Divorce, Texas
Selling a Texas House During Divorce — A Clear Path, Both Parties Respected
Three scenarios bring spouses to this page: both of you agree the home should sell and you just need it to happen cleanly; one of you wants out and the other won't agree; or the court has already ordered the sale through temporary orders, a receiver, or the final decree. This page walks through each path honestly, explains the Texas community-property mechanics that govern all three, and shows how we coordinate the transaction with both attorneys without taking sides.
The three scenarios
The three divorce-home scenarios we work with
Divorce-related home sales rarely look like a textbook real-estate transaction. They arrive with a court file number, two sets of counsel, sometimes a child-custody schedule that determines who is sleeping at the house this week, and almost always a finite deadline imposed by either the spouses' agreement or the court's calendar. The first useful thing to do is name which of the three common scenarios you are actually in, because the mechanics of each are different — even though the closing day looks the same from the title company's chair.
Both spouses agree to sell
The cleanest version of a divorce home sale. Both of you have already decided — formally in a mediation agreement, informally over coffee with the kids elsewhere, or somewhere in between — that the marital home should sell rather than one spouse keeping it and buying the other out. The work here is coordination: a single offer that both of you and both attorneys can review, signatures scheduled around two calendars, and a closing date that fits the divorce timeline. We do not need you in the same room. We do not need you on the same call. Title handles remote signing in either or both directions.
One spouse wants out, the other won't agree
One spouse believes the home needs to sell — to pay down debt, to split the equity, to close the chapter — and the other will not cooperate. Refuses to sign. Refuses to engage with counsel about a sale. Sometimes refuses to leave. Texas Family Code §6.502 anticipates exactly this: the court can appoint a receiver during the divorce proceeding to take control of the marital home and sell it, even if one spouse will not sign. The path forward is your divorce attorney filing the motion. We are not the path to that order. Once a receiver is appointed, we can be the buyer the receiver sells to.
Court-ordered sale (temporary orders or decree)
The court has already addressed the home — either through temporary orders during the pendency of the divorce that mandate listing or sale by a specific date, or through a final decree that orders the home sold and proceeds divided per the just-and-right allocation. In this scenario the question is not whether to sell. It is how to close in time. We work directly with whichever party the order authorizes to sign — both spouses jointly, one spouse acting under authority granted by the order, or a court-appointed receiver — and we coordinate with both attorneys to make sure the closing instrument matches what the order requires.
If you are not sure which scenario fits, the first call is the right place to figure it out. Our broader situations index covers other complex sales (probate, foreclosure, hoarder houses, code enforcement), and the main sell page walks through the general cash-offer process. If the marital home is also tangled up in a probate matter — for instance, an inheritance during the marriage — the inherited-house pillar goes deeper on the Texas probate side.
Texas community property
Texas community property — what it actually means for your house
Texas is one of nine community-property states. The Texas Family Code defines community property as essentially everything either spouse acquires during the marriage, with a handful of specific exceptions. Separate property is anything either spouse owned before the marriage, plus anything acquired during the marriage by gift, devise, or descent (inheritance), plus the proceeds and exchanges of separate property and any recovery for personal injuries to one spouse (with certain exclusions). Whether the marital home is community or separate property is the single most important question that determines how it can be sold during the divorce — and the answer is not always obvious from the deed. The plain-English version below is general background, not legal advice; the Texas State Law Library family-law guides are the authoritative public reference, and your divorce attorney is the right person to confirm how these rules apply to your specific facts.
Whose name is on the deed often doesn't determine who owns the house
This is the most common misconception. A house purchased during the marriage with community funds is community property even if only one spouse's name appears on the deed. The deed reflects who signed it; the marital character of the asset reflects when and how it was acquired. The "inception of title" rule in Texas looks at when the right to the property arose — if the contract to purchase was entered into during the marriage, the home is generally community even if it was deeded into one spouse's name alone. There are exceptions and reimbursement claims that can apply, but the default assumption that "my name is the only one on the deed, so it is mine" is usually wrong.
