Buying a Home at Montebello Without Seeing It: Inspections by Proxy and a Remote Closing

What can be signed from outside Texas, and on what condition?

Anything the parties have agreed to sign that way. Under the Texas Uniform Electronic Transactions Act a record or signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form, and Section 322.005 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code applies that chapter only to transactions between parties each of which has agreed to conduct transactions by electronic means. Whether the parties agreed is determined from the context and surrounding circumstances, including the parties' conduct.

Two consequences come out of the same chapter. Where a law requires a record to be in writing, an electronic record satisfies the law, and where a law requires a signature, an electronic signature satisfies it, inside that agreement. A party that agrees to conduct a transaction by electronic means may refuse to conduct other transactions by electronic means, and that right may not be waived by agreement, so consent given for one document carries no promise about the next one.

Recording is the step most people do not know about, and it decides whether an electronically signed instrument reaches the real property records. Section 12.0013 of the Texas Property Code requires a county clerk to record a paper or tangible copy of an electronic record that is otherwise eligible under state law to be recorded in the real property records where the copy contains an image of an electronic signature or signatures that are acknowledged, sworn to with a jurat, or proved according to law, and has been declared by a notary public or other officer who may take an acknowledgment to be a true and correct copy of the electronic record. Both conditions travel together every time the rule is stated.

A copy printed and declared that way satisfies any requirement of law that, as a condition for recording, the document be an original or be in writing, be signed, where it carries an image of the electronic signature of the person required to sign it, and be notarized, acknowledged, verified, witnessed, made under oath, sworn to with a jurat, or proved according to law, where it carries an image of the electronic signature of the person authorized to perform that act and all other information required to be included. The officer makes that declaration by executing and attaching an official seal to a tangible paper declaration under penalty of perjury, then affixing the declaration to the printed copy.

How does a Texas online notarization work, and where may the signer be?

Section 406.110(a) of the Texas Government Code lets an online notary public perform an online notarization that meets the requirements of that subchapter and the rules adopted under it, without regard to whether the principal is physically located in this state at the time. An online notarization means a notarial act performed by means of two-way video and audio conference technology that meets the standards adopted under Section 406.104, and the notary shall take reasonable steps to ensure that the communication used is secure from unauthorized interception.

Identity is verified in one of two ways. Either the online notary public has personal knowledge of the person signing the document, or the notary uses each of three things: remote presentation by that person of a government-issued identification credential, including a passport or driver's license, that contains the signature and a photograph of the person, credential analysis of that credential, and identity proofing of the person. Credential analysis means a process or service operating according to criteria approved by the secretary of state through which a third person affirms the validity of a government-issued identification credential through review of public and proprietary data sources. Identity proofing means a process or service operating according to criteria approved by the secretary of state through which a third person affirms the identity of an individual through review of personal information from public and proprietary data sources.

The notary keeps a secure electronic record of each online notarization, and that record includes a recording of any video and audio conference that is the basis for satisfactory evidence of identity. Section 406.108 requires the record to be maintained for at least five years after the date of the transaction or proceeding. The notarial certificate must include a notation that the notarization is an online notarization, and must indicate if the signature was a tangible symbol or an electronic signature. Section 406.111 caps the fee for performing an online notarization at $25, in addition to any other fees authorized under Section 406.024.

An online notary public has the authority to perform any of the functions authorized under Section 406.016 as an online notarization. Section 406.016 of the Texas Government Code gives a notary public the same authority as the county clerk to take acknowledgments or proofs of written instruments and to administer oaths. The same section sets the limit that matters to a signer reading documents alone in another state: a notary public not licensed to practice law in this state may not give legal advice or accept fees for legal advice.

What does a power of attorney do at a closing, and who may refuse one?

