5 Texas laws changed the rules.
Here is what matters on your block.
The video covers the five headline changes. This page goes one step farther: which ones change your annual cost, which ones change your paperwork, and which ones change what could legally happen next door.
The biggest 2026 homeowner risk is not memorizing five bill numbers. It is making a purchase, lease or sale decision based on rules that no longer work the way you remember.
Watch the Realty Haus discussion, then explore the practical checks in this guide.
Five rules, five different kinds of risk.
The video walks through the headlines. The useful next step is separating the changes that alter your annual cost from the ones that alter what can happen next door.
Texas now requires school districts to exempt $140,000 of a qualifying residence homestead's value. For owners 65+ or disabled, the additional school exemption is $60,000. That lowers taxable value, but it does not make appraisal protests irrelevant.
The practical point for small owner-landlords is not “evictions got easy.” It is that procedure matters more. Venue, notice language and documentation can determine whether a case moves or stalls, so old downloaded lease templates deserve a review.
Beginning Sept. 1, 2026, residential solar retailers and salespeople must be registered with TDLR. Consumers also have a five-business-day cancellation right. For sellers, the bigger Realty Haus question is still transferability, payoff and any title-related obligations before listing.
HB 24 changed Texas zoning protest procedures. The takeaway is not that neighbors have “no say.” It is that buyers should stop assuming the same protest mechanics that existed years ago will block future land-use changes near a property.
Austin's SB 840 implementation allows multifamily or mixed-use development on many commercially zoned properties. That means the parcel behind a house can matter almost as much as the house itself.
Do a three-parcel check, not just a house check.
This is the step the video points toward but a buyer can actually use.
It is “Which adjacent parcels have a legal path to change, and how much of that possibility is already reflected in the price I'm paying?”
Start with your situation, not the law number.
Inspect the block beyond the listing.
Pull zoning and nearby commercial parcels before your option period disappears. If your value thesis depends on “nothing will ever change behind us,” verify that assumption.
Confirm the easy money first.
Verify your homestead exemption and keep an eye on redevelopment cases around the edges of your neighborhood.
Review the lease, not just the rent.
Small owners should make sure notice, communication and venue language fit current Texas procedure instead of relying on an old template.
Clean up solar before title does it for you.
If panels are financed or leased, get the current payoff or transfer path early. Buyers hate discovering a solar obligation in the last week before closing.
FAQ
Did the school homestead exemption increase to $140,000? +
Do solar salespeople have to be registered in Texas? +
Can commercial land in Austin now become apartments without rezoning? +
Does HB 24 mean neighbors have no zoning protest rights? +
- Texas Comptroller, current residence homestead exemption guidance. Source.
- TDLR, current residential solar registration and cancellation rules. Source.
- Texas Legislature, current Local Government Code zoning protest procedures after HB 24. Source.
- City of Austin Development Services, SB 840 implementation guidance for commercial-to-multifamily and mixed-use development. Source.
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