Deeds

Houston’s 2025 Home Price Surge and How Smart Deed Planning Protects Families in 2026

Published on: November 12, 2025 | By Thomas W. McCulloch

Houston home values climbed steadily through 2025, with areas like Bellaire, Katy, the Heights, Pearland, and Sugar Land among the region’s strongest performers. That rise helps homeowners build equity, yet it also creates new estate-planning concerns as families head into 2026. Higher valuations often lead to more complex probate filings, greater court involvement, and greater financial risk for surviving spouses or adult children. Reviewing your deed structure now helps prevent those issues and keeps your property decisions firmly in your hands.

A clear plan also helps executors avoid delays in Harris County, which continues to work through significant court volume. When a home accounts for most of the estate’s value, a clean transfer of the deed reduces stress and preserves equity.

How Rising Property Values Shape Probate Issues in the Houston Area

Home prices shape probate more than many families realize. When a property increases in value, the estate becomes larger, which can lead to additional court filings, more formal accounting requirements, and heavier scrutiny of the executor’s decisions. These steps take time in a high-volume county.

Understanding Special Deeds In Texas

Published on: July 26, 2023 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

The thought of organizing assets for loved ones after your death can feel daunting, especially when the Texas probate process seems so complex. Avoiding probate is possible, though, with the right tools, circumstances, and expertise on your side. One way to bypass probate with regards to real estate is the special deed, which allows for property to transfer from the descendent to the beneficiary more efficiently than it would through probate. On today’s blog, we review the special deed and some of its characteristics to keep in mind when undergoing the estate planning process.

What is a Special Deed?

A special deed is a legal document that transfers real estate from one person to another. When a property owner dies, if there is a valid special deed, that property does not need to go through probate at all.

Texas Ladybird Deeds and Medicaid Planning

Published on: May 7, 2020 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson is a well-known Texan and regarded by many as one of the first First Ladies of the United States to take an active political role alongside that of the President. However, for Texans, the term Lady Bird can refer to more than the former First Lady, as a “lady bird” deed is a type of Houston estate planning instrument that can be used to avoid probate in certain circumstances.

Probate is the process by which a court formally acknowledges the death of an individual, verifies a decedent’s will, and effectuates the decedent’s wishes as noted in their will. However, the probate process can be both lengthy and costly, and many families take affirmative steps to avoid probate.

A lady bird deed is also called an enhanced life estate deed. To better understand what a lady bird deed is, and whether it will be beneficial in a particular situation, it helps to be familiar with a life estate. A life estate is an arrangement by which the owner of a piece of property (the grantor) reserves the right to use the property during their lifetime. However, upon the grantor’s death, the property will pass to the named beneficiary, or grantee. One of the primary concerns about using life estates is that the grantor cannot sell or mortgage the property once the life estate is in effect.

The Most Important Information about Property Deeds

Published on: February 6, 2020 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Property deeds are used to convey real property from a grantor (seller) to a grantee (buyer). For a deed to be legally operative, it must include the identification of the grantor and grantee, and the adequate description of the property.

Property deeds can be classified into several categories. Investopedia’s recent article entitled “Understanding Property Deeds” explains that a property deed is a written and signed legal instrument that is used to transfer ownership of real property from the then-owner (the grantor) to the new owner (the grantee).

Every state has its own requirements, but most deeds are required to have some essential elements to be legally valid:

How is a Quitclaim Deed Different from a Warranty Deed?

Published on: November 25, 2019 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Both of these deeds are used widely, but they are very different. Choosing the wrong one, could lead to a lot of legal headaches.

Deeds are the legal documents used when real estate properties are purchased, sold or transferred from one owner to another. The deed is used to transfer title or ownership from one person to another.

Bankrate explains in its recent article, “Quitclaim vs. warranty deed: What you need to know,” that a quitclaim deed is a deed that transfers the actual legal rights to a property (if any exist) that the grantor has to another person. That is without any representation, warranty, or guarantee. A quitclaim deed gives no guarantee of the title status of a property, any liens against it or any encumbrances. It really means that you get only what a grantor may have—nothing more. Therefore, if the grantor has nothing, you get nothing.