One honest note first: Diamond is a DFW-headquartered buyer. We serve Austin as a regional market and close through Travis County title companies — we do not claim a local office.
Tech-cycle reversal exits
The 2020–2022 wave — Tesla, Oracle, Apple, Indeed, Meta, Google — is unwinding through return-to-office mandates, layoff rounds, and equity-vest calendars. Sellers in Mueller, Crestview, and the close-in neighborhoods are exiting on rigid dates — severance windows, COBRA expiration, coastal report dates — that a 60-plus-day listing does not fit.
Peak-2022 buyers who need out
Owners who bought at 2021–2022 pricing and now face a divorce, a job loss, or a move are selling into a market where roughly half of active listings have taken at least one price cut. When the payoff-to-net spread is thin, certainty beats chasing list price.
TCAD property-tax pressure
The combined Austin rate runs right around 2 percent of assessed value, and TCAD appraisal escalation through 2024 pushed bills up faster than fixed incomes could follow — the 10 percent homestead cap resets the moment a deed transfers or a major improvement is added. Central East Austin carries some of the highest long-term tax-delinquency rates in the city.
East Austin generational exits
In 78702, 78721, and the Cherrywood and Govalle corridors, long-tenured Black and Latino families hold property that has passed down informally across generations while the surrounding market changed beyond recognition. These are multi-heir title files, not wholesale flips — one closing, one wire, full heir coordination, no contract assignment games.
STR-ordinance casualties
Austin's late-2025 short-term-rental overhaul — non-transferable two-year licenses, spacing limits, a lower multifamily licensing cap, platform enforcement arriving mid-2026 — ended the math for many properties bought specifically to operate as Airbnbs. Converting to a long-term rental rarely covers a 2021 cost basis.
Pre-war bungalows with century-old systems
Hyde Park, Clarksville, Rosedale, Tarrytown, and the South Austin belt carry 1920s–1940s Craftsman stock on pier-and-beam foundations that have settled into clay-and-limestone ground for eighty-plus years — knob-and-tube remnants, cast-iron drains, asbestos tile. Lenders cannot underwrite the condition, so retail buyers walk at inspection.
Permitting limbo and half-finished remodels
City of Austin permit timelines stall remodels for months, and the result is a recurring file: a house frozen mid-project with expired permits, a contractor dispute, and a code-enforcement letter on the counter. No retail buyer touches it. We underwrite the cure and close.
Austin housing market
What your Austin home is actually worth after the correction
Sources do not perfectly agree, because median value, median list, and price per square foot measure different things on different schedules — and Austin's spread between a Tarrytown pre-war and a 2021 exurban build is enormous. Here is what the public data showed as of mid-2026, sourced and dated so you can verify it yourself.
- Median home value (early 2026)
- ~$415K–$440K
- Decline from 2022 peak
- 18%–28%
- Months of inventory
- ~5.3–6.0
- Average days on market
- 60–85
- Listings with a price cut
- ~50%
- Combined property-tax rate
- ~2.0%
Down from a ~$550K peak in May 2022.
Median-price vs price-per-sq-ft measures, 2025–2026.
ABoR-derived trackers, spring–summer 2026.
Varies by source and season, 2026.
46.6% (Mar 2026) → 52.3% (Jul 2026) of actives.
City + Travis County + AISD + ACC + Central Health.
The defining force in the current Austin comp set is the post-2022 correction. The pandemic migration roughly doubled values in five years; since the May 2022 peak, Austin has posted some of the largest home-value declines of any big U.S. metro, and by late 2025 prices were flat-to-falling with roughly half of listings cutting price to find a buyer. The one genuine relief valve: TCAD's 2026 notices showed single-family market values down about 1.8 percent on average — the first appraisal breather after years of escalation, though it arrives long after many owners fell behind. If the tax bill itself is the emergency, start with our guide to falling behind on Texas property taxes.