Inception of title — when the asset becomes community or separate
Texas determines the character of real property by inception of title — meaning the character is set at the moment the right to acquire the property arose, and generally does not change later. A house purchased before marriage stays separate property even if the spouses pay the mortgage with community income during the marriage (though the community estate may have a reimbursement claim for the principal reduction). A house purchased during the marriage with community funds is community property even if it is later refinanced into one spouse's name. A house inherited by one spouse during the marriage stays separate property, even if both spouses live in it for thirty years. These distinctions matter because they determine whether both spouses need to sign to sell, whether the proceeds are divided as community property at divorce, and whether reimbursement claims apply.
Both signatures are usually required to sell
The Texas Family Code and the homestead provisions of the Texas Constitution combine to require both spouses to join in any conveyance of the homestead — meaning both spouses must sign the deed to sell, regardless of whose name appears on the existing title. This is true even for separate-property homesteads occupied as the family home. The practical effect is that one spouse alone generally cannot sell the marital home without either the other spouse's signature, a court order authorizing one spouse to sign alone, or a court-appointed receiver under §6.502. Title companies will not close a homestead sale without the joinder, and they will refuse to issue a policy if the authority to sign alone is not clearly established by a court order in the file.
The homestead exemption complication
Texas homestead rights are some of the strongest in the United States. The Texas Constitution protects the homestead from forced sale by most unsecured creditors and imposes additional procedural protections on any conveyance — including the joinder requirement above. During an intact marriage, the homestead generally cannot be sold by one spouse over the objection of the other. Once a divorce is filed, the court takes jurisdiction over the marital estate and has authority to order the homestead sold or transferred as part of the just-and-right division. The constitutional protections do not vanish at the courthouse door — they constrain how the court orders the sale, what the conveyance instrument has to look like, and how title can be insured — but they do not prevent the sale itself when the court has ordered it. The title company will confirm the order is valid and the instrument is sufficient before closing.
Reimbursement claims between the community and separate estates
One last wrinkle worth naming, because it shows up surprisingly often: when community funds are used to improve or pay down debt on separate property (or vice versa), the paying estate may have a reimbursement claim against the benefiting estate. The classic example is a house one spouse owned before the marriage, where mortgage payments during the marriage are made with community paychecks — the community estate may be entitled to reimbursement for the principal reduction. Reimbursement claims do not change the character of the underlying property (the house stays separate), but they can affect the just-and-right division of the overall estate. This is squarely in your divorce attorney's lane; we name it here so you have the vocabulary, not because we are positioned to opine on it.
We are a cash buyer, not your attorney. Everything in this section is general information to help you understand the mechanics that govern a Texas marital-home sale. For advice tailored to your facts — your separate vs. community property, the inception-of-title analysis on your specific home, the reimbursement claims that may apply, the homestead-joinder mechanics in your county — talk to a Texas family-law attorney. The State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral Service can connect you with one, and most divorce attorneys will do an initial consult at no charge.
The receiver remedy
The receiver remedy — when your spouse won't sign
When one spouse wants the marital home sold and the other will not cooperate, the machinery of Texas Family Code §6.502 — temporary orders during divorce — gives the court broad authority to act. Among the remedies the statute contemplates is the appointment of a receiver to take control of property within the marital estate. The receiver, once appointed and bonded, has the authority granted by the court order, which typically includes the power to manage and sell the property even if one spouse refuses to sign. This is the answer Texas law provides to the spouse who is willing to hold the home hostage rather than agree to a sale. Here is what the process actually looks like in practice — not as legal advice, but as a map of the moving pieces so you can have a more useful conversation with your divorce attorney about whether it fits.
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Your attorney files the motion
Receivership is an extraordinary remedy. Courts grant it when the property is at risk — risk of waste, of dissipation, of being lost to foreclosure or tax sale, or of being held in limbo while the divorce drags on at the expense of the marital estate. Your attorney files a motion within your pending suit for divorce, supported by an affidavit explaining why a receiver is necessary. The other spouse is served and has the opportunity to respond. The court holds a hearing, often quickly when the property is genuinely at risk. We are not the path to this motion. Your attorney is.
