What Stays With the House in a Texas Sale

The short answer: the standard Texas resale contract conveys a good deal more than the walls. Paragraph 2 of the promulgated form hands over the land, everything attached to it, and a specific list of loose items — the stove, the blinds, the curtain rods, the door keys, the pool equipment. If a seller means to keep something that sits on those lists, it has to be written into the exclusions blank. If a buyer wants something that is not on them, that takes a separate addendum and a separate price. And a fixture the seller leases rather than owns, solar panels being the usual example, does not simply come along with the house at all.

Everything below is taken from the current form itself — Texas Real Estate Commission form 20-19, One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale), which carries the revision date 05-04-2026 in its page footers — and from the addenda that form refers to. I have kept the paragraph numbers in the text so you can read each point against your own contract, which is the only version that governs your sale.

The contract treats the house as three separate things

Paragraph 2 opens by stating that “the land, improvements and accessories are collectively referred to as the Property.” Three categories, and the split matters more than it looks, because two of the three lists work in opposite directions.

2A is the land, identified by lot, block, addition, city and county, or by an attached exhibit. 2B is improvements. 2C is accessories. 2D is the blank where exclusions go. 2E deals with reserved minerals, water, timber and similar interests, which are reserved only through an attached addendum.

The reason to read 2B and 2C side by side is a single phrase. The improvements list in 2B is introduced as “including without limitation,” so it is an illustrative list and other attached items can still qualify. The accessories list in 2C has no such phrase — it reads “The following described related accessories, if any,” and then names them. A loose item that is not attached and is not on that list is simply not part of what you are buying.

What comes with the house because it is attached

Paragraph 2B covers “The house, garage and all other fixtures and improvements attached to the above-described real property,” and then lists, “without limitation,” the permanently installed and built-in items it means. The list is long, and several entries catch people out:

all equipment and appliances
valances, screens, shutters and awnings
wall-to-wall carpeting
mirrors, ceiling fans and attic fans
mail boxes and television antennas
mounts and brackets for televisions and speakers
heating and air-conditioning units
security and fire detection equipment
wiring, plumbing and lighting fixtures, including chandeliers
water softener system
kitchen equipment and garage door openers
cleaning equipment
shrubbery and landscaping
outdoor cooking equipment and generators
and “all other property attached to the above described real property”

Three of those deserve a second look. A chandelier is named outright, which settles an argument that comes up often. The mounts and brackets for televisions and speakers convey even though the television itself does not. And shrubbery and landscaping are on the list, so digging out an established plant before closing is removing part of the Property, not taking a houseplant.

Because the phrase is “including without limitation,” an attached item that nobody thought to list is still an improvement. The test in the paragraph is attachment to the real property, not whether somebody remembered to name it.

The accessories list is the one worth reading line by line

Paragraph 2C names the “related accessories, if any” that convey. These are the things that are not bolted down but still go with the house:

window air conditioning units
the stove
fireplace screens and artificial fireplace logs
curtains and rods, blinds, window shades, draperies and rods
door keys and mailbox keys
above ground pool, swimming pool equipment and maintenance accessories
security systems that are not fixtures
controls for garage doors, entry gates, and other improvements and accessories

The stove is the entry people misread most. A built-in range is already an appliance under 2B; a free-standing stove is caught here in 2C instead. Either way it conveys unless it is excluded. A refrigerator, by contrast, appears on neither list unless it is built in — which is why a free-standing fridge is a common item to add by addendum.

Curtains and rods, blinds, shades and draperies and rods are all named. So a seller who intends to take the custom drapery has to exclude it in writing, and a buyer who assumes the blinds are coming is reading the form correctly.

Smart-home controls convey, and so do the logins

This is the part of the form that has changed most and is still the least known. Paragraph 2C does not stop at the physical remote. It defines the term: “Controls” includes the seller’s transferable rights to the “(i) software and applications used to access and control improvements or accessories, and (ii) hardware used solely to control improvements or accessories.”