Our offer math is the same in Austin as everywhere we buy, and we show it: we work from the after-repair value — today's Travis County comps, not 2022's — and offer 75 to 80 percent of it, minus repairs priced at our contractor rates. Condition sets the point in the range: cosmetic-only houses price near 80 percent, heavy structural work near 75. The full breakdown lives in how your cash offer is calculated, and our cash offer vs. listing calculator runs both columns — in a market averaging 60-plus days to sell, the honest comparison is closer than most sellers expect.
If you are facing foreclosure
How Texas non-judicial foreclosure works in Travis County
Texas runs the fastest foreclosure clock in the country, and Travis County added its own twist: the auction moved online. If you have received a Notice of Default or a Notice of Sale, the window to act is specific and short.
- 41d
Total minimum timeline
Texas non-judicial foreclosure can complete in as few as 41 days from the first Notice of Default — a 20-day right-to-cure period plus a 21-day Notice of Sale. Our Texas foreclosure timeline guide walks through every notice.
- 1st
First Tuesday — now online
Travis County foreclosure sales still happen the first Tuesday of every month, but the county held its last in-person courthouse-steps auction in May 2024 and moved the sales online — a wider bidder pool means posted properties draw more attention than they once did.
- 3x
Posted publicly, three ways
Texas law requires the Notice of Sale to be posted at the county's designated public place, filed with the Travis County Clerk, and published online. If your property has been posted, that record is already public — and the clock it starts is the one we work backwards from.
A cash buyer can close before a posted sale date if the contract is signed with enough runway for title work. If your auction date is less than 14 days out, call before you fill out a form — the timeline matters more than the offer details. Use the foreclosure countdown tool to see where you are in the sequence, or read the options on our facing foreclosure in Texas page.
Inherited an Austin home?
How Travis County probate works — and the Texas paths you may qualify for
Unlike most Texas counties, Travis County has a dedicated statutory probate court — it sits at 200 W. 8th Street in downtown Austin, filings go through eFileTexas.gov, and the original will is deposited with the County Clerk's probate division. Depending on the estate's size, debts, and whether there is a valid will, you may qualify for a path much faster than full administration.
Independent Administration
Texas's default when there is a valid will — minimal ongoing court supervision, and the executor can usually sell real estate without a separate court order. Simple Travis County estates typically run six to nine months end to end. The most common path we close on.
Muniment of Title
A Texas-specific shortcut when the main asset to transfer is real property and the estate has no unpaid unsecured debt. No executor is appointed — the court's order itself transfers title, often within 30 to 60 days.
Affidavit of Heirship
Used to clear title when full probate is impractical — common for East Austin family homes where ownership passed informally across generations and multiple heirs now hold undivided interests. We coordinate the affidavit work with the title company.
Small Estate Affidavits are also available for modest estates without a will. We are not your attorney and this is not legal advice — the right path depends on the will, the heirs, and the estate's debts, and we can refer you to a Travis County probate attorney who works with out-of-town heirs. To orient yourself first, try our probate path tool, read the inherited house in Texas overview, or the deeper guide to selling an inherited Texas house.
Where we buy
The Austin neighborhoods and Travis County communities we cover
Inside the city, our files concentrate where the housing stock and the seller situations concentrate — the pre-war close-in neighborhoods, the East Austin corridors, and the 2020s-boom subdivisions. Outside the city limits we work the broader Travis County footprint through the same title workflow.
Central Austin neighborhoods
- Hyde Park — Austin's first streetcar suburb; 1920s–1940s bungalow and Craftsman stock, pier-and-beam settlement, era systems throughout.
- Clarksville / Rosedale / Brentwood — pre-war and early post-war close-in stock with the same underwriting profile as Hyde Park.
- Tarrytown / Pemberton Heights — west-side prestige stock where foundation and systems work still kills retail deals at inspection.
- East Austin (78702 / 78721) — generational family property, heirship-title complexity, and two decades of documented redevelopment pressure.
- Cherrywood / Govalle — the eastern corridors where the same generational-exit mechanics run a few years behind 78702.
