Ask Garland: Your Real Estate Questions Answered

Down payments in the Dallas area range from 3% to 20% depending on the loan type you choose. Conventional loans commonly accept as little as 3% down, FHA loans sit near 3.5%, and jumbo loans typically ask for 10% to 20%. VA and USDA loans can require nothing down for qualifying buyers, and first-time buyer programs may add down payment or closing cost assistance. Garland helps buyers compare loan types side by side with real numbers for their target price range, so the down payment target is clear before the home search starts.

A new build gives you a clean slate: modern floor plans, builder warranties, energy-efficient systems, and the chance to pick finishes before construction ends. The trade-offs are usually location, because many new builds sit on the outer edges of Collin County, plus a longer timeline and upgrades that add to the price. An existing home offers established neighborhoods, mature landscaping, and typically a faster close, though you may be competing for a home with an older kitchen or HVAC. Garland specializes in new builds and sells both. He lines up builder incentives, estimated upgrade costs, and expected renovation costs for the resale, then lets the comparison decide.

Yes, that is Garland's core selling service. The 14-day-or-less plan runs on four steps: home prep that focuses on what actually sells, an offer grounded in real comparables, maximum exposure through digital and social marketing from day one, and a massive open house in the first weeks. You see the entire marketing plan in writing before you sign anything. Whether a home closes inside 14 days depends on the market and the home, and Garland is straight about what the plan can and cannot control, but the marketing is built to produce offers inside that window.

Every 14-day marketing plan includes professional photography, a walkthrough video, a dedicated listing website for your home, and targeted digital and social promotion across the channels buyers actually watch. Open houses are scheduled to bring traffic in fast, and Garland's seller-plus-investor network gets motivated buyers looking at the home early. The full plan, timeline, and costs are written down and reviewed with you before you sign, so you know exactly what will happen and when.

If a home has not sold, the data usually explains why: price, marketing reach, condition, or timing. Garland starts by reviewing the comparables, showings, and buyer feedback on the listing. Then he adjusts pricing or marketing where the numbers point, whether that means more exposure, a repositioned price, or a different presentation. Sometimes the honest answer is to wait, and he says so plainly. No vague promises, just a revised plan you can see.

There is no single right time, only the right time for your situation. Dallas and Collin County vary by neighborhood, price range, and inventory, so a market update only means something when it is tied to your goal, whether that is buying a first home, trading up, downsizing, or selling fast. On a free 30-minute call Garland walks through current pricing, inventory, and days on market for the communities that fit you, then lays out what that means for your timeline.

Texas property taxes are set by local taxing units: the city, the county, the school district, and special districts, and they are calculated as a percentage of your home's assessed value. There is no state property tax and no state income tax, which is why Texas property tax rates tend to be higher than in other states. A homestead exemption reduces the taxable value of your primary residence, and you apply for it through the county appraisal district. Rates and exemption deadlines vary by community, so Garland recommends checking the effective rate for each neighborhood before you buy.

Closing costs are the fees paid to finalize a home sale, and both sides pay them. Buyers in Texas typically cover the lender fees, appraisal, title insurance, and escrow reserves, which often run 2% to 5% of the purchase price. Sellers typically pay the listing commission, the buyer's title policy, and prorated property taxes, plus any negotiated credits. Garland reviews the itemized estimate line by line, so both sides know what to expect before they sit at the closing table.

The improvements that pay back best are the ones buyers see first and use most: curb appeal, a refreshed kitchen, updated lighting, and fresh paint. In Garland's experience, a staged entry, clean landscaping, and a bright kitchen photograph better and draw more offers than a costly renovation that does not match the neighborhood. He recommends spending on what the comparables support and skipping the rest, and he will put the suggested list in writing before you spend a dollar.

You don't need 20% down, and that myth keeps more people out of the market than any lender does. Conventional loans start around 3-5%, FHA accepts 3.5%, and VA and USDA loans can go to zero for qualifying buyers. The right number depends on your loan type, your price range, and whether a down payment assistance program applies. Garland helps buyers see the real down payment target for their target price before the search starts.

Texas has real first-time buyer help. TSAHC and TDHCA offer down payment assistance and mortgage credit certificates, and many Dallas-area counties and cities run their own programs on top of that. These can be stacked with FHA or conventional loans, and income limits apply, so not everyone qualifies for every program. The key is a lender who actually knows these programs and can tell you which ones fit your numbers before you fall in love with a house.

