Can I sell a DFW house with hail damage? Claim it, fix it, or sell as-is

Pick the order before you pick a buyer

Path	What happens to the claim	What you disclose	When it usually wins
Claim, replace, then list	The insurer pays, minus your deductible and any depreciation until the work is done	A claim and a new roof, the easiest story to tell	The policy pays replacement cost, or the roof is young
List with a roof credit	You may not file at all	The damage, and any claim you filed	The claim would pay little after the deductible
Sell as-is to us for cash	Your call; we price the roof either way	The damage, plus any claim money you kept	You want no roofer, no adjuster and no showings
Fix-then-list with us	We front the roof	A new roof, and any claim you filed	You want the list price without fronting the work

Cash is the lowest number, and the sheet shows what that trade costs. You can also mix them: file the claim, let us front the rest of the roof, then list.

The disclosure question that trips people up

The current Texas REALTORS® Seller’s Disclosure Notice asks, in Section 7, whether you have “ever received proceeds for a claim for damage to the Property … and not used the proceeds to make the repairs for which the claim was made.” If you cashed a roof check and spent it on something else, the answer is yes, and the form asks you to explain. Section 6 asks whether you ever filed a claim, and Section 11 asks for inspection reports from the last four years.

A yes is allowed. A wrong no is the problem, and the claim isn’t private: insurers use CLUE reports that list claims on a house for the past seven years, “even if you weren’t the owner at the time” (TDI).

What the deductible does to the math

Many Texas policies set the wind and hail deductible as a percentage of the home’s insured value. At 2% on a house insured for $300,000, you pay the first $6,000 of each claim. The Texas Department of Insurance’s own example: on a home insured for $150,000, a 5% deductible is $7,500, so the policy pays nothing on $6,500 of roof damage (TDI). Roof age matters too, because as roofs age some insurers switch to actual cash value and subtract depreciation (TDI). The worked table is in Hail, your roof and selling.

Rules that apply whichever path you pick

1. Photograph the damage and tarp it. Make only temporary repairs until the insurer has seen it.
2. File inside your policy’s deadline. Some policies set one year.
3. Don’t let a roofer “cover your deductible.” The Texas Department of Insurance says it’s illegal for contractors to waive it (TDI).
4. Keep the house insured until closing. TDI says most companies stop coverage if a house sits vacant for 60 days or more.

Questions people ask

Do I have to fix hail damage before I sell?

No. You can sell as-is and disclose it. Whether fixing first pays depends on your deductible, your roof’s age and what the claim would pay, which is why the sheet runs each path.

Can I keep the insurance money and sell the house as-is?

That depends on your policy and your mortgage company, which is often named on the check and releases money as the work is done. If you keep proceeds without repairing, the disclosure asks you to say so.

Will a buyer be able to insure a house with an old roof?

Sometimes at a higher price, sometimes not at all. TDI says an insurer inspects the roof when someone applies and “may charge you more or refuse to insure you based on what they see.” That’s one reason old-roof houses often sell for cash.

What if hail hits after we sign a contract?

On the standard TREC resale contract, the seller has to restore the house by closing. If the seller can’t, for reasons outside the seller’s control, the buyer can terminate, extend closing up to 15 days, or take the house as it is. Taking it as it is comes with the insurance proceeds, if the insurer allows the assignment, and a credit for the deductible.

Is hail really that common here?

Yes. Texas has logged more major hail events, an inch or larger, than any other state every year from 2015 through 2025, per the Insurance Information Institute’s tables of National Weather Service data.