- Travis Heights / Bouldin Creek / South Congress — the South Austin bungalow belt plus the densest concentration of ordinance-stranded STRs.
- Zilker — high-land-value lots where the house itself is often the discount.
- Mueller — the 2010s–2020s redevelopment district; tech-relocation resales on rigid exit timelines.
- Crestview / Allandale — mid-century ranch stock, aging ownership, and the tax-pressure downsizing wave.
- The Domain corridor — north Austin employer cluster; posting-driven moves tighter than an MLS window.
Greater Travis County
We also buy across the wider Travis County footprint, including:
Pflugerville · Manor · Del Valle · Lakeway · Bee Cave · Jonestown · Lago Vista · Steiner Ranch and the Lake Travis corridor · Wells Branch · unincorporated western Travis County.
A note on the western county: much of the Steiner Ranch and Lake Travis belt sits inside Municipal Utility Districts, where the MUD assessment stacks on top of the county tax line. We underwrite the MUD line directly, not as a surprise at closing.
North of the county line, Williamson County is its own file — separate appraisal district, separate recording. If your property is in Round Rock, start from our sell your Round Rock house page instead.
Any condition
The conditions Austin retail buyers walk away from
Austin's pre-war close-in stock, its permitting bottleneck, and five years of boom-and-correction whiplash produce a steady supply of houses that cannot pass a financed buyer's inspection. We underwrite to the work, not around it — our foundation issues and tax-delinquent property pages show how we price the two most common.
Pier-and-beam settlement
Eighty-plus years of movement on clay-and-limestone ground. Hyde Park, Tarrytown, Clarksville, and the South Austin belt specialty.
Era systems intact
Knob-and-tube remnants, cast-iron drains, galvanized supply lines, asbestos tile, lath-and-plaster. Priced at our cost, not a retail buyer's chip number.
Half-finished remodels
Expired permits, contractor walk-offs, code-enforcement letters. We buy mid-project, as-is, drawings or no drawings.
Stranded short-term rentals
License denied, revoked, or never issued under the late-2025 regime. Booking history irrelevant; furniture can stay.
Tax-delinquent
Arrears, penalties, and interest paid at closing out of proceeds. You do not need to catch up the bill before talking to us.
Probate-pending and heirship files
We sign in advance and close when the statutory probate court's order or the affidavit work is in place.
Tenant-occupied rentals
Lease in place, month-to-month, or inherited tenants. We close around the lease, not against it.
Hoarder houses
Take what you want; leave the rest. We handle the cleanout. No photos required, no public listing.
Fire, water, and storm damage
Denied or partial insurance claims, open remediation, hail-tagged roofs. We underwrite to the damage report.
How it works in Austin
How a Travis County closing works with a DFW-based buyer
No theater about an Austin storefront we do not have. What we do have is a repeatable Travis County workflow: local title company, digital documents, mobile-notary signing, and a closing date you pick.
- 1
Tell us about the property
Address, situation, timeline — through the cash offer form or a phone call; both reach the same team. We do not sell or pass your information to anyone else.
- 2
We underwrite from real Travis County data
TCAD records, neighborhood-specific comps — a Hyde Park pre-war is not a Mueller townhome — and a walkthrough arranged around your schedule, in person or by video for a first pass. Never a Zestimate.
- 3
Written offer with the math shown
After-repair value from current comps, 75 to 80 percent of it depending on condition, minus the repair budget — every line visible. Take it to an agent and a contractor and compare. The number does not drop after inspection.
- 4
Close at a Travis County title company on your date
Texas standard purchase agreement, local escrow, remote or mobile-notary signing. Clean-title files have closed in under three weeks when the seller's timeline required it; tax arrears, liens, and probate orders are handled at the closing table. You get a wire or a check.
Diamond's broader process is documented on the how it works page, and our typical answers to seller questions live in the FAQ.
Austin FAQ
The questions Austin sellers ask first
Diamond is based in Dallas–Fort Worth — do you actually buy houses in Austin?