FHA loans accept scores around 580-620, while conventional loans typically want 620 or above. A single past mistake rarely disqualifies you, it mostly affects your interest rate, which is a fixable number. The fastest way to know where you stand is a ten-minute conversation with a lender, not a guess from an online calculator. Get that read before you start touring homes.

Yes, and it's the part everyone forgets. On top of the down payment, plan on roughly 2-4% of the purchase price for title, appraisal, loan fees, taxes and insurance. Your lender is required to give you a Loan Estimate up front that itemizes these, so it never has to be a mystery. Ask for it early and read it, because a house is not just its down payment.

Prequalified means a lender ran quick numbers on what you told them and gave you a rough guess. Pre-approved means they actually verified your income, credit and assets and issued a real letter. In Dallas, sellers and listing agents take a pre-approval seriously and treat a prequalification as a nice-to-have. If you are serious about buying, get the pre-approval before you start making offers.

Yes, self-employed buyers buy homes in Dallas all the time. The catch is documentation: lenders typically want two years of tax returns to prove income, and heavy write-offs can make that income look smaller than it is. That works against you on a loan application. The fix is a lender who knows how to underwrite self-employed buyers in DFW and can show your qualifying income in its best light, honestly.

No one can honestly promise a crystal ball, but Dallas's downside has historically been a slow cool-off rather than a crash. Persistent job growth and steady in-migration keep a floor under demand, so prices are off their 2022 peak in some spots yet this looks like a normalizing market, not a collapse. If you are buying for the long term, time in the market beats timing the market. Ask your own questions about your timeline rather than trusting a headline.

Inventory is up for two main reasons. The 'rate lock' effect is fading, so owners who delayed selling for years because of their low mortgage rates are finally listing, and builders have added a lot of new supply at the edges of the metroplex. More choices is a good thing for buyers, but it means sellers have to price and market competitively. That is exactly when you should negotiate.

In most of DFW, buying still comes out ahead if you plan to stay five years or more, because rents keep climbing while a mortgage payment stays fixed. The catch is the full monthly payment: taxes, insurance and sometimes a MUD assessment are higher than most renters expect, and they rise over time. The only honest answer is to run the real numbers for your price range and compare them against today's rent, which is exactly what Garland does on a free call.

Very different. National headlines are mostly written about coastal markets with their own dynamics, while DFW has its own math: no state income tax, strong job growth and steady in-migration keep demand here moving. A cooling story in California or Florida tells you almost nothing about what is happening in Collin County. Make your Dallas decision off Dallas numbers, not a national story.

Texas has no state income tax, so local governments fund their services through property tax instead. Your bill is the tax rate times your appraised value, and when home values shot up, bills rose right along with them. Two levers actually help: the homestead exemption, which reduces your taxable value and caps how fast it can rise, and protesting your appraisal when it looks too high. Both are worth doing every year.

MUD stands for Municipal Utility District, a special taxing district created to pay for water, sewer and roads in newer developments, especially in Collin County. It can add $300-400 a month to a mortgage payment on top of your base taxes, which is why new-build buyers get blindsided. Before you offer on a new development, ask about the MUD and check the numbers, because it is public record and it is baked into your monthly payment.

If you have a mortgage, you almost certainly pay through escrow: your lender collects a slice each month and pays the tax bill when it comes due. That payment is not fixed. When taxes or insurance go up, your lender recalculates and your monthly escrow payment rises with them. Knowing that going in is the difference between being surprised and being prepared.

A homestead exemption is a tax break on your primary residence. In Texas it exempts part of your home's value from school taxes and caps how much your appraised value can rise each year, which protects you when values climb. You have to file it with the county appraisal district, and you can file up to two years retroactively. Skipping it is money left on the table, so it should be on your to-do list the day you close.

An escrow shortage happens when your lender's initial estimate of your taxes and insurance comes in lower than the actual bills. When the real bills are higher, your escrow account comes up short and you owe the difference, either as a lump sum or spread across the next year. Homeowners call it the 'year-two shock' because nobody warns them. Budgeting for a possible increase early is the best way to soften it.

DFW homeowners insurance is high and still rising, because this is hail country. The first quote often lands near double what buyers assumed when they budgeted. Shop independent agents and get real quotes before you are under contract, not after, because a 30% spread between carriers is normal here. That shopping effort can be the difference between a comfortable payment and a painful surprise.