It lets a named agent sign in the principal's place where the principal will not be available to sign at all. Section 752.004 of the Texas Estates Code makes a statutory durable power of attorney legally sufficient under that subtitle where the wording of the form complies substantially with the wording of the form prescribed by Section 752.051, the form is properly completed, and the signature of the principal is acknowledged. The prescribed form is not exclusive, and other forms of power of attorney may be used.

Language conferring authority with respect to real property transactions gives the agent authority, without further reference to a specific description of the real property, to buy, lease, receive or otherwise acquire an interest in real property, and to sell, exchange, convey, mortgage, encumber or otherwise dispose of an estate or interest in real property. The power to mortgage and encumber includes executing the documents necessary to create a lien against the principal's homestead as provided by Section 50, Article XVI, Texas Constitution. Section 751.0021 of the Texas Estates Code also requires the instrument to be acknowledged by the principal, or by another adult the principal directed to sign, before an officer authorized under the laws of this state or another state to take acknowledgments to deeds of conveyance and to administer oaths.

Acceptance is governed rather than discretionary. Unless one or more grounds for refusal under Section 751.206 exist, a person who is presented with and asked to accept a durable power of attorney by an agent with authority to act under it shall accept it, or before accepting it request an agent's certification under Section 751.203 or an opinion of counsel under Section 751.204 not later than the tenth business day after the date the power of attorney is presented. A person who requests one of those must then accept the power of attorney not later than the seventh business day after the date the person receives the requested certification or opinion. The agent and the person to whom it is presented may agree to extend either period, and a person is not required to accept where the agent does not provide what was requested.

The grounds sit in Section 751.206 as a list, and two of them are carried here. The first is that the person would not otherwise be required to engage in a transaction with the principal under the same circumstances, including where the agent wants to establish or expand a customer relationship, or to acquire a product or service the person does not offer. The second is that engaging in the transaction with the agent or with the principal under the same circumstances would be inconsistent with another law of this state or a federal statute, rule or regulation, with a request from a law enforcement agency, or with a policy the person adopted in good faith to comply with such a law. The list continues in that section. A person who refuses must provide the agent a written statement advising of the reason or reasons, on or before the date acceptance would otherwise have been due.

A durable power of attorney for a real property transaction requiring the execution and delivery of an instrument that is to be recorded must itself be recorded in the office of the county clerk of the county in which the property is located not later than the 30th day after the date the instrument is filed for recording. The statutory form carries its own notice: the powers granted by the document are broad and sweeping, and a reader with questions about them is told to obtain competent legal advice. The same notice adds one condition worth reading twice, that for an agent to have authority to sign home equity loan documents the power of attorney must be signed by the principal at the office of the lender, an attorney at law, or a title company.

Who walks the home in your place, and what is their report required to cover?

An inspector the buyer chooses. Under the Texas Real Estate Commission's Residential Condominium Contract (Resale), form 30-17, the seller shall permit buyer and buyer's agents access to the Property at reasonable times, and the buyer may have the property inspected by inspectors the buyer selects who are licensed by TREC or otherwise permitted by law to make inspections. Nothing in the form requires the buyer to stand there while it happens. Agreeing to accept the property As Is does not preclude the buyer from inspecting it under that paragraph, from negotiating repairs or treatments in a subsequent amendment, or from terminating during the Option Period, if any.

A real estate inspection under Chapter 1102 of the Texas Occupations Code means a written or oral opinion as to the condition of the improvements to real property, including structural items, electrical items, mechanical systems, plumbing systems, or equipment, and that definition is the outer edge of what a report can be. A person may not act as a professional inspector in this state for a buyer or seller of real property unless the person holds a professional inspector license under that chapter, and an inspector may not perform a real estate inspection in a negligent or incompetent manner. The commission by rule prescribes standard forms and requires inspectors to use them.

The commission's Property Inspection Report form, REI 7-6, sets the duties with their limits attached. The inspector is required to use that form, to inspect only those components and conditions that are present, visible, and accessible at the time of the inspection, to indicate whether each item was inspected, not inspected, or not present, to indicate an item as Deficient where a condition exists that adversely and materially affects the performance of a system or component or constitutes a hazard to life, limb or property as specified by the Standards of Practice, and to explain the findings in the corresponding section in the body of the report.

