Picture a seller near San Pedro Avenue who lists a two-bedroom unit, accepts an offer inside two weeks, clears the option period without a hitch, and starts packing boxes. Then, nineteen days into a thirty-day contract, the buyer's agent calls. The resale certificate still hasn't arrived. Worse, once it does show up, the buyer gets five more days to walk away entirely, a right this seller never knew existed because a neighbor sold a townhome down the street last spring without that clause ever coming up.
That gap, between how a Texas townhome sale works and how a Texas condominium sale works, isn't a technicality. It's the biggest structural difference between selling a single-family home, a deed-restricted townhome, and a true condominium in Uptown Central, and it decides whether a closing runs on schedule or stalls in its final week.
Two Documents, Two Different Clocks
Most sellers use "HOA" as a catchall term, but Texas law draws a sharper line than that. If your unit sits inside a property owners' association, meaning a townhome-style community with a deeded lot and shared restrictions, your resale certificate is governed by Chapter 207 of the Texas Property Code. If your unit is a true condominium, meaning you own the interior airspace and share ownership of the building and common elements with your neighbors, a separate law applies: the Texas Uniform Condominium Act, Chapter 82.
They look similar on paper. They do not run on the same schedule.
| Townhome / HOA (Chapter 207) | Condominium (Chapter 82) | |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate must be dated within | 60 days of delivery | 90 days of delivery |
| Association must respond within | 10 business days | 10 calendar days |
| Fee cap | $375, plus up to $75 for electronic delivery | $375 |
| Buyer's right to cancel after receiving it | Not built into the statute | 5 days, under Section 82.156 |
The text of Chapter 207 spells out the townhome side of this. The condominium side lives in a separate chapter of the same code, and it hands buyers a protection that townhome buyers simply don't get.
The Five Days Nobody Mentions During the Option Period
Here's the part that catches sellers off guard. In a standard HOA sale, once the option period ends and the resale certificate is in hand, the deal is largely locked in. In a condominium sale, it isn't. Texas law states plainly that:
"the purchaser may cancel the contract before the sixth day after the date the purchaser receives" the resale certificate
That means a fully negotiated, fully inspected condominium sale in a building along San Pedro Avenue, whether it's a unit at Northview Tower Condominiums or any other high-rise in the corridor, isn't actually final until five full days after the certificate lands in the buyer's inbox. If that certificate reveals a special assessment, a pending lawsuit, or a leasing restriction the buyer didn't know about, they can still walk, even after the inspection is done and the loan is in underwriting.
Townhome sellers governed by a property owners' association, including communities like the San Pedro Townhouse Association, don't carry this exposure. Their buyers' protection runs through the ordinary option period negotiated in the contract, not a separate statutory clock tied to a certificate.
Order It the Day You List
The practical fix here is timing, not more paperwork. Request the resale certificate the day you decide to sell, not the day you go under contract. The math explains why:
- A townhome association has up to 10 business days to respond, which, once a weekend lands in the middle, can stretch to nearly two full weeks.
- A condominium association has 10 calendar days, slightly faster on paper, but the certificate has to sit inside a 90-day currency window, and the buyer's five-day cancellation right only starts running after delivery, not before.
Either way, a seller who waits until day one of a 30-day contract to request the certificate has already spent a third of the timeline waiting on paperwork that could have been sitting in a folder since listing day.
There's a second reason to order it early. If the certificate discloses an unresolved violation, an unpaid special assessment, or pending litigation, the title company may not be able to issue the T-19 endorsement the buyer's lender needs to fund the loan. Clearing a violation after you're under contract, with a buyer and a closing date already on the calendar, is a far harder conversation than clearing it in the weeks before you list.
What the Market Is Telling Uptown Central Sellers Right Now
This isn't only a paperwork issue. It's a pricing one too. As of June 2026, San Antonio's median condominium price had climbed 27.1 percent year over year to $213,500, while the median townhome price had actually fallen 8.8 percent over the same stretch, to $249,500. Single-family homes, by comparison, were up a modest 1.5 percent to $335,000.
Read together, that split says something worth sitting with. Condominium buyers are currently more active and more willing to pay up, which means a clean, on-time resale certificate matters even more, because a serious buyer with other options won't wait around for a slow association. Townhome sellers, meanwhile, are working in a segment where prices have softened, which leaves less room to absorb a stalled closing or a buyer who gets cold feet. In both cases, the paperwork isn't the smallest part of the sale. It's one of the parts most likely to decide whether the deal closes on the timeline you planned.
Across Bexar County more broadly, the pace has been unhurried this summer, with single-family homes averaging around 79 days on market and sellers netting close to 98 percent of list price as of August 3, 2026. Attached housing in Uptown Central moves to its own rhythm within that backdrop, shaped less by open house traffic and more by how quickly an association can produce a complete financial disclosure.
Two Kinds of Attached Homes, Side by Side
Uptown Central runs along San Pedro Avenue, within reach of North Star Mall and the Park North shopping corridor. Walk a few blocks here and you'll pass condominium towers and deed-restricted townhome communities standing side by side, often built in the same decade with the same brick and the same balconies. From the sidewalk, they're nearly impossible to tell apart.
Under Texas law, and under the current market, they aren't the same asset at all. One comes with a faster-moving buyer pool and an extra five-day tail on every sale. The other comes with a softer price trend and no built-in cancellation clock, but less room for delay. Knowing which one you own, before you call a title company or set a list price, changes how the entire transaction should be planned.
Questions Uptown Central Sellers Ask Before Listing
How do I know if my property is legally a condominium or an HOA-governed townhome? Check your deed and your association's governing documents. A condominium deed conveys an interest in a unit plus an undivided share of common elements, while a townhome or single-family HOA deed conveys the lot itself. A title company or closing attorney can confirm this in minutes if you're unsure.
Who pays for the resale certificate? Texas law doesn't assign this cost to either party, so it's negotiable and typically addressed in the listing agreement or the contract. In practice, sellers often cover it since they're the ones requesting it, and building the cost into your closing budget from the start avoids a surprise later.
What happens if the association misses its deadline? Both statutes allow for a follow-up written request, and persistent nonresponse can be reported to the Texas Real Estate Commission. The better move is prevention: request the certificate in writing, keep a delivery record, and build the response window into your listing timeline from day one.
If you're weighing a sale in Uptown Central and want to know which set of rules applies to your specific building or community, Shawn Alvarez can help you sort out the paperwork before it becomes a problem, not after. Reach out to talk through your building, your association, and your timeline before you put a sign in the yard.