In Texas, wind and hail deductibles are often set as a percentage of the home's insured value rather than a flat dollar amount. On a $450,000 house, a 1-2% deductible means $4,500 to $9,000 out of pocket after a storm, before your insurance pays a cent. Read that percentage as actual dollars before you pick a policy, because it changes what a hail claim really costs you.

Yes. Texas sellers fill out the Seller's Disclosure Notice, and known foundation work has to be disclosed on it. If you see foundation repair, ask for the warranty and the repair receipts, and seriously consider hiring your own foundation engineer to inspect. The disclosure protects you by putting the issue in the open, but your own inspection protects you more, because it gives you independent facts instead of a promise.

Nine times out of ten it is price, photos, or both, not the market. Buyers vote with their calendars, and no showings means the listing simply is not competitive. The fix is usually a fresh, honest price conversation plus professional photography that shows the home at its best. Most houses that stall start getting showings again once those two things are corrected.

No. Pricing high to leave room to come down is a losing strategy, because a price cut is a public signal that discourages the exact buyers you need. The first two weeks of a listing get the most attention and the most showings, and that is when offers happen. Price it right at launch to capture that window, rather than burning it with an overpriced debut.

It varies a lot by price band and condition. Hot areas and well-priced, well-presented homes can sell in days, while overpriced ones sit for months and keep taking price cuts. Days on market is really a report card on pricing and marketing. Garland will show you how your specific home reads in today's market and what number will actually bring buyers in the door.

Zillow's estimate is an algorithm that has never walked through your house. It cannot see the condition, the updates, the lot, or how your particular street actually sells. A local agent's price is built from sold comparables and a real look at your home's condition, and that is the number that actually matters when buyers come to the door. Treat the Zestimate as a starting point, not a value.

You have enough equity to sell if your home is worth more than what you owe plus your estimated closing costs. If the number is tight, that is exactly when a good agent earns their keep by running the net sheet for you, showing the realistic bottom line before you decide. Knowing the true net number is the difference between a plan and a guess.

New construction offers builder incentives, modern finishes and a clean slate, while resale offers established neighborhoods, mature trees and usually more square footage for the dollar. The builder's financing rate can be genuinely attractive, but it is often baked into the price. The right answer comes from an all-in comparison of the two on the same terms, which is exactly what Garland does for buyers weighing new builds against resale.

More than most buyers realize. Builders offer rate buydowns, closing cost credits, upgraded finishes, and sometimes outright price reductions, and these are negotiable terms rather than posted prices. They shift based on the builder, the phase and how many homes are left in the development. Your own agent should be at that table with you, because builders are professionals at their own sales process and you deserve a counter.

Often the most attractive incentive is tied to using the builder's lender, which is why it can feel like bait-and-switch. The honest way to evaluate it is to get quotes from the builder's lender and an independent lender, then compare the all-in cost of each, not just the rate. Sometimes their financing is genuinely good, and sometimes you are better off taking the outside rate and paying the difference yourself.

Yes, and you should. The sales office may make it sound like you do not need representation, but you have the right to bring your own buyer's agent, and at a new build that representation typically costs you nothing out of pocket. The catch is timing: you generally need to register your agent on your first visit, or the builder may not pay them. Show up with your agent from day one.

No, not all Dallas houses have foundation problems, but the expansive clay soil here means foundations move, and many homes carry some level of past repair. That makes it a risk to evaluate, not a reason to run from every house. A standard inspection plus a foundation engineer give you facts instead of fear, so you can tell a real problem from normal settling.

Foundation repair in DFW ranges from a few thousand dollars for minor piering to tens of thousands for major structural work, depending on the house and the extent of the fix. Before you let any number scare you, get a structural engineer's report, because that independent number tells you whether the deal still makes sense and gives you real negotiating leverage if it does not.

Not automatically. A foundation that has been properly repaired, and comes with a transferable warranty, can be perfectly fine and often shows up on homes that sell cleanly. The red flag is unrepaired or recurring movement, or repair work with no warranty behind it. That is when you walk or negotiate hard, because you would be buying an ongoing problem rather than a solved one.

Slab is what most Dallas homes have: cheaper to build, but it is the type that cracks as the clay soil moves. Pier and beam sits on piers above the ground, costs more to build, and is easier to service and re-level over time. Neither is inherently wrong. The question is condition and cost for that specific house, plus what the inspection and a foundation engineer turn up.

