Texas homeowners have a quiet superpower most estate-planning attorneys don't advertise. It's called the Transfer on Death Deed, or TODD, and it lets you pass your Texas home directly to a named beneficiary at your death — no probate, no court, no waiting, no five-figure legal bill for your family. It's the single most efficient probate-avoidance tool in the Texas Estates Code, and it costs less than a family dinner at a nice restaurant.
At TexasEstates.com, our fixed fee for an attorney-drafted, county-clerk-ready Texas Transfer on Death Deed is $247 — inclusive of legal description verification, multiple-beneficiary structuring, and recording instructions. This article explains what a TODD is, when it works, when it doesn't, what other attorneys charge, and why we've productized it at a fraction of the market rate.
What a Texas Transfer on Death Deed actually does
A TODD is a specific instrument authorized by Texas Estates Code Chapter 114, adopted in 2015 and refined by the Legislature in 2017 and 2019. When properly drafted, signed, and recorded in the county real-property records before the owner's death, it does exactly one thing extraordinarily well: at the moment of the owner's death, title to the real property passes automatically to the named beneficiary, outside probate.
The owner keeps every right of ownership during their lifetime. You can sell the property, mortgage it, rent it, remodel it, or revoke the deed entirely — the TODD is fully revocable at any time. It creates no present interest for the beneficiary. There is no gift tax event. There is no impact on your property tax homestead exemption. There is no lender-consent requirement (unlike a lifetime transfer, which typically triggers a due-on-sale clause).
At your death, the beneficiary records a short affidavit (a "Death of Grantor Affidavit") in the same county real-property records, attaches a certified copy of the death certificate, and title has already vested. No probate court involvement. No executor. No attorney required for the transfer itself.
A Texas TODD is one of the cleanest probate-avoidance moves in American estate law — the entire cost is $247 in legal fees plus about $30 in county recording. Compare that to the $5,000–$8,000 your family will otherwise spend on a Texas probate proceeding to accomplish exactly the same transfer.
What a Texas TODD costs — the honest market survey
We conducted a survey of Texas estate-planning attorneys in 2025–2026 to establish the market rate for a standalone Transfer on Death Deed. Here's what we found:
- Lower end (bare minimum): $200 (a Kingwood attorney's published fee for a single-beneficiary TODD with no complications)
- Median: $500–$650 (typical for Austin, Houston, Dallas metro attorneys with a fixed-fee estate-planning practice)
- Upper end: $995 for a single person, $1,495 for a married couple (Montgomery/Harris/Walker Counties)
- Bundled inside a larger package: $1,575–$1,850 for a "will + POA + TODD" starter package
- Traditional hourly billing: $250–$450/hour × 2–4 hours = $500–$1,800 with no ceiling if complications arise
TexasEstates.com charges $247 for a standalone attorney-drafted TODD. That's the mid-lower end of the standalone market, delivered by a Texas-licensed attorney (Darryl V. Pratt, Attorney-CPA, 30 years of Texas estate practice), with next-business-day turnaround, and the same statutory rigor a Frisco boutique firm would put into an $800 engagement.
Why the price gap? Because we've productized the workflow. Our intake is standardized. Our template is drafted, reviewed, and updated by an attorney at the firm level, not from scratch each time. Legal-description verification runs on a checklist we've refined over hundreds of deeds. What used to be four billable hours is now forty minutes of attorney review. The cost savings pass through to you.
When a Texas TODD is the right tool
The TODD is purpose-built for one very common Texas situation: a homeowner with a clear, uncomplicated title who wants their home to pass at death to one or more named individuals, without their family having to open a probate estate to move the deed.
The best-fit profile:
- Single-family home, condo, or townhouse in Texas, held in the owner's name (or jointly with a spouse)
- Clear title — no unresolved liens beyond a first mortgage, no pending litigation, no contested marital-property claims
- Named beneficiaries the owner is confident about — adult children, a spouse, a trust, a sibling, a charity
- No plans to qualify for long-term-care Medicaid in the next five years (the Medicaid five-year lookback treats a TODD gently, but a Texas Retained Interest Transfer Deed can be a better fit in that scenario — see below)
- Homestead property is fine — the TODD is fully compatible with the Texas homestead exemption under Tex. Const. Art. XVI § 51
The TODD also handles multi-beneficiary structures elegantly. You can name two children as tenants-in-common with equal shares. You can name a primary and a contingent beneficiary. You can name a beneficiary of your choice, or your existing revocable trust — the deed accepts either.
When a Texas TODD is the WRONG tool
We're an honest firm, so let's be equally clear about what the TODD does not do well:
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Properties held in an existing trust already avoid probate. If your Texas home is already titled in the name of your revocable trust, a TODD is redundant.