The same form states what the inspector is not required to do: identify all potential hazards, climb over obstacles or move furnishings or stored items, prioritize or emphasize the importance of one deficiency over another, or provide follow-up services to verify that proper repairs have been made. Only items specifically noted as being inspected on the report were inspected, the inspection is not technically exhaustive and may not reveal all deficiencies, and items identified as Deficient do not obligate any party to make repairs. Obtaining further evaluations or cost estimates is the client's responsibility, and the form recommends that they take place prior to the expiration of any contractual time limitations, such as option periods.

Two prohibitions in Chapter 1102 of the Texas Occupations Code matter to a buyer who will not be watching. An inspector may not accept an assignment for real estate inspection where the employment or a fee is contingent on the reporting of a specific, predetermined condition of the improvements to real property, or of specific findings other than those the inspector knows to be true when the assignment is accepted. An inspector may not act in a transaction in the dual capacity of inspector and undisclosed principal, or of inspector and broker or salesperson. What a room measures is a document question in any event, and Montebello Floor Plans and What the Monthly Fee Actually Covers answers where the recorded plan sits and why two square-foot figures for the same home disagree.

What does a condominium purchase give you to read instead of a walkthrough?

Four documents with a shelf life on one of them. Under Section 82.157 of the Texas Property Code, and except as that section's own Subsection (c) provides, a unit owner other than a declarant who intends to sell a unit must furnish to the purchaser, before executing a contract or conveying the unit, a current copy of the declaration, the bylaws, any association rules, and a resale certificate prepared not earlier than three months before the date it is delivered to the purchaser.

The association's deadline runs from receipt and from an owner's request together: not later than the 10th day after the date of receiving a written request by a unit owner, the association shall furnish the selling unit owner or the owner's agent a resale certificate signed and dated by an officer or authorized agent of the association. Where the association does not furnish it or the information in it within that period, the statute provides a sworn affidavit route and a written waiver the owner and purchaser may agree to, and failure to provide a resale certificate does not void a deed to a purchaser.

Reading at a distance is worth something because of what the same section attaches to the document. A purchaser, lender, or title insurer who relies on a resale certificate is not liable for any debt or claim that is not disclosed in the certificate, and an association may not deny the validity of any statement in the certificate. Form 30-17 requires the Certificate to be in a form promulgated by TREC or required by the parties, to have been prepared at seller's expense no more than 3 months before the date it is delivered to buyer, and to contain at a minimum the information required by Section 82.157 of the Texas Property Code.

Montebello stands at 1100 Uptown Park Boulevard in Houston, ZIP code 77056, built in 2003, 30 floors and 98 homes, from the operator's building record read in September 2026. Moving to Montebello, which carries the drives from this address and the band homes here trade in, is the page this one continues from.

Which windows are running while you are somewhere else?

Several run at once, and each counts from its own event. Where the buyer has not received the Documents or the Certificate at signing, form 30-17 has the seller deliver each within a number of days the parties fill in, and the buyer may terminate the contract within 7 days after receiving the Documents, and within 7 days after the date the buyer receives the Certificate, by giving written notice of termination to seller. Earnest money is refunded on a termination made that way, and the buyer retains rights to terminate under Section 82.156 of the Texas Property Code.

Notices under the termination option paragraph must be given by 5:00 p.m. local time where the property is located by the date specified, and the form states that time is of the essence for that paragraph and that strict compliance with the time for performance is required. If no dollar amount is stated as the Option Fee, or if the buyer fails to deliver the Option Fee within the time required, the buyer does not have the unrestricted right to terminate under Paragraph 5. Where the last day to deliver the earnest money, the Option Fee or the additional earnest money falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the time to deliver it is extended until the end of the next day that is not one. All notices from one party to the other must be in writing and are effective when mailed to, hand-delivered at, or transmitted by fax or electronic transmission.

