Listed sales, unlisted sales and the condo resale contract
How Montebello Condos Sell On and Off the MLS
Updated November 2026
How does a condo at Montebello in Houston change hands when it never appears on the MLS?
As of July 2026, a Montebello condo sold off the MLS still changes hands on the Texas Real Estate Commission's Residential Condominium Contract (Resale), the state form for condominium resales.
Paige Martin, Houston Properties Team, Montebello
Source: Texas Real Estate Commission, Residential Condominium Contract (Resale) form page, July 2026.
Does a Montebello sale made off the MLS appear in Texas housing figures?
The Texas Real Estate Research Center draws its housing statistics from listing data on Texas MLS systems. The Texas Real Estate Research Center states that existing-home sales negotiated outside the MLS are left out of that dataset.
Montebello was completed in 2003, so a resale here is an existing home. A unit that changes hands through a privately negotiated sale is missing from the Texas Real Estate Research Center's figures.
The building holds 98 homes, four to a floor, and recorded 4 closings in the trailing twelve months as of November 2026. In a set that small, a private sale in your own stack can matter more than any metro figure. Ask whoever prices a unit whether a recent sale in its stack closed privately, and at what price.
Which Texas contract and agent duties apply on or off the MLS?
A Montebello resale runs on the Texas Real Estate Commission's Residential Condominium Contract (Resale). The Commission says that form is used for the resale of a condominium unit. It adds that the form contains unique provisions relating solely to condominium transactions.
On that form page, the Commission says the listing agent represents the seller and must present all offers to the seller in a timely manner. If you hire a listing agent for a quiet sale, ask how each offer will reach you and how soon.
The listing agent represents the seller and has a duty to present all offers in a timely manner to the seller.
What does a private Montebello sale still run through at the building?
A quiet sale changes how buyer and seller met, not what a condominium purchase involves. The association prepares the resale certificate, and a lender financing the unit runs its own review of the association. Neither step sits in the seller's hands.
As of November 2026, the median home here took 104 days to reach an executed contract. Days on market stops at the contract, so the certificate and the lender's review come after that count. Ask the association early how long its papers take.
Read the budget, the reserve position, the assessment history and the master policy declarations page beside the certificate. Those documents answer the questions a buyer would have asked at a showing.
Paige Martin of Real Broker, LLC specializes in condo purchases and purchases in an association-governed building. She has 18 closings at Montebello, most recently June 2026, in a 98-unit building. Send the unit number and ask for the association's papers to be requested before any private terms are agreed.
How is a private Montebello price checked without an open listing?
Open marketing gives an asking price a test from the buyers who respond. A private sale skips that test, so closed sales carry the price alone.
Here the useful comparables follow the stack. With four homes to a floor, the home a few floors up in the same corner is the same plan with a different view. Three or four sales like that, some more than a year old, are often the whole set.
Closings ran at 96.1 percent of final list price as of November 2026, which describes buyers who negotiate. Ask Paige Martin for a written valuation of the unit that names the closed sales behind the number and what would change it.
Questions & answers
Montebello questions, answered
Can one broker represent both me and the seller of a Montebello unit?
Not as a dual agent. A Texas Real Estate Commission form page says Texas law does not permit dual agency. Under the current law, a broker who agrees to represent more than one party in a transaction must agree to act as an intermediary in accordance with the statute. A Montebello sale arranged privately is still a transaction between two parties.
The same form page limits what an intermediary may pass along. The intermediary and any associated license holders the intermediary broker appoints may not disclose certain price positions without the written authorization from the seller. One is that the seller will accept a price less than the asking price. The other is that the buyer will pay a price greater than the price submitted in a written offer. Where a private sale brings both sides to one brokerage, ask at the start whether the broker will act as intermediary. Ask who will be appointed to work with each side, and get the answer in writing.
Can a private sale of a Montebello unit be written on the standard Texas house contract?
No. The Texas Real Estate Commission says its residential resale contract for houses is not for use for condominium transactions, new homes being sold by a builder, or farm and ranch properties. A Montebello unit is a condominium, so a sale here belongs on the Commission's condominium resale form, however buyer and seller found each other.
Check the form before anything else on a private draft. Ask the agent preparing the contract which form it is written on before any blank is filled in. If a draft arrives on the house form, raise it in writing before you sign, and keep a dated copy of what you sent.
If a Montebello seller gets more than one private offer, can they weigh them together?
Yes. The Texas Real Estate Commission's Residential Condominium Contract (Resale) form page says a seller may receive, review and negotiate several offers simultaneously. For a buyer in a privately arranged sale, that means a quiet offer can still be weighed against others you never see. Write terms you are ready to stand behind from the first draft.
Set your offer against the closed sales in the unit's own stack, where the home above or below is usually the same plan. Ask the seller's agent, in writing, whether other offers are in hand and when the seller expects to answer. Keep every exchange dated, alongside your copy of the offer.
When does the Texas Real Estate Research Center release Houston figures for a given month?
The Texas Real Estate Research Center says statistics for the Houston metro area are released on or near the 40th calendar day after month end. Figures for one month therefore arrive well into the following month. Read any Houston number with that lag in mind, especially when a buyer or seller quotes it as current.
For a seller or buyer at Montebello, the lag matters less than the scale. A metro release blends thousands of homes, while this tower is 98 homes with four to a floor. Use the release to see which way Houston is moving. Use the closings in your own stack to set a number.
Do the Texas MLS housing statistics include condos and new construction?
Yes, when they sold through an MLS. The Texas Real Estate Research Center says its housing statistics draw on listing data from over 50 MLS systems in Texas. It describes them as combined listings of Single Family, Condominium and Townhouse properties, both New Construction and Existing Construction, sold through MLS systems.
That mix is why a statewide or metro figure reads differently from a building figure. A combined dataset blends houses, townhouses and condominiums of every age. Montebello is one tower of 98 homes, completed in 2003. When you weigh a unit here against either kind of figure, start from the unit's own closed sales.
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