So the app that runs the gate, the hub that drives the thermostat, and the seller’s transferable rights in the software itself are all inside the definition of what you are buying. The qualifier to keep in view is “transferable” — the contract cannot hand over a right the seller does not have under the vendor’s own terms.

Paragraph 10B then turns that into two specific duties at possession. It defines a “Smart Device” as a device that connects to the internet to enable remote use, monitoring and management of the Property, of items on any Non-Realty Items Addendum, or of items in a Fixture Lease assigned to the buyer. At the time the seller delivers possession, the seller shall:

“deliver to Buyer written information containing all access codes, usernames, passwords, and applications Buyer will need to access, operate, manage, and control the Smart Devices”; and
“terminate and remove all access and connections to the improvements and accessories from any of Seller’s personal devices including but not limited to phones and computers.”

Both of those are obligations of the seller, written in the contract, not favors to ask for afterwards. The second one is the more valuable of the two: a previous owner who still has the doorbell camera or the lock on their phone is a live problem, and the form puts the duty to disconnect on them rather than leaving the buyer to discover it.

It is worth asking for that written information in advance of the walk-through rather than on the day, because codes and accounts take time to migrate and the duty attaches at delivery of possession.

Anything the seller keeps belongs in the exclusions blank

Paragraph 2D is one sentence and a blank line: “The following improvements and accessories will be retained by Seller and must be removed prior to delivery of possession.”

Two things follow from it. First, an exclusion only exists if it is written in that blank — a conversation, a note in the listing remarks or a sign taped to the dining room does not remove an item from the Property. Paragraph 22 is the reason: the contract “contains the entire agreement of the parties and cannot be changed except by their written agreement.” Second, the exclusion carries its own deadline. An excluded item has to be out before possession is delivered, so a seller cannot exclude the hot tub and then leave it in the yard for collection later.

Sellers should go through 2B and 2C before signing and write down everything they are not willing to part with. Buyers should read 2D as a list of what will be missing on move-in day and decide whether the price still makes sense without those items.

Leased fixtures are a different problem entirely

An item can be attached to the house, sit squarely inside paragraph 2B, and still not be the seller’s to convey. Paragraph 4 of the contract handles that. It starts with a representation — “Except as disclosed in this contract, Seller is not aware of any leases affecting the Property” — and then adds a restriction that runs for the rest of the deal: after the effective date the seller “may not, without Buyer’s written consent, create a new lease, amend any existing lease, or convey any interest in the Property.”

Box 4B is the fixture-lease box. The contract gives the examples itself: solar panels, propane tanks, water softener, security system. Checking it requires the Addendum Regarding Fixture Leases, TREC form 52-1, revision 11-07-2022, and that addendum is where the real terms live.

Form 52-1 defines Leased Fixtures as fixtures in or on the Property that the seller leases and does not own. Paragraph A(1) then sets out what happens to each lease the buyer agrees to take on: at closing the buyer assumes and the seller assigns the named leases, the buyer pays the first blank-filled dollar amount of any cost necessary to assume or receive the assignment and the seller pays the remainder, and both parties agree to sign whatever the lessor requires.

Paragraph A(2) deals with the leases a buyer will not take on, and it is a checkbox the parties settle when the contract is written rather than something the seller decides later: “Prior to closing, Seller will / will not remove the Leased Fixtures covered by the Fixture Leases that Buyer does not assume.” A buyer who does not want to inherit a lessor’s rights in equipment they never agreed to pay for should press for “will” in the offer. If the fixtures are removed, the seller “will repair any damage to the Property caused by any removal.” The paragraph then carries a notice that is easy to skim past and important to read: “Any Leased Fixture remaining in the Property are subject to the rights of the lessor under the Fixture Lease.” Leaving the panels on the roof without assuming the lease does not make them yours.

