§ 34.041.Sale at Place Other Than Courthouse Door; Date and Time of Sale

Where and when an execution sale of land happens, with two modern additions.

The timing rule is the one everyone in Texas real estate knows: a sale must take place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the first Tuesday of a month — or, if the first Tuesday falls on January 1 or July 4, on the first Wednesday.

A fixed, predictable day is the whole point. Buyers know when sales occur without watching every courthouse, which is what produces bidders and therefore prices.

The holiday exception exists because those two dates are the ones that can fall on a Tuesday and close the courthouse.

Where a court order or other law requires sale at a place other than the courthouse door, the sale is made at the place designated.

A commissioners court may authorize online bidding and sale, may adopt rules governing such auctions, and those rules take effect on the 90th day after publication in the county’s real property records. This does not apply to a foreclosure sale under the Property Code.

Online bidding widens the pool beyond whoever can stand at a courthouse on a Tuesday morning, which is the strongest argument for it.

A commissioners court may also designate an area other than the courthouse, provided it is a public place within reasonable proximity of the courthouse and as accessible to the public as the courthouse door, recorded in the real property records and effective after 90 days.

One clause protects titles against technical attack: a designation is not a ground for challenging or invalidating any sale.

The county may also authorize an official to identify separate locations within the designated area, which is how a large county runs simultaneous sales without confusion.