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The court appoints a specific person
If the court grants the motion, it appoints a specific receiver — often an attorney or a real-estate professional from the court's working list. The order spells out the receiver's powers: secure the property, list or sell it, collect any rental income, pay necessary expenses, and account back to the court on a defined schedule. The receiver typically posts a bond. The scope of the receiver's authority is set by the order and is judge-dependent — some receivers have wide authority to negotiate and close without further court approval; others have to return to court before accepting a specific offer.
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The receiver markets or negotiates the sale
Depending on the order, the receiver may list the home publicly or negotiate a direct sale. We have worked with receivers who came to us specifically because a cash close avoided the showings, the contingencies, and the financing risk that an open-market listing would carry through a contested divorce. Either way, the receiver is the party with signing authority — neither spouse signs the deed. The receiver executes the conveyance instrument on behalf of the marital estate, and the title company closes against the order appointing them.
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Proceeds held until the divorce is finalized
Sale proceeds typically do not go directly to either spouse. They are held in the registry of the court, in a designated trust account, or in the receiver's fiduciary account — depending on the order — until the final decree of divorce addresses how they should be divided. Tax arrears, mortgage payoffs, and recorded liens are paid at closing out of proceeds; the net is held for the court. The actual distribution to the spouses happens later, through the divorce case, on the just-and-right allocation the court determines.
Honest framing: every step above requires your divorce attorney and the court. We cannot file the motion. We cannot appoint a receiver. We cannot accelerate the hearing calendar. What we can do is be the cash buyer the receiver sells to once the order is in place — and we can sign a contract in advance so the title work is running the day the appointment issues. The outcome of any specific receiver motion is judge-dependent and we will not pretend it is automatic. It is not. It is, however, the path Texas law provides for exactly the standoff this scenario describes.
The contrast
What we do that a traditional listing doesn't
A divorce home sale has constraints a regular listing does not. There are two parties who may not be communicating directly. There is often a court-imposed deadline. There is a privacy concern that a yard sign and an MLS listing do not respect. There is the logistical reality that one spouse may have moved out and the other may not be willing to host showings. A cash close addresses each of those constraints in a way an open-market listing does not — not because cash is magic, but because the structure of the transaction is different.
Both parties don't need to be in the same room
Title coordinates remote signing through a mobile notary or an e-signature platform. Each spouse signs from wherever they are — different homes, different cities, different states. Neither has to see the other. We have closed divorce sales where the spouses had not been in the same room for months and where every communication ran through counsel. The title company is set up for exactly this; we do not need to invent anything. Signatures land within the closing window, the wire funds, and the transaction completes without forcing a face-to-face neither side wants.
No showings means the neighbors don't know
A traditional listing puts a yard sign in front of the house, a "coming soon" placard on the MLS, a lockbox on the door, and a stream of agent-led showings on the calendar. Every one of those signals to the neighborhood that something has changed at the home. For a family going through a divorce — especially one with school-age children in a tight-knit community — that visibility is often the worst part of selling. Our offer does not require a listing, a sign, a lockbox, or interior showings. One walkthrough produces what we need. The neighbors see a renovation crew weeks after the family has closed.
Fixed timeline — your choice of close date
Whatever deadline the divorce imposes — a temporary-orders directive to list within sixty days, a final-decree mandate to close by a specific date, a mediator's settlement that hinges on the sale completing before the next hearing — we close on your calendar, not the market's. A traditional listing surrenders the timeline to buyer-financing contingencies, inspection negotiations, and appraisal delays. A cash close lets you pick the date and meet the court's deadline. If the decree says ninety days, we close inside ninety days.
How it works
Our process when both spouses are working with us
Four steps. The intake is shaped by the divorce context — we ask about the case posture and the orders in place before we ask about the house — but the fundamentals are the same as any cash sale: one written offer, one closing, one team you talk to from the first call to the wire. We do not assign the contract to another buyer. We do not pass your information to a network of investors. We do not take sides.
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Initial call — either spouse, both spouses, or both attorneys
The first conversation is about the case and the home together. Is a divorce on file. Are there temporary orders. Who has exclusive use. Has a receiver been appointed or considered. What deadline does the decree or the mediated agreement impose. We work from wherever you actually are — pre-filing, mid-litigation, after mediation, after decree. If only one spouse is on the call, that is fine. We do not ask either spouse to commit to anything before counsel has reviewed the offer. If both attorneys want to be on the call, we welcome it.