Three further protections in that form are worth knowing, because they are the ones a summary tends to drop:

Paragraph B(2): if the buyer has not received copies of the fixture leases being assumed, the seller “shall provide a copy of the Fixture Leases within 5 days after the Effective Date,” and the buyer “may terminate the contract within 7 days after the date the Buyer receives the Fixture Leases and the earnest money shall be refunded to Buyer.” Those are fixed numbers in this form, not blanks.
Paragraph B(3): the seller gives notice of any oral fixture leases, naming the lessee, the rental amount and the term — so an undocumented arrangement still has to be disclosed.
Paragraph C: at closing there will be no liens or security interests against leased fixtures that will not be satisfied out of the sale proceeds, except for the leases the buyer has agreed to assume.

The form closes with its own advice, which is sound: the seller and buyer “should consult with the lessor and their attorneys regarding the assignment, assumption, or termination of any Fixture Leases.” The lessor, not the parties, decides whether an assumption is approved, and lessors commonly attach conditions of their own to it. Read the underlying agreement as well, because a power purchase agreement is not always structured as a lease.

Natural resource leases come with their own clock

Box 4C covers what the contract calls a Natural Resource Lease, defined as “an existing oil and gas, mineral, geothermal, water, wind, or other natural resource lease affecting the Property to which Seller is a party.”

There are two sub-boxes. Either the seller has already delivered copies of all of them, or they have not — and in that case 4C(2) requires the seller to provide copies “within 3 days after the Effective Date,” after which the “Buyer may terminate the contract within _____ days after the date the Buyer receives all the Natural Resource Leases and the earnest money shall be refunded to Buyer.”

That day count is a blank, filled in when the offer is written. It is worth filling in with a number that gives you time to actually read the leases, because a lease of this kind can control surface access, equipment and road use long after closing. This is not only a rural concern: the definition turns on a natural resource lease affecting the Property, and such a lease can attach to a platted lot.

Minerals are reserved only by addendum

Paragraph 2E is short: “Any reservation for oil, gas, or other minerals, water, timber, or other interests is made in accordance with an attached addendum.” TREC publishes the Addendum for Reservation of Oil, Gas, and Other Minerals as form 44-3.

The practical reading is the simple one. If no reservation addendum is attached, the contract is not reserving anything to the seller. What it cannot do is restore an interest that a previous owner severed decades ago — that shows up in the title commitment rather than in paragraph 2, and the commitment is the document to read for it.

A house that still has a tenant in it

Box 4A applies where the Property is subject to one or more residential leases, and it requires the Addendum Regarding Residential Leases, TREC form 51-1, revision 11-07-2022. That addendum asks the parties to choose between terminating the leases by closing or assigning and assuming them, and if they are assumed it requires the seller to transfer any security deposits as defined under section 92.102 of the Property Code and the buyer to give the tenant a signed statement acknowledging the purchase and naming the exact deposit amount.

If the leases are being assumed, the addendum also carries dates and remedies worth knowing before you sign. Under B(1)(b), where the buyer has not received copies, the seller provides them within 3 days after the effective date and the buyer “may terminate the contract within ____ days after the date the Buyer receives the Residential Leases and the earnest money shall be refunded to Buyer.” That day count is a blank the buyer should fill in deliberately, exactly like the one in 4C(2).

Paragraph B(3) then has the seller represent, for each lease and to the seller’s knowledge, that the lease is in full force and effect, that no tenant is in default or in violation of it, that no tenant has prepaid rent, that no tenant is entitled to any offset against rent, that there are no outstanding tenant claims or pending disputes, and that there are no side agreements outside the lease. B(4) is the part that protects the buyer if one of those turns out to be untrue: the seller must promptly notify the buyer, the seller then has 7 days to cure, and if the statement is still untrue after that the buyer may terminate within 5 days of the end of the cure period with the earnest money refunded. The closing date “will be extended daily as necessary” to make room for those notices. The trap is in the same sentence — a buyer who does not terminate within the time required “waives the right to terminate.”

Sellers have their own warning to read. Option A, which terminates all the leases by closing, carries a bracketed notice that “[t]his paragraph will not amend or terminate any existing lease. Consult an attorney and refer to the Residential Leases for rights to terminate before agreeing to this provision.” Checking that box does not end anybody’s tenancy; it promises vacant possession the seller may have no right to deliver.

