Contingent offers and the TREC sale-of-other-property addendum
Selling Your Home and Buying in Manvel: How a Texas Contingent Offer Works
Updated November 2026
How does a contingent offer work in Texas when I have to sell my current home before I can buy in Manvel?
In November 2026, a Manvel purchase that depends on selling and closing your current home is written with TREC's Addendum for Sale of Other Property by Buyer.
Yolanda Ames, Houston Properties Team, Manvel
Source: Texas Real Estate Commission form page for the Addendum for Sale of Other Property by Buyer, with its licensing FAQ, November 2026.
What does TREC's Addendum for Sale of Other Property by Buyer do?
The Texas Real Estate Commission publishes this addendum for one situation. It applies when you cannot buy the new house unless the home you own now is sold and closed.
Attaching it does not take the house off the seller's table. TREC's licensing answers say nothing prohibits a license holder from presenting more than one offer at a time to a seller. TREC adds that a seller may receive, review and negotiate several offers simultaneously, so your offer can sit beside others.
The form itself carries weight. TREC's list of promulgated forms says real estate license holders are required to use these forms. It warns that mistakes in using a form may cause financial loss or leave a contract unenforceable. It points anyone getting the forms for a possible transaction to a license holder or an attorney.
This Addendum is used if the Buyers will be unable to buy the new property unless their existing property is sold and closed.
How long might your current Manvel home take to sell?
Your sale sets the pace for the purchase, so start with the Manvel numbers. As of November 2026, the median Manvel home sold in 45 days, and sales closed at 98.4 percent of the list price.
Those are citywide figures. They blend new sections with older ones, and homes in Pomona with homes inside the city. Your own likely timeframe comes from the closed sales in your section.
The first price decides much of the timing. In Redfin's figures for the three months to August 2026, 46.5% of Manvel listings had a price cut. A reduction partway through pushes the second closing back.
Signing with a buyer starts another clock, running through that buyer's option period and loan approval before your sale closes.
What should you read on the next Manvel house before the contingent offer goes in?
The next lot's tax bill shapes the budget both closings rest on. Its account with the Brazoria Central Appraisal District lists every unit that taxes it, the city and the utility district included.
The city line moves the total. Pomona sits in Manvel's extraterritorial jurisdiction and paid no City of Manvel tax for 2025. In Meridiana, MUD 56 lies entirely within Manvel and MUD 55 entirely within Iowa Colony.
The utility district moves it too. Manvel-area MUD rates ran from $0.71 to $1.30 per $100 for 2025. The Texas Real Estate Research Center says the MUD notice must reach a buyer before the contract is executed, or be included as an addendum at that time.
Then read the lot's flood records: its zone on the effective FEMA map, the elevation certificate where one exists, and the seller's disclosure with any flood insurance history. Alvin ISD confirms the campuses for the exact address.
How do the two Manvel closings fit on one calendar?
Set your sale's likely closing date first, then lay the purchase's lead times against it. Each step on the next house has to finish before your sale proceeds are needed.
Flood cover is often the slowest item. The City of Manvel notes that homeowners' insurance does not cover flooding, and that a flood policy typically takes up to 30 days to go into effect.
Settle the next house's city before title, insurance and utility accounts are opened. The City of Manvel counts more than 550 Meridiana homes whose ZIP code belongs to the other city, and the parcel's taxing units settle it.
Leave room between the two closing dates for the slower one to slip. A gap of a few days costs less than a purchase waiting on a sale that has not funded.
Questions & answers
Manvel questions, answered
What happens if my current home has not sold by the date in the contingent addendum?
The purchase contract ends and your earnest money comes back to you. TREC's Addendum for Sale of Other Property by Buyer ties the purchase to your receiving the proceeds of your own sale by a date written into the form. That date should fall no later than the closing date. If it passes without your sale closing and paying out, the contract terminates.
Pick the date from your own section's recent sales rather than a hopeful guess. A date set too early can end the deal while your buyer is still in the option period or waiting on loan approval. Write it on the same calendar as your sale's expected closing, and leave room for one slip. If the date looks tight once your sale is under contract, raise it with your agent well before it arrives.
What happens if the Manvel seller gets another offer while mine is contingent?
The seller keeps marketing the house and may accept a second written offer. If the seller then notifies you to waive the sale contingency, your deadline is the day after that notice. By then you must waive in writing and deposit the additional earnest money the addendum names. If you do not, the contract ends and your earnest money comes back.
Waiving changes the stakes. Once you waive, failing to close because your own sale fell through counts as a default. Decide before you sign how much you would put at risk, and how firm your own sale must be before you would waive. That answer usually rests on whether your house has a buyer and how far that buyer's loan has moved.
Is my contingent offer stronger if my current home already has a buyer?
Yes. A contingent offer is strongest when your house is already under contract. It also matters on the loan side. Under Fannie Mae's Selling Guide, a lender counts both housing payments when the current home will not close first. The exception is when the lender has the executed sales contract and confirmation that its financing contingencies have cleared.
Send the seller's agent proof that your buyer's contract is signed, with its closing date. Ask your lender to confirm in writing how it is treating the payment on the house you are selling. Two dates on paper, your sale's closing and the purchase's, give the seller something concrete to weigh against an offer with no contingency.
Can I make a contingent offer on a new home from a Manvel builder?
Ask the builder before you plan on it. TREC's rule on contract forms lets a property owner require a contract it prepared or had an attorney prepare. That is how a builder can sell on its own document. Whether that document allows a sale-of-other-property term is in its own text, so read it with your own agent before you pay a deposit.
TREC publishes two new-home contracts: Form 23-20 for a house still being built and Form 24-20 for a finished one, both effective July 1, 2026. Check the form number on the document in front of you. Whatever the contract says, the builder's completion date and your sale date have to meet. Get every incentive in writing as well, since the builder's sales staff work for the builder.
Can a bridge loan let me buy in Manvel without a contingent offer?
A bridge loan can fund the purchase before your current home sells, so the offer need not depend on the sale. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide sets the test: the lender must document that you can carry the new home, the current home, the bridge loan and your other debts together. That combined load is what the lender underwrites.
Ask the lender to write out the monthly payment on all of those at once. Then set that figure beside how long homes in your own section are taking to sell, since each extra month of carrying both adds to the cost. If the total is tight, compare it with a contingent offer or with selling first.
Can I keep a homestead exemption on both houses in the year I own two?
No. Texas Tax Code Section 11.13(h) bars an exemption on more than one residence homestead in the same year. In a year you own the house you are selling and the Manvel house you are buying, only one of them can carry the homestead exemption. Plan the tax figures for both houses with that rule in place.
The exemption matters in Manvel because it comes off taxable value before any rate applies. For 2025, the appraisal district lists a $140,000 homestead exemption for Alvin ISD. Ask the appraisal district how the timing works for your two houses, and build the answer into the budget for the year of the move.
Can I stay in my house after it sells while I wait to close on the next one?
Yes, for up to 90 days. TREC's Seller's Temporary Residential Lease is for a seller who stays no more than 90 days after closing. The lease starts when the sale closes and funds, and rent for the whole term is paid at funding. It fits the sell-first route, when the next purchase needs the money from this one.
During the lease you are the tenant, and repairs and upkeep fall to you unless the lease says otherwise. The form also warns that possession by the seller as a tenant may change insurance coverage. Ask your insurer about that before closing, and set the lease terms beside the cost of a short rental and storage.