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We pull title and comparable sales, calculate the offer
We pull the county appraisal record, the deed and lien history, and recent comparable sales in the immediate area. If appropriate for the timeline and access, we walk the property to estimate the renovation scope. None of that costs you anything. We do not need interior photos and we do not need either spouse to clean anything up. The math is the math: we underwrite the deal, allocate for repairs and holding costs, and price in the speed-and-certainty premium that a cash close delivers.
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Written offer presented to both parties — and both attorneys if applicable
One offer, sent to whichever party the family or the court designates as the point of contact, and copied to every party with an interest in the sale: both spouses, both attorneys, and the receiver if one is in place. The offer shows our math — comparable sales, renovation budget, holding and closing costs, and the margin we need to underwrite the risk. The offer is good for a reasonable window so counsel can review and so any required court approval can be obtained. Take it to a Realtor or another cash buyer and compare. The number is the number; we will not flinch.
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Close at title — both spouses sign, or the authorized signatory under the order
The title company opens escrow, orders payoff demands, runs the lien search, and prepares the conveyance instrument that matches the case posture — both spouses jointly, one spouse acting under court authority, or the receiver acting under the appointment order. Remote signing is standard. Proceeds at closing pay off the mortgage and any liens; the net is wired into the estate account, into the registry of the court, or to the recipients designated by the order — whichever the case calls for. The matter is closed.
Our broader process is documented on the how it works page, and our typical answers to seller questions live in the FAQ. The general cash-offer process is on the main sell page.
Honesty in divorce
What we DON'T do — and why honesty matters in a divorce
The cash-for-houses industry is full of operators happy to take sides, pressure unrepresented spouses, and insert themselves into family-law decisions that are not theirs to make. Three concrete commitments, and the reason for each.
We don't take sides
Our role is the buyer position, not either spouse's position. We do not advocate for one spouse over the other. We do not give either spouse advice about the divorce. If one spouse has counsel and the other does not, we describe the offer factually and recommend the unrepresented spouse get their own attorney before signing anything — the State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral Service can connect them with one. The written offer is the same offer to both parties; the math is the math regardless of which spouse is reading it.
We don't replace your divorce attorney
We coordinate with your divorce attorney, not around them. Every meaningful question about the divorce case — temporary orders, receiver motions, just-and-right allocation, reimbursement claims, MERP-style estate considerations, anything in the decree's language — goes to your attorney, not to us. We close the sale of the home on terms the attorneys and the court have agreed to or ordered. If you do not have an attorney, we can refer you to one; we do not take a referral fee, and the attorney works for you, not for us.
We don't add fees at closing
The offer we send is the offer that funds. No surprise inspection-driven price renegotiation. No "we found something at the walkthrough and need to adjust" phone call the day before closing. No assignment fee buried in the addendum. No commission. The closing statement at the title company will show the offer amount, standard customary closing costs, the mortgage payoff, any liens, and the net to the parties (or to the registry of the court, or to the estate account — whichever the order specifies). What we put in writing is what funds.
By county
Where Texas divorces affect home sales — by county
Family-law venue in Texas is generally the county where one spouse has resided for the 90 days preceding filing and where that spouse has been a Texas resident for at least six months. That means divorces — and the temporary orders and final decrees that govern marital-home sales — are filed in the district courts of the spouses' county of residence. The home itself is sold and the deed is recorded in the county where the property sits, which is sometimes the same county and sometimes not. Below are the counties we currently work in, with the city pages that go deeper on each. If your county is not on this list, call us anyway — we work statewide, and out-of-state spouses are common.
Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex
- Dallas County — Dallas family district courts; the largest divorce docket in North Texas.
- Tarrant County (Fort Worth) — Tarrant family district courts; second-largest North Texas docket.
- Collin County (Plano, McKinney, Frisco) — fast-growing suburban docket; high-equity homes, frequent buy-out scenarios.
- Denton County — Denton family courts; mix of suburban and rural residential.
- Hood County (Granbury) — smaller county with significant lake-and-acreage marital homes.
