The Same Property, Three Different Purchases
This is the whole difficulty of comparing Austin offers, and once you see it the numbers stop looking random.
The repair buyer prices what survived and what it costs to put right. The lot is incidental to them; they are buying a house that needs work.
The replacement buyer prices a new single house on the site. Inside the Subchapter F boundary they are working to a cap of the greater of 0.4 floor to area ratio or 2,300 square feet, with the tent constraining the shape.
The entitlement buyer prices what the lot may carry as two or three units under HOME. They are not buying a house at all. The full position is on our page covering what the lot can hold now.
Why Do Those Three Produce Such Different Numbers?
Which One Is Yours Depends on Two Numbers
The lot size. Two and three unit projects require at least 5,750 square feet. Below that, a single unit is possible on as little as 1,800 square feet, but the entitlement buyer is not in your market.
Whether Subchapter F applies. It covers a mapped area rather than the whole city. Outside it the replacement buyer is far less constrained, which narrows the gap between them and the entitlement buyer.
Both are free lookups, and between them they tell you which kind of buyer should be paying the most for your property.
What If My Lot Is Too Small for Multiple Units?
The Question That Sorts Them
Ask every buyer: what do you intend to build, and how many units.
The answer tells you which asset they are pricing, and therefore what to compare their number against. A buyer planning a single replacement house should be compared against other replacement buyers, not against a developer pricing three units.
It also exposes the buyer who has not checked. Someone quoting a confident figure on a large central lot without having established whether HOME applies is either not intending to develop it or has not done the work. Either is worth knowing.
Who Is Actually Calling
Austin infill developers. Buying land for its entitlement, and since 2024 the most likely to be the highest bidder on a qualifying lot. They care about lot dimensions, the Subchapter F boundary and access, and comparatively little about the burned structure.
Custom builders. Pricing a single replacement house for an eventual owner-occupier. Competitive on lots that do not support multiple units.
Rehabbers. Where the fire was contained and the structure survived, restoring can beat any land play, and this group will pay accordingly.
Cash acquirers. Capital held to buy in damaged condition. Balance sheet funding, title in their own name, their own timetable. Usually fastest, rarely highest.
Contract assigners. They sign to buy and sell the contract on before closing. The question is whether the party will own your property or introduce somebody who will.
The Records Worth Pulling
The appraisal district's parcel record. Lot dimensions, zoning, year built and jurisdiction. Free, and it is the document that tells you which market you are in.
The Travis County Clerk's official records. Search the buyer's exact legal entity as grantee. A firm doing infill development in Austin has recorded deeds here, and what they have bought tells you which of the three buyers they really are.
The licence lookup. A party marketing your property to others rather than buying it themselves is engaged in brokerage and needs a Texas licence. A principal buyer taking title does not.
Where We Fit, and Where We Do Not
We buy as principal, in our own entity, with our own funds, and we take title. We do not assign contracts. Ask us the same question: what would we build, and how many units.
We are frequently not the right answer, and on this stock more often than we used to be. On a lot that comfortably supports three units, an infill developer is buying more entitlement than we are and can generally pay more. Where the fire was contained and the structure survived, a rehabber can pay closer to finished value than a buyer pricing a rebuild. And where the repair sits below finished value, doing it yourself keeps the margin. Our written figure says so when the numbers point there. What happens from there is on our page about how the process actually runs.
Questions About Buyers
One Offer Was Far Above the Others.
Check whether that buyer is pricing the entitlement rather than the house. On a qualifying lot that is a legitimate reason to be higher, and it is worth confirming they have actually established the lot qualifies.
Nobody Has Asked About My Lot Size.
Then nobody is pricing what the land can hold, and on a lot above 5,750 square feet in the right zoning that means every offer you have may be low.
Does a Buyer Need a Licence?
Not to buy as a principal and take title. Marketing property on behalf of others requires a Texas licence, and the state lookup will confirm whether a party holds one.