A Due-Diligence Checklist for Buying Hill Country Acreage

Buying acreage in the Hill Country comes down to a handful of questions: exactly what you’re buying, how you legally reach it, what you’re allowed to do on it, where your water comes from, whether the ground can hold a septic system, and who owns what’s underneath. Get each one answered in writing before your option period runs out.

The TREC Farm and Ranch Contract gives you, for an option fee, an unrestricted right to terminate within the number of days you negotiate. It also has the seller deliver a title commitment within 20 days after the title company receives the contract, along with copies of the restrictive covenants and exception documents.

That paperwork is where most of this checklist starts.

Survey, easements and legal access

Under paragraph 6C of the contract, the survey must be made by a registered professional land surveyor acceptable to the title company and your lender. The seller can furnish an existing survey with a T-47 affidavit or T-47.1 declaration, or a new survey can be ordered.

If you check the box for it, the contract also adjusts the sales price at an agreed per-acre rate when the surveyed acreage differs from the number in the contract.

When the survey comes back, walk it. Compare fence lines, gates, the driveway and any road you use with the drawn boundary and the easements shown.

A road on the ground is not the same as a legal right to use it. A Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center article on access cases shows why the details matter: whether a route was a private easement or a street dedicated to the public decided whether a gate could stay across it.

Get the recorded easement or dedication, and make sure the survey shows the route you’ll actually drive.

Ask who maintains the road, too. Comal County’s Road Department only works on county-maintained roads, and a new driveway into county right-of-way needs a PIPROW permit.

Deed restrictions and what you can build

Read every deed restriction and covenant listed in the title commitment, not a summary. Paragraph 6D of the contract has a blank where you can name the uses that matter to you, such as a barn or livestock, so you can object if an exception would prohibit them.

In unincorporated Comal County, the county’s permit list includes a septic (OSSF) permit, a floodplain development permit when it applies, driveway and utility permits for county right-of-way, and an outdoor lighting permit inside the Camp Bullis Dark Skies Zone. The county notes that property owners associations, cities, utilities and state and federal agencies can add their own requirements.

If the tract was cut from a larger property, confirm the split meets county rules. Comal County lists noncompliance with its subdivision regulations as a reason it may withhold authorization to build a septic system.

Two local overlays deserve an early look:

• Canyon Lake flowage easements. The Corps of Engineers holds flowage easements on certain private land around the lake, generally below the 948-foot contour, though not every property has one or follows that line. With few exceptions they prevent human habitation, and fill or other structures need the Corps’ written approval. The Corps also notes that leaving the easement out of a newer deed does not cancel it.
• Edwards Aquifer zones. TCEQ says that before building on the recharge, transition or contributing zones of the Edwards Aquifer, you must first have your plan reviewed and approved, and its map viewer shows where those zones are. Ask whether your plans fall under those rules.

Water, wells and groundwater districts

Unless a water supplier serves the tract, water means a private well, and the rules depend on the aquifer and the district.

• Trinity Aquifer wells in Comal County fall under the Comal Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, which requires an approved drilling application to drill a new well, alter an existing one or drill a test bore.
• The Edwards Aquifer Authority has jurisdiction in portions of Comal County. It requires a construction permit for a new or altered well, and every well that draws from the Edwards must be registered.
• In northern Bexar County, Trinity wells are governed by the Trinity Glen Rose Groundwater Conservation District.

For an existing well, find the driller’s report. The TWDB Submitted Drillers Reports database started in 2001 and has collected all reports since 2003. Older mailed reports are on TCEQ’s Water Well Report Viewer.

TREC now has a Seller’s Disclosure about Groundwater and Surface Water Rights, effective July 1, 2026. It asks about wells, shared wells, district registrations, ponds and whether groundwater rights were severed, sold or leased. The form notes that groundwater belongs to the surface owner unless it has been severed.

Lot size ties back to water. Comal County’s septic rules call for at least 5.01 acres per lot in subdivisions created after January 1, 1988 that rely on individual wells and septic, and at least 1 acre where lots have public water. Plats the Commissioners Court approved before that order are exempt.

Septic and floodplain

Comal County requires a permit for every septic system regardless of acreage, and a qualified site evaluator must evaluate the site and soil first. On raw land, I’d fit that evaluation inside your option period, since it shapes where a house and system can go.

The same county order requires a floodplain determination, a TCEQ-approved Contributing Zone Plan where one is required, and Corps approval before any part of a system goes in the flowage easement.

For flood risk, look the land up on FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center. Comal County suggests contacting the County Engineer’s Office when buying property, and new construction must apply for a Floodplain Development Permit so the county can determine whether it sits in a special flood hazard area.

Paragraph 6D of the contract also lets you object if any part of the property lies in a Zone A or V flood hazard area on the current FEMA map.

Utilities, internet and minerals

Ask early where the nearest electric service is and what it would take to reach your building site. Utility lines in county road right-of-way need a county permit.

For internet, the FCC’s National Broadband Map shows the services providers report at individual locations, and consumers can file challenges when it’s wrong. Use it as a starting point, then confirm with the provider at the exact address.

Minerals are a separate estate. The Railroad Commission explains that surface and minerals can be owned by different people, that the mineral estate is dominant, and that a mineral lessee may use the surface as reasonably necessary to produce oil and gas.

Under the contract, any reservation of minerals, water or timber is made by attached addendum, such as TREC’s mineral reservation addendum. Earlier owners may have reserved minerals long ago, so have an attorney review the title.

The checklist

1. Calendar your option period and title objection deadlines.
2. Get the survey and walk it against fences, gates and roads.
3. Confirm legal access in writing and who maintains the road.
4. Read every deed restriction and list your intended uses in paragraph 6D.
5. Check subdivision status, flowage easements and Edwards zones.
6. Identify the groundwater district and find the well report.
7. Get the Seller’s Water Disclosure.
8. Order a site and soil evaluation for a septic system.
9. Check the FEMA map and talk to the County Engineer’s Office.
10. Confirm electric and internet at the address.
11. Review mineral ownership with an attorney.
12. If the land has ag valuation, plan your own application. Selling does not trigger a 1-d-1 rollback, but changing the use does, and the contract assigns rollback caused by your post-closing use to you.

If you’re weighing a tract

Every piece of land answers these questions a little differently, and those answers shape what the property is really worth to you. My Hill Country Buyer’s Guide pulls the full process into one place when you’re ready to look closer.