In Texas, the option fee and earnest money are two separate deposits with two different jobs. What each one buys, which one you can get back, when they are at risk, and how both are credited at closing, from a Northwest Austin broker.
The title commitment and survey are where a clean-looking Texas home deal quietly dies. How to read Schedules A-D, when you need a new survey and a T-47, the area-and-boundary exception, and how the objection clock protects your earnest money.
How Texas property tax proration works at closing: why the seller credits the buyer, where the pre-bill estimate comes from, the TREC reproration clause, and the reset that can make your second-year Northwest Austin tax bill jump.
Points, temporary buydowns, and ARM vs fixed for Northwest Austin buyers in a high-sixes rate market: how each works, the break-even math, why Texas property taxes change the call, and when each fits. General info, not lending advice.