The deposit duty is not only a contract term, either. Texas Property Code section 92.105(a) makes the new owner “liable for the return of security deposits according to this subchapter from the date title to the premises is acquired,” and 92.105(b) requires the new owner to deliver the tenant a signed statement naming the exact dollar amount. That liability attaches on title, whether or not the money actually changed hands at closing, so confirm the figure and collect the funds rather than the promise. Section 92.105(b-1) helps here: the former owner stays liable for a deposit received while they owned the property “until the new owner has received the deposit or has assumed the liability for the deposit, unless otherwise specified by the parties in a written contract.” And section 92.103(a) gives the landlord 30 days after the tenant surrenders the premises to refund it, a clock the buyer inherits.

If a listing you are looking at is occupied by someone other than the owner, that box and that addendum are the first things to check, because an existing lease survives the sale on its own terms.

Things that are not part of the house at all

When a buyer wants the patio set, the free-standing refrigerator, the washer and dryer or the mounted television itself, none of that is reached by paragraph 2. It moves across on the Non-Realty Items Addendum, TREC form 57-0, dated 10-10-11. Note that 57-0 is approved “FOR VOLUNTARY USE” rather than promulgated, which is a different status from the contract and the addenda above.

It is a short form and each of its three paragraphs matters:

Paragraph A conveys the listed personal property “For an additional sum of $______ and other and good valuable consideration,” and instructs the parties to “specify each item carefully, include description, model numbers, serial numbers, location, and other information.” Vague entries are where disputes start.
Paragraph B: the seller “represents and warrants that Seller owns the personal property described in Paragraph A free and clear of all encumbrances.”
Paragraph C: the seller “does not warrant or guarantee the condition or future performance of the personal property conveyed by this document.”

So personal property bought this way comes with a warranty of clear ownership and no warranty of condition. A ten-year-old washer conveyed on this addendum is yours, encumbrance-free, in whatever state it is in. It also carries a separate price. Because that sum buys personal property rather than real property, it generally sits outside what an appraiser values and what a lender will lend against, so it is worth confirming with your lender before the addendum is written rather than after.

What possession is supposed to look like

Paragraph 10A says the seller “shall deliver to Buyer possession of the Property in its present or required condition, ordinary wear and tear excepted,” either on closing and funding or under a written temporary lease. Paragraph 10A does not define “present condition,” but read alongside paragraph 7D — where “As Is” means “the present condition of the Property with any and all defects” — it points at the condition you accepted rather than whatever is left once the furniture has been dragged out. If that distinction is likely to matter, put it in writing.

The paragraph also warns that any possession by the buyer before closing, or by the seller after closing, that is not authorized by a written lease “will establish a tenancy at sufferance relationship between the parties,” and it tells both parties to consult their insurance agent “prior to change of ownership and possession” because coverage “may be limited or terminated,” adding that the absence of a written lease or appropriate insurance coverage “may expose the parties to economic loss.” Those are not boilerplate; an unwritten few days of holdover is a genuinely bad idea for both sides.

The tool for catching a missing item is paragraph 7A, which requires the seller to “permit Buyer and Buyer’s agents access to the Property at reasonable times” and, at the seller’s expense, to “immediately cause existing utilities to be turned on” and keep them on “during the time this contract is in effect.” That combination is what makes a final walk-through worth doing properly — you can actually run the appliances that paragraph 2B just conveyed to you. The same paragraph is where the buyer’s inspection right lives, by inspectors “selected by Buyer and licensed by TREC or otherwise permitted by law,” and it notes that any hydrostatic testing “must be separately authorized by Seller in writing.”

If something that should have conveyed is gone

If an item that paragraph 2 conveyed has been removed and was never excluded in 2D, the seller has not complied with the contract. Paragraph 15 then gives the buyer a choice: “(a) enforce specific performance, seek such other relief as may be provided by law, or both, or (b) terminate this contract and receive the earnest money.” Paragraph 16 commits unresolved disputes to mediation with the costs borne equally, though it also provides that it “does not preclude a party from seeking equitable relief from a court of competent jurisdiction” — so a suit for specific performance stays available. Paragraph 17 then entitles “A Buyer, Seller, Seller’s broker, Buyer’s broker, or Escrow Agent who prevails in any legal proceeding related to this contract” to recover reasonable attorney’s fees and all costs of such proceeding. Note who is on that list: fee exposure runs in both directions and is not limited to the buyer and the seller.