One provision moves every other date on this list. Where the Documents reveal that the property is subject to a right of refusal under which the association or a member of the association may purchase the property, the Effective Date is amended to the date the buyer receives a copy of the association's certification that the seller has complied with the requirements under the right of refusal and that all persons who may exercise it have not exercised or have waived the right to buy the property.

The statute keeps its own clock beside the contract's. Under Section 82.156 of the Texas Property Code, a purchaser of a unit from a unit owner other than a declarant who has not received from the seller the declaration, bylaws and association rules required by Section 82.157 before executing a contract of sale, or whose contract contains no underlined or bold-print provision acknowledging the purchaser's receipt of those documents and recommending that the purchaser read them before executing the contract, may cancel the contract before the sixth day after the date the purchaser receives those documents. A purchaser who has not received a resale certificate before executing a contract of sale may cancel before the sixth day after the date the purchaser receives the certificate or executes a waiver under Section 82.157, whichever occurs first. The cancellation must be by hand-delivering written notice to the declarant or selling unit owner, or by mailing notice by certified United States mail, return receipt requested, to the offeror or the offeror's agent for service of process, within the five-day cancellation period, and cancellation is without penalty with all payments made before it refunded.

Subsection (a) of that section writes a sixth day and Subsection (c) writes a five-day cancellation period. Both appear above because both are the statute's own words, and a purchaser acting on the right should treat the earlier of the two as the deadline and put the question to their own lawyer. A selling unit owner may not require a purchaser to close until the purchaser is given the declaration, bylaws, and any association rules.

A financed purchase adds a federal clock carrying its scope with it. In a closed-end consumer credit transaction secured by real property or a cooperative unit, other than a reverse mortgage, Regulation Z, Section 1026.19 requires the creditor to ensure that the consumer receives the final disclosures no later than three business days before consummation, except as provided in the paragraphs the rule names. Disclosures not provided to the consumer in person are treated as received three business days after they are delivered or placed in the mail. Three changes before consummation start that period again: the annual percentage rate becoming inaccurate, the loan product being changed, and a prepayment penalty being added. The waiting period may be modified or waived only where the consumer determines the extension of credit is needed to meet a bona fide personal financial emergency, by a dated written statement that describes the emergency, specifically modifies or waives the period and bears the signature of all consumers primarily liable, with printed forms for that purpose prohibited. A purchase made without borrowing is not on that clock at all.

How does the money move, and where does it go wrong?

It moves into the escrow agent's hands in funds that agent will take, and it goes wrong at the instruction that says where to send it. Form 30-17 states plainly that buyer shall pay the Sales Price in good funds acceptable to the Escrow Agent.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, in alert I-060923-PSA published in June 2023, describes a scam aimed at everyone in a property transaction: buyers, sellers, real estate attorneys, title companies and agents. Once a perpetrator reaches the email account of a participant, they watch the proceeding and time a fraudulent request for a change in payment type, frequently from check to wire transfer, or for a change from one bank account to a different bank account under their control. Funds may then be moved on again, to a secondary fraudulent domestic or international account.

The same alert reports a 27 percent increase in victim reports to the centre of these incidents with a real estate nexus from calendar years 2020 to 2022, and a 72 percent increase in victim loss over that same period. The centre's later alert, I-091124-PSA published in September 2024, defines the underlying scam as one targeting both businesses and individuals who perform legitimate transfer-of-funds requests, frequently carried out when an individual compromises legitimate business or personal email accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds.

The centre's 2025 IC3 Annual Report, published in April 2026, prints one worked example from August 2025. Individuals closing on a home received an email impersonating their legitimate attorneys, a wire for over $449,000 was submitted at their bank and sent to the recipient bank, and after the Recovery Asset Team initiated the Financial Fraud Kill Chain to request a freeze, the recipient bank reported the full amount still in the account and on hold. That is one reported incident rather than a rate.