- Cooke County (Gainesville) — rural family courts; long-tenure marital homes common.
North Texas, rural and small-county
- Grayson County (Sherman, Denison) — Sherman is the courthouse seat; combined docket for both cities and the rural county.
- Fannin County (Bonham) — small-county family courts; receiverships are rare but available.
- Lamar County (Paris) — county-seat family courts; long marriages with deep community-property questions.
- Hill County (Hillsboro) — I-35 corridor; mix of urban and rural divorces.
- Navarro County (Corsicana) — Corsicana family courts; older housing stock, frequent reimbursement-claim cases.
East and Central Texas
- Smith County (Tyler, Lindale) — largest East Texas family-law docket; receivership-aware bench.
- Van Zandt County (Canton) — rural docket; First Monday Trade Days county, mixed property profiles.
- Henderson County (Athens) — Cedar Creek Lake adjacency means significant lake-house community property.
- McLennan County (Waco) — Waco family district courts; substantial divorce volume.
- Somervell County (Glen Rose) — smallest county we cover; family-law matters handled at the Somervell County Courthouse.
North-Central and West Texas
- Wichita County (Wichita Falls) — Wichita Falls family district courts; significant military-community divorce caseload via Sheppard AFB.
- Palo Pinto County (Mineral Wells) — rural county-seat divorces, frequent long-tenure homes.
- Major metros statewide — Houston (Harris County), San Antonio (Bexar County), Austin (Travis County), Corpus Christi (Nueces County), El Paso (El Paso County), and beyond.
- Rural counties — We work in all 254 Texas counties. The further we drive, the more travel and logistics enter the offer math, but the process is the same.
Whichever county the divorce is filed in, the title company that closes the sale is chosen in the county where the property sits. We work with title partners across our coverage area who are fluent in divorce-decree language, temporary-orders interpretation, and receiver appointments. If your attorney has a preferred title company, we are happy to close there. We do not require our shop.
Divorce FAQ
The questions spouses (and attorneys) ask
Can you buy if my spouse won’t sign?
Not without a court order. Texas requires both spouses to sign the deed to convey community property, and the marital home is community property in the great majority of marriages — regardless of whose name is on the deed. The path forward when one spouse refuses to cooperate is your divorce attorney filing a motion for the court to either (a) issue a temporary order or final decree that authorizes one spouse to sign alone, or (b) appoint a receiver under Texas Family Code §6.502. The receiver, once appointed, takes control of the property and has the authority to sell it even if one spouse will not sign. We have worked with court-appointed receivers and we can coordinate the transaction once one is in place — but the motion itself has to come from your attorney and the order has to come from the court. We cannot accelerate that. What we can do is sign a contract that becomes enforceable the moment the receiver is appointed or the order issues, so the title work is already running.
What does the TX Family Code §6.502 receiver process actually look like?
Texas Family Code §6.502 gives the court broad authority to issue temporary orders during a divorce proceeding for the preservation of property — including appointing a receiver to take control of the marital estate or specific property within it. The general shape: your attorney files a motion, the court holds a hearing (often quickly, especially if the property is at risk), and if the court grants the motion it appoints a specific person — frequently an attorney or a real-estate professional from the court’s working list — as receiver. The receiver typically posts a bond and then has the legal authority to manage the property: secure it, list it or sell it, collect any income, and account back to the court. Sale proceeds are generally held in the registry of the court or in a designated trust account until the divorce is finalized and the court orders distribution. The specifics — who is appointed, what powers are granted, what oversight the court requires — are entirely judge-dependent. We are not the path to a receiver appointment; your attorney is. Once a receiver is in place, we can be the buyer the receiver sells to.
What if we’re not yet divorced — just separated?
Texas does not legally recognize separation as a distinct status — there is no "legal separation" filing the way some other states have. You are either married or divorced; the in-between exists practically but not legally. That has two consequences for selling the home. First, the community-property rules still apply until the divorce is final, which means both spouses generally still need to sign the deed unless a court order says otherwise. Second, if no divorce has been filed yet, there is no court with jurisdiction to issue temporary orders or appoint a receiver — that machinery only exists inside a pending suit for divorce. If both spouses agree to sell while separated, the transaction works the same as any other community-property sale: both sign, title closes, proceeds are distributed by agreement. If one spouse refuses and no divorce is on file, the practical first step is usually filing the divorce and asking the court for the relief that lets the sale happen.
