We Buy Houses in Lubbock County

Hail, roofs, and insurance

Hail is behind much of the insurance history on Lubbock County houses. Storms regularly drop quarter- to golf-ball-size hail on the city — the National Weather Service logged several rounds of it across Lubbock in a single June 2019 evening — and one event can damage the roof, gutters, siding, window screens, and HVAC fins at once. Plenty of houses have had the roof replaced more than once; others have an open claim, a paid claim where the money went to something else, or damage that was never reported.

Insurance is where that becomes a sale problem. As roofs age, some insurers switch roof coverage from replacement cost to actual cash value, and a buyer's lender needs an acceptable policy in place by closing. A roof near the end of its life, or one with unrepaired hail damage, can stall a financed sale at the insurance step. We buy with the roof as it is, and a prior claim does not have to be closed out first.

Playa lakes and drainage

Lubbock is flat, and much of its stormwater is routed into playa lakes, the shallow basins scattered through the city. The City has financed drainage relief to move water into playas more reliably, including trunk lines and inlets in northwest Lubbock along Quaker Avenue, an area with a long history of flooding that has reached homes and closed roads.

For a seller, the questions are how close the house sits to a playa and how low the lot is. Houses near the edge of a basin can take water in a heavy storm, some lots fall inside mapped flood hazard areas where a lender will require flood insurance, and buyers ask. Check the address on FEMA's flood map before you list, and tell us if water has ever come inside.

Texas Tech rentals and the older housing stock

The neighborhoods around the Texas Tech campus — Tech Terrace, Overton, and the older blocks between campus and downtown — hold a large share of the county's rental housing: frame and brick houses, garage apartments, and duplexes rented to students on annual leases, often for many years running. They carry the wear that comes with constant turnover: worn flooring, dated kitchens and baths, deferred exterior maintenance, and bedrooms, additions, or garage conversions that were never permitted.

Across the rest of Lubbock, the core stock is brick ranch houses from the decades after World War II, many with original electrical panels, older drain lines, and slab or pier-and-beam foundations that have moved on the region's clay and caliche. Inside the city, code enforcement handles substandard structures, junked vehicles, and overgrown lots, and a rental that sat empty after a tenant left is a frequent source of complaints. Outside the city, in the smaller towns and on rural acreage, wells, septic systems, and outbuildings come into the picture.

Lubbock County property we buy

• Houses with hail damage to the roof, siding, or windows, claimed or not
• Homes whose insurer cut roof coverage to actual cash value or declined to renew
• Student rentals and duplexes near Texas Tech, with tenants in place
• Brick ranch houses with original systems or foundation movement
• Houses on low lots near playa lakes, including ones that have taken on water
• Properties with City of Lubbock code cases or unpermitted conversions
• Older houses in Slaton, Idalou, and Shallowater
• Inherited homes and rural acreage where nothing was filed after the owner died

Courts, records, and closing in Lubbock County

Lubbock is the county seat. The Lubbock Central Appraisal District sets appraised values, and in Lubbock County it also mails the tax statements and takes payments, so a tax payoff usually starts there rather than at the county tax office. Deeds, liens, releases, and affidavits of heirship are recorded with the Lubbock County Clerk.

Lubbock County has no statutory probate court. Its statutory courts are three county courts at law, and probate cases are filed with the county clerk and heard at the county-court level rather than in a dedicated probate court. If an estate is open, sending us the cause number saves time. Closings are handled by a title company, and Texas has no transfer tax, so a seller's costs are mainly the owner's title policy, payoffs, and prorated taxes.

Frequently asked questions