Yes, and we are straightforward about how. Diamond is headquartered in DFW; Austin is a regional market we serve, not a city where we keep an office. Travis County files run through the same workflow as every Texas closing we do: a local Travis County title company handles escrow and recording, documents move digitally, and signing happens through a mobile notary or at the title office. The distance between our office and your property never touches the closing timeline — that is set by title work, not geography.
How do you calculate a cash offer on an Austin house?
We start from the after-repair value — what the house would sell for fully fixed up, based on current Travis County comps, not 2022 comps — and offer 75 to 80 percent of that number minus the repair budget at our contractor rates. Condition sets where in the range you land: light cosmetic work prices near 80 percent, heavy structural or systems work near 75. The offer comes in writing with the comps, the repair line items, and our margin shown, so you can hand it to an agent or a contractor and check the math.
I bought near the 2022 peak and prices have fallen — does a cash sale even make sense?
Sometimes it does not, and we will tell you when the listing math is better. Austin values are down roughly 18 to 28 percent from the spring 2022 peak depending on the measure, so a 2021–2022 buyer with a small down payment may be near break-even. What a cash sale changes is the cost of time: no 60-to-85-day marketing window, no price-cut ladder, no post-inspection repair credits, no commission, and no carrying costs while you wait. If the mortgage payoff exceeds any realistic net, we say so plainly instead of wasting your time.
What if I am behind on my Travis County property taxes?
You do not need to catch the bill up before talking to us. The combined Austin rate — city, Travis County, Austin ISD, ACC, and Central Health — runs right around 2 percent of assessed value, one of the heavier urban tax loads in Texas, and years of TCAD appraisal escalation pushed long-time owners into arrears well before the 2026 valuations finally flattened. Tax arrears, penalties, and interest are paid at closing out of the sale proceeds, the same way a mortgage payoff is.
I inherited an Austin house and probate has not started — can you still make an offer?
Yes. Travis County probate is heard by the statutory probate court at 200 W. 8th Street, and the path sets the timeline: a Muniment of Title can clear real property in roughly 30 to 60 days when there is a valid will and no unsecured debt, while a straightforward independent administration typically runs six to nine months. We can sign a contract in advance and close once the court order is in place, coordinate signatures across heirs in different states, and refer you to a Travis County probate attorney if needed. We are not attorneys and this is not legal advice — but these files are routine for us.
My Austin short-term rental no longer pencils under the new ordinance — will you buy it?
Yes. Austin overhauled its short-term-rental rules again in late 2025 — two-year non-transferable licenses, a required local responsible party, site-to-site spacing limits, and a cut in how many multifamily units can be licensed — with platform-level enforcement following in mid-2026. A property bought at 2021 prices specifically to run as an STR often cannot convert to a long-term rental without going cash-flow negative. We buy those as-is. We do not care whether the license is active, denied, or never issued, and we do not need the booking history.
Do you buy Austin houses with foundation problems, unpermitted work, or open permits?
Yes — this is a large share of what we underwrite in Austin. The clay-and-limestone ground under the older neighborhoods has been working pier-and-beam foundations in Hyde Park, Tarrytown, Clarksville, and the South Austin bungalow belt for the better part of a century, and retail buyers walk after the structural engineer report. Half-finished remodels are their own Austin category — houses stalled mid-project with expired permits, contractor disputes, or code-enforcement letters. We price the cure into the offer and close anyway.
Nearby cities
We also buy houses near Austin
Explore your options
Beat the first-Tuesday auction with a cash close.
Probate, multiple heirs, and as-is sales handled.
Sell with tenants still in place.
Compare your net both ways before you decide.
Three steps. No agents, repairs, or fees.
Find the city you’re selling in.
Ready for a written cash offer?
Tell us about your property — we will come back with a fair, no-obligation offer in 24 hours.
- Funded offer — cash committed before we sign
- Offer locked — no renegotiation after inspection
- Proof of funds with every offer
A real Diamond team handles your sale start to finish — funded offers and one clean closing, not an anonymous call center passing your lead around. Meet the team.