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Rental properties with active tenants and lender covenants — check your mortgage documents. Most residential lenders are silent on TODDs (they were drafted before the statute existed), but investment-property lenders sometimes have due-on-transfer clauses that reach beyond a lifetime sale. Consult before filing.
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Contested title, unresolved probate from a prior owner, or disputes over marital character — the TODD assumes clean title. If title is muddled, resolve it first.
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Owners planning to qualify for long-term-care Medicaid within five years. Texas Medicaid respects a properly recorded TODD, but the strategy is more efficient with a Texas Retained Interest Transfer Deed (TRITD) — a case-law-recognized structure that preserves the owner's control while creating a present interest that starts the lookback clock earlier. TRITDs cost $347 at TexasEstates.com and are the right choice when Medicaid is on the planning horizon.
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Non-Texas real property. A Texas TODD only works for real estate located in Texas. Other states have their own Transfer on Death Deed statutes with different requirements — some allow TODDs (Colorado, Arizona, Kansas), others don't (Florida, New York).
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Business real estate held by an LLC or partnership. The TODD applies to real property held individually or jointly, not to real property held by a business entity. Transferring the entity itself is a different problem.
A NOTE ON DIY TODD FORMS Texas Law Help publishes a fill-in-the-blank TODD form for pro se use, and we applaud that resource. But we see the pro se forms come back to us for probate work with three consistent problems: (1) legal descriptions incorrectly copied from a tax appraisal district record instead of the deed, (2) beneficiary designations that don't match county records (Jr./Sr., middle initial, prior marriages), and (3) TODDs never actually filed with the county clerk. Any one of these can defeat the entire strategy. An attorney-drafted TODD costs $247 and eliminates all three failure modes.
The TexasEstates.com TODD engagement — step by step
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You purchase the Transfer on Death Deed package at texasestates.com/products/tod-deed for $247 (flat fee, no billable hours).
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You complete a 15-minute online intake — property address, current recorded deed, beneficiaries and shares, contingent beneficiaries if desired.
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A Texas-licensed attorney reviews your intake and drafts the deed — including a verified legal description pulled from your source deed (not the appraisal district), correct grantor identification matching current title, statutorily-compliant beneficiary language, and revocation-ready structure.
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You receive a draft for review — typically within one business day. We answer questions by email; you approve.
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We provide execution and recording instructions — signing before a Texas notary, county-clerk recording office for your property's county (which for Collin, Dallas, Denton, Harris, Tarrant, Travis, and Bexar Counties we list specifically), and the recording fee (usually $26–$30).
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You record the deed with the county clerk. Once recorded, the TODD is effective. The beneficiary's inheritance is now protected from probate — for the rest of your life, subject only to your right to revoke.
Total elapsed time from purchase to recorded deed: typically 3–5 business days.
Comparing the TODD to a Revocable Living Trust
The other common Texas probate-avoidance tool is the Revocable Living Trust. For homeowners with only real property to worry about, the TODD is dramatically simpler and cheaper — $247 vs. our Starter Trust Plan at $497 (or $997 for the Complete plan).
But if you have more than a house — meaningful investment accounts, a business interest, a rental property, a coordinated incapacity plan — the trust does substantially more work than a TODD. It handles multiple assets. It provides incapacity continuity if you become unable to manage your own affairs. It keeps your entire estate outside of probate, not just your real estate. And it survives you as an ongoing structure for beneficiary distributions.
Our general rule: if the house is 90% of your estate and your family relationships are uncomplicated, a TODD is the right tool. If the estate is diversified and you want a single, unified probate-avoidance structure, the trust is the right tool. For many families, a TODD is a fine choice today and a trust becomes the right choice at retirement.
What happens if the beneficiary predeceases you?
A Texas TODD can name contingent beneficiaries — a fallback line of succession — and we always recommend at least one. If your primary beneficiary predeceases you and there is no contingent designated, the TODD lapses and the property becomes part of your probate estate, defeating the entire purpose. Naming a contingent is free; we build it in by default.
How to begin
If you're a Texas homeowner and you'd like a Transfer on Death Deed drafted by a Texas-licensed attorney at a fixed fee of $247, visit texasestates.com/products/tod-deed and complete the purchase. Intake takes 15 minutes. Your drafted deed will be in your inbox within one business day.
If you'd prefer to talk to us before purchasing — because you're not sure a TODD is the right tool for your situation, or because you have questions about beneficiary structure, or because you want to discuss the TODD-vs-trust decision — email dpratt@texasestates.com or call (972) 712-1515 for a no-obligation consultation.