There are plenty of ways that Texas is unique, but one of the lesser-known is that it's a "non-disclosure" state if homes are being sold privately.
That means the purchase price of a privately-sold home is not disclosed to sales agents -- or even to local officials.
Emory University Professor Sergio Garante, who's studied the five states that don't require disclosure on such states, says it's a good thing for preserving privacy, but it makes it tough for local sales agents to fully understand the going price for homes because their value is often calculated by the prices of similar homes in nearby areas.
In private sales, "that means that not even the local government nor the market have information on how much the property is transacted for," he says.
"In the state of Texas, that private-sale information is not disclosed to the public, and not to the tax assessor."
Such sales also make it harder to figure out property taxes, since such "off-market home sales" are not counted among assessments of local homes that, aggregated, form the basis of property tax evaluations.
"In a state like Texas," he says, "the only information that they might disclose is, like, the last listing of the property. They're not going to list the actual transaction price."