What if our temporary orders give one of us exclusive use of the house?
A temporary order granting "exclusive use and possession" of the marital residence to one spouse during the pendency of the divorce is common — often the spouse with primary custody of the children stays, and the other spouse moves out. Exclusive use is not the same as ownership. The spouse with exclusive use can live there, exclude the other spouse from entering, and is typically responsible for the mortgage and utilities while the order is in effect — but neither spouse has the unilateral authority to sell the home unless the temporary orders (or a subsequent order) specifically grant it. If your temporary orders contemplate sale — for example, ordering the home listed within a certain number of days or authorizing one spouse to negotiate the sale — those orders control. If they do not, the sale still requires both signatures or a separate order. The title company will read the temporary orders before closing to confirm authority.
Are the proceeds split 50/50?
Not necessarily. Texas is a community-property state, which means assets acquired during the marriage are presumed to be jointly owned — but "community property" does not automatically mean "split equally at divorce." The Texas Family Code directs courts to divide the community estate in a manner that is "just and right," which can be 50/50, but can also be weighted toward one spouse based on factors the court considers: disparity of earning power, fault in the breakup of the marriage, who has primary custody of the children, the size of separate estates, health considerations, and others. There may also be reimbursement claims if one spouse used separate-property funds to pay down community debt (or vice versa) on the home. The actual division of proceeds is set by the final decree or by the parties’ settlement agreement. We are not in that conversation — we close the sale, the title company wires the proceeds into the estate account or per the court order, and the division happens through your divorce case.
What about a homestead exemption?
The Texas homestead has powerful constitutional and statutory protections, and those protections can complicate any forced sale of the marital home while the marriage is still intact. Article XVI §50 of the Texas Constitution protects the homestead from forced sale by most creditors, and the Texas Family Code adds specific protections for the homestead during marriage — including a requirement that both spouses join in any conveyance, encumbrance, or abandonment of the homestead. That is part of why both signatures are required even when only one spouse is on the deed. Once a divorce is filed and the court takes jurisdiction over the marital estate, the court has authority to order the homestead sold or transferred as part of a just-and-right division — but the constitutional protections do not simply disappear at the courthouse door. This is exactly the kind of question your divorce attorney is positioned to answer for your specific situation, and one of the reasons we will not pretend to give legal advice. We will say that we have closed plenty of Texas marital-home sales involving the homestead; the mechanism is the court order, and the title company is comfortable with it.
Do you work with our divorce attorneys?
Yes — and in most cases, working directly with the attorneys is the cleanest path. Divorces vary in temperature. Some couples can sit across from each other and discuss the sale of the home calmly; others have not spoken in months and route every communication through counsel. We adapt to whatever the family’s communication structure is. If both spouses prefer that the offer go to their attorneys and that all signatures be coordinated through them, we send the offer to both attorneys, route the contract through counsel, and let the lawyers coordinate signing logistics. If one spouse has counsel and the other does not, we are careful not to give the unrepresented spouse advice — we describe the offer, point them to the State Bar’s Lawyer Referral Service if they want their own attorney, and let them decide. We do not replace your divorce attorney. We coordinate with them.
How fast can you close once we both sign?
Once a contract is signed by every party with signing authority — both spouses, or the receiver, or the spouse authorized by the court order — and the title company has a clean title commitment, a standard cash close runs seven to fourteen days. The variables that can extend that window are the same ones that apply to any Texas closing: lien searches that turn up surprises (a forgotten mechanic’s lien, an old judgment, unpaid HOA dues), payoff demands that take a few days to arrive from the mortgage servicer, and any final-decree language the title company needs to interpret before issuing the policy. In divorce situations specifically, the most common compression point is signature coordination across two attorneys, two spouses, and sometimes a receiver — title can handle remote signing through a mobile notary or e-signature platform in whichever state each party lives. We do not need both spouses in the same room. We do not need either spouse to fly anywhere.
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