Those remedies are real, and they are also blunt. Terminating a purchase over a missing stove is rarely what anyone wants, and a written amendment or a credit at closing is usually the practical fix. Paragraph 22 is why it has to be written: the contract “contains the entire agreement of the parties and cannot be changed except by their written agreement.” A verbal promise to make it right is not an amendment. What changes once you have funded and taken possession is your leverage, not your claim — paragraph 19 provides that “All covenants, representations and warranties in this contract survive closing,” so an item that was conveyed and then removed is still a breach of the contract after you have the keys.

If the item is a condition problem rather than a missing one, you are in paragraph 7 instead. 7D is the “As Is” provision, and 7B is the seller’s disclosure notice. 7B(2) is worth knowing by heart: if you never receive that notice you “may terminate this contract at any time prior to the closing and the earnest money will be refunded,” and if it arrives after the contract is signed you may terminate “for any reason within 7 days after Buyer receives the Seller’s Disclosure Notice or prior to the closing, whichever first occurs.” I have written separately about what the Texas seller’s disclosure notice has to tell you, and about which side pays for what at a Texas closing.

A short checklist before the offer goes out

Read paragraphs 2B and 2C against the listing photographs. Anything in a photograph that you expect to still be there should be on one of those lists, attached, or written into an addendum.
Decide what you want that is not on either list, and price it on a Non-Realty Items Addendum rather than assuming it is included.
Check boxes 4A, 4B and 4C. Solar panels, a propane tank, a water softener or an alarm system on the property are a prompt to ask whether they are owned or leased, before the offer rather than after.
If a fixture lease is involved, fill in the dollar blank in form 52-1 paragraph A(1) deliberately, and decide which leases you are actually assuming.
If any natural resource lease is disclosed, fill in the day count in 4C(2) with enough days to read it properly.
Ask for the smart-device information in writing ahead of the walk-through, and confirm at possession that the seller has disconnected their own phones and computers as 10B requires.
Walk the property one more time while the utilities are still on, which paragraph 7A entitles you to do.

Sellers can work the same list backwards. Going through 2B and 2C before signing, and writing honest exclusions into 2D, takes a few minutes and removes most of the arguments that otherwise land in the last week before closing.

Paragraph 2 is also only one stage of a longer sequence. If you are earlier in the process and the contract is still some way off, the brokerage I work with, JD Walters Real Estate, publishes a buyer guide covering what actually happens in the weeks between a signed offer and closing, which sets out the inspection, negotiation, appraisal and loan-approval stages that follow a signed offer.

Ask the question before you sign, not at the walk-through

Most of what goes wrong here is not a dispute about the law. It is two people who never wrote down what they each assumed. If you are buying or selling in Temple, Belton, Salado, Harker Heights or Killeen and you want someone to read paragraph 2 line by line against the house you actually looked at, send me a note and we will go through it together before anything gets signed.

Written by Logan Parker, a Texas-licensed real estate agent with JD Walters Real Estate. Reviewed October 8, 2026.

Sources: Texas Real Estate Commission form 20-19, One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale), revision 05-04-2026, paragraphs 2, 4, 7, 10, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 22; TREC form 52-1, Addendum Regarding Fixture Leases, revision 11-07-2022; TREC form 51-1, Addendum Regarding Residential Leases, revision 11-07-2022; TREC form 57-0, Non-Realty Items Addendum, dated 10-10-11; TREC form 44-3, Addendum for Reservation of Oil, Gas, and Other Minerals, effective 02/01/2023; Texas Property Code sections 92.102, 92.103 and 92.105.

This is general information about promulgated and approved contract forms, not legal advice. Contracts can be amended and addenda can be revised. Read your own contract and addenda, and consult an attorney about your situation.