The agency gives two instructions. Use secondary channels or two-factor authentication to verify requests for changes in account information. Where a fraudulent transfer is discovered, contact the financial institution immediately and request a recall of the funds along with any necessary indemnification documents, and file a complaint with the centre regardless of the amount lost.

What changes about the tax bill after you move in?

The exemption turns on a date that may already have passed. Section 11.42 of the Texas Tax Code determines eligibility for and the amount of an exemption by a claimant's qualifications on January 1, except as its Subsections (b) and (c) and the other sections it names provide.

Subsection (f) is the way in for a purchase that closes later in the year, and its if-clause is the rule rather than a footnote. A person who acquires property after January 1 of a tax year may receive an exemption authorized by Section 11.13, other than one authorized by Section 11.13(c) or (d), for the applicable portion of that tax year immediately on qualification for the exemption, if the preceding owner did not receive the same exemption for that tax year.

The application goes to the chief appraiser for each appraisal district in which the property subject to the claimed exemption has situs. A person whose eligibility rests on January 1 qualifications must file a completed exemption application form before May 1 and furnish the information the form requires. A person who acquires the property after January 1 must apply for the applicable portion of that tax year before the first anniversary of the date the person acquires the property. For good cause shown the chief appraiser may extend the filing deadline by written order for a single period not to exceed 60 days, and, except as Section 11.439 provides, under Section 11.431 a late residence homestead application must be accepted and approved or denied where it is filed not later than two years after the delinquency date for the taxes on the homestead.

One requirement catches an owner whose paperwork has not caught up with the move. Except as provided by Subsection (p), a chief appraiser may not allow an applicant an exemption provided by Section 11.13 where the applicant is required under Subsection (j) to provide a copy of the applicant's driver's license or state-issued personal identification certificate unless the address listed on it corresponds to the address of the property for which the exemption is claimed. Subsection (p) of that section is where the statute keeps the exception to it.

A residence homestead, for purposes of Section 11.13 of the Texas Tax Code, means a structure, or a separately secured and occupied portion of a structure (together with the land, not to exceed 20 acres, and improvements used in the residential occupancy of the structure, if the structure and the land and improvements have identical ownership), that is owned by one or more individuals, either directly or through a beneficial interest in a qualifying trust, is designed or adapted for human residence, is used as a residence, and is occupied as the individual's principal residence by an owner. All four conditions are the definition. Form 30-17 prorates taxes for the current year through the Closing Date and states that the tax proration may be calculated taking into consideration any change in exemptions that will affect the current year's taxes. What a home here costs to run month to month is answered by What Does It Cost to Own a Condo at Montebello?

What can this page not tell you?

How a home is shown, for a start: no source read for this page governs a showing, so nothing above says what a video walkthrough is worth, and what the law does govern is the inspection, the documents and the signing. Which of the contract's blanks a particular deal will carry is unknowable here, since every one of them is negotiated and the promulgated form supplies none of them. Whether a particular title company or lender will accept a particular power of attorney belongs to that company, since Section 751.206 sets grounds for refusal and those grounds cannot be applied to a document nobody here has seen. What an inspection or an online notarization will cost is likewise open, the only figure read being the statutory ceiling of $25 on a fee for performing an online notarization, in addition to any other fees authorized under Section 406.024. How the condominium statute's sixth day and its five-day cancellation period reconcile is unresolved above, because both are the statute's own words. What this building's association will produce and when is the association's to answer, since no association document was read for this page. Every step above is a quoted rule rather than advice, so a buyer acting at a distance should put the whole sequence to their own lawyer and to the title company handling the file.

Someone has to stand in the home, read the documents and watch the clock on the buyer's behalf. That is the conversation to have with Paige Martin of Real Broker, LLC before an offer is written.