What Happens After You Accept an Offer on Your Bee Cave Home? A Step-by-Step Guide

What happens after you accept an offer on a home in Bee Cave, TX? Once both parties sign, the contract is delivered to a title company and the buyer's option period starts. Over the next 30 to 45 days you'll move through inspections, repair negotiation, appraisal, title, HOA paperwork, and funding.

Most Bee Cave sellers think the hard part ends when they sign. It doesn't. Signing starts a clock, and almost every deal that falls apart in Travis County falls apart in the weeks after the offer is accepted — not before.

The good news is that the Texas process is predictable. The TREC contract spells out who does what and by when, and closings here run through a title company rather than an attorney. If you know the sequence, you can see problems coming instead of reacting to them.

Here's what actually happens between "accepted" and "funded" on a home in the 78738 ZIP code.

Step 1: The contract goes to the title company

The moment the last party signs and delivery is made, the contract has an effective date. Every deadline in the deal counts from that date, so it's worth confirming it in writing on day one.

Within three days of the effective date, the buyer delivers the earnest money and the option fee to the escrow agent at the title company. That money is now sitting in escrow — not with you, and not with the buyer's agent.

The title company opens the file, orders the title search, and begins preparing the title commitment. In Texas, this office is where your closing will actually happen. You can find the current contract forms and addenda on the Texas Real Estate Commission's site if you want to read what you signed.

Step 2: The option period — the buyer's real escape hatch

This is the part that surprises sellers coming from other states. In Texas, the buyer pays a negotiated option fee for the unrestricted right to walk away for any reason during a set number of days. Commonly it runs somewhere in the five-to-ten-day range, though it's negotiable.

During the option period, your home is under contract but the buyer holds all the leverage. If they terminate on day four because they changed their mind about the commute to downtown Austin, they get their earnest money back and you're back on the market.

Practical advice: keep the house showable, and don't tell your movers anything is final yet.

Step 3: Inspections

The buyer will schedule a general inspection almost immediately, and in the Bee Cave and Lake Travis area they often add specialty inspections on top of it:

• Septic / OSSF if the property isn't on a public sewer connection, which is common on larger lots west and south of the city
• Well and water systems, where applicable
• Foundation, because of how our soils move
• Roof, especially on homes that have been through a Hill Country hail season
• Pool and equipment
• Wood-destroying insect report

Expect the general report to be long. Inspectors document everything, including items that are cosmetic or original to the build. A 40-page report is normal and is not a verdict on your house.

Step 4: Repair negotiation

If the buyer wants repairs or credits, that request comes before the option period expires, because that's their only real leverage window. You have four options: do the work, offer a price reduction or credit, do part of it, or hold firm.

What you agree to gets written into an amendment and signed by both sides. Verbal promises don't count and won't survive to closing.

The judgment call here is whether the buyer is negotiating or genuinely rattled. Those get handled very differently, and reading it wrong costs you either money or the contract.

Step 5: Financing and appraisal

If the buyer is financing, their lender orders the appraisal once the option period closes. In a market like Bee Cave, where a custom home on an acre sits a few minutes from a production home in a master-planned neighborhood, appraisals require a real read of comparable sales — the range of home types here is wide.

If the appraisal comes in below the contract price, the contract's financing terms control what happens next. Depending on what was negotiated, the buyer may be able to terminate, or the two of you may negotiate the gap. This is the single most common late-stage renegotiation point on any Texas contract.

The buyer's loan approval also has its own deadline. Underwriting can ask for updated documentation right up to the end.

Step 6: Title commitment, survey, and the T-47

The title company issues a title commitment showing what has to be cleared before you can convey clean title — old liens, mechanic's liens, easements, judgments, name mismatches.

You'll also deal with the survey. If you have an existing survey, you can typically provide it along with a completed T-47 residential real property affidavit confirming nothing has changed since it was made. If you've added a pool, a shop, a casita, or a fence since your survey was drawn, expect a new survey to be required.

Easements matter more here than in a dense subdivision. Drainage, utility, and access easements on Hill Country lots are routine and are worth reviewing rather than skimming.

Step 7: HOA resale certificate, MUD, and PID paperwork

Most Bee Cave neighborhoods — Falconhead, Lake Pointe, Spanish Oaks, Uplands, Homestead, and others — have an HOA, and the association has to produce a resale certificate and governing documents for the buyer. Ordering it early matters, because associations and management companies take their own sweet time and this is a frequent cause of delayed closings.

If your property sits in a Municipal Utility District or a Public Improvement District, there's required notice and disclosure tied to that as well. Buyers relocating from California are frequently unfamiliar with MUDs and how they show up on a Travis County tax bill, so plan on that conversation.

Speaking of taxes: your property taxes get prorated at closing based on the Travis Central Appraisal District assessment, and any homestead exemption you're carrying doesn't follow the home to the buyer.

Step 8: Clear to close, walkthrough, and funding

In the final stretch:

• The lender issues a clear to close
• The title company sends the buyer their Closing Disclosure at least three business days before closing
• The buyer does a final walkthrough, confirming agreed repairs were completed and the home is in the condition they contracted for
• You sign — often at the title office, sometimes remotely
• The lender funds

In Texas, the sale is not final at signing. It's final at funding. Keys transfer when the transaction funds and records, not when the ink dries. If you need extra days in the house after that, it has to be papered as a temporary lease, not handled on a handshake.

What still goes wrong

Deals in this market usually die for one of four reasons: the buyer terminates during the option period, the appraisal misses, financing falls through late, or a title or survey issue surfaces that no one anticipated.

Three of those four are visible in advance if someone is watching the file. That's most of what your agent should be doing between contract and closing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does closing take in Bee Cave, TX? Most financed sales close 30 to 45 days after the effective date. Cash purchases can close in two to three weeks, since there's no appraisal or underwriting to wait on.

Can a buyer back out after the option period ends in Texas? They can walk away, but not without consequences. After the option period expires, the buyer generally forfeits earnest money unless they're terminating under a specific contract right, such as financing or title provisions. That's why the option period is the pivot point of the whole deal.

Do I have to make the repairs a buyer asks for? No. In Texas, homes are sold in their present condition unless you agree otherwise in writing. Repairs are negotiable, and a credit or price adjustment is often a cleaner solution than scheduling contractors during a 30-day escrow.

Can I stay in the house after closing? Sometimes, through a short-term leaseback documented on a TREC seller's temporary lease form. Terms, deposit, and daily rate get negotiated as part of the contract, not after.

Thinking about selling in Bee Cave?

If you're weighing a sale — or you're already under contract and want a second read on where the risk sits — call or text me. I'll walk you through what your timeline actually looks like and where the pressure points are for your specific property.

Amanda Zito, REALTOR® Real Broker, LLC Bee Cave • Lakeway • Lake Travis area CA DRE #01740063 | TX TREC #840088 📞 949-484-9486 SoldByZito.com