They are legal and real, but they are investors buying at a discount, typically offering 70-80% of what you would net by selling on the open market. If you need speed, or the house needs significant work you cannot fund, that discount genuinely buys convenience. Just know exactly what you are trading, because the same house might bring a substantially higher number with a proper marketing plan.

Investors usually target 20-30% below retail value, which is where the '70% rule' comes from, because they take on risk, repairs and carrying costs. If your house is in good condition and ready for the market, you owe it to yourself to see what the open market would actually pay before accepting a discount. A cash offer can be the right call for speed, but it is not automatically the best price.

No. A wholesaler does not buy your house directly. They contract to buy it, then sell that contract to an actual investor before closing, so you can end up with delays and renegotiation when the real buyer shows up. Before you sign anything, ask who the end buyer is and whether the contract is assignable, and have someone who knows contracts read it before you commit.

Selling by owner in Texas is doable, and the commission savings are real. The paperwork is manageable if you stay organized: the TREC contract, the Seller's Disclosure Notice, a title company and decent marketing are the essentials. The real risk is pricing and negotiation mistakes, which can cost far more than the commission you saved. If you go FSBO, get the paperwork right and get the price honestly right, because those two things carry the whole deal.

Yes. Texas requires the Seller's Disclosure Notice, form 5.008, for most resales, whether you use an agent or not. Marking 'unknown' is a legitimate answer when you genuinely do not know an item, but skipping the form or fudging an answer is how owners get sued after closing. Fill it out honestly and completely, and keep a copy of what you submitted.

Yes. Known foundation work belongs on the Seller's Disclosure Notice, and Texas law does not let you hide it. Disclose it, gather the warranty and the repair receipts, and price the home honestly, and a past repair does not have to kill the deal. It is usually the hiding that kills it, because a buyer who discovers it later has every reason to walk or renegotiate.

In Texas the clock is faster than many people expect. A lender can begin foreclosure once you are roughly 120 days delinquent, and the auction is scheduled for the first Tuesday of the month after a 21-day notice. The earlier you act, the more options you have, so do not wait for the notice to start calling people who can help.

Yes, and selling may be your best option. Even when you are behind on payments, you can still sell the house, typically for a better price than it would bring at auction, and in some cases walk away with enough to cover the arrears. The key is moving before the auction date, because once that date passes your leverage disappears. Start the conversation early.

Usually yes, as long as you act before the auction. The options include paying the arrears, negotiating a loan modification, selling the house in time, or filing bankruptcy in the worst cases. Once the auction happens, the window closes fast. Because every situation is different, talk to a Texas attorney about the specifics of yours, and act early rather than hoping it resolves itself.

A short sale is selling your home for less than you owe, with the bank agreeing to accept the shortfall. A lender will agree when doing so costs them less than going through foreclosure. It is slower and paperwork-heavy, but it is generally gentler on your credit than a foreclosure. If you are considering one, have an experienced agent and a Texas attorney walk you through the process.

When several siblings inherit a house, everyone listed on the deed usually has to sign to sell it. The hard part is rarely the paperwork, it is getting one sibling who will not agree to move forward. The options range from buying that sibling out to partitioning the property, and each path has trade-offs. A probate-savvy agent and a Texas attorney make the difference between a resolution and a standstill.

Plan on roughly 6-12 months for a typical Texas probate, faster if there is a valid will and everyone agrees, and longer if there is a dispute. While it runs, the house still needs property taxes, insurance and upkeep, which are costs nobody budgets for. Knowing the timeline and the carrying costs up front lets you plan the sale instead of reacting to it.

Usually much less than you would think. Inherited property gets a 'stepped-up basis,' meaning it is valued as of the date of death rather than what the original owner originally paid, so appreciation before that is not taxed. Sold soon after, many heirs owe little or nothing. Keep the date-of-death appraisal handy, and confirm the numbers with a tax professional, because it varies with your own situation.

The stepped-up basis is the IRS rule that resets the tax basis of inherited property to its fair market value on the date of death. Because that value is often far higher than what the original owner paid, the step-up shrinks or eliminates the taxable gain when you sell. To document it, get an appraisal as of the date of death and keep it with your records, and confirm the final number with a tax professional.