Who this guide fits

1. It fits anyone moving to the Austin area from another state, whether you're buying or renting. Renters can skip section 6 until they buy, and most of section 2.
2. Moving from another Texas city? This guide is for moves from other states. The 30-day and 90-day deadlines here are the state's rules for new residents.
3. Bringing a driver under 18? The driving test still applies to them (section 5).
4. Active-duty military, or married to someone who is? The appraisal district can waive the homestead exemption's address rule for you, with a copy of a military ID and a utility bill for the home (section 6).

Before the move: the mover, the gap before closing, the address and the mail

Check the mover before you sign anything. A mover taking your things from another state has to be registered with the federal government and have a U.S. DOT number. Look the company up in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA's) Registered Mover Database, and write down its U.S. DOT number. If a broker books your move, check the mover it hires too. Before the move, the mover has to give you two booklets: "Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move" and "Ready to Move."

FMCSA's own red flags include:

1. No look at your things in person: just an estimate over the phone or online.
2. No written estimate, or a promise to work out the price after loading.
3. Cash or a large deposit before the move.
4. Papers to sign with blanks in them.
5. No local address, and no registration or insurance information on the website.
6. A claim that all your goods are covered by their insurance.
7. A phone answered "Movers" instead of the company's name.
8. A rental truck on moving day instead of the company's own.
9. A claim that you have more things than they estimated.

Know what the estimate promises. A binding estimate is a price agreed in advance. With a non-binding estimate, the mover can't make you pay more than 110% of it on delivery day, but it can bill you for the rest 30 days later.

Know what coverage you get. Unless you sign for less, the mover is responsible under full value protection for the replacement value of anything it loses or damages. It costs extra, and the price varies by mover. The other option, released value, costs nothing extra but pays no more than 60 cents a pound per item: FMCSA's example is a 25-pound, 50-inch TV, for $15. You only get released value by signing a statement agreeing to it, so don't sign one by accident.

If something arrives broken, the clock is short. For a move between states, file a written claim with the mover within 9 months of delivery. For a move inside Texas, say from a rental into the home you buy, it's 90 days. A mover working inside Texas has to be licensed with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles; check it on the department's Truck Stop lookup.

When the move and the closing don't line up. Texas has standard lease forms for a short gap on the home you buy here. If you need to move in before closing, the Buyer's Temporary Residential Lease covers up to 90 days. If the seller needs to stay after closing, the Seller's Temporary Residential Lease covers up to 90 days, and you move in when the seller moves out. The seller's lease form warns that the arrangement can change insurance coverage, so call your insurance company before anyone signs one.

Need to sell your old home first? The Addendum for Sale of Other Property by Buyer makes your purchase here depend on that sale. The catch: the seller can keep taking offers. If the seller accepts another one, you have to drop your sale condition quickly, by the deadline in the addendum, and that can mean putting up more earnest money. Otherwise the contract ends and your earnest money comes back.

Check the address, not the city name. Here, the street address decides your electric company, your county, your school district and whether the home sits in a floodplain. Austin Energy's service area covers about 437 square miles, and only about half of it is inside Austin's city limits. A City of Austin map from 2013 shows parts of nine school districts inside the city limits. So before you sign a lease or a contract, check the exact address four ways:

1. with the electric company that serves it (section 3);
2. for its county, which sets your appraisal district, your tax office and whether your car needs an emissions test (sections 4 and 6);
3. with the school district's own boundary tool (section 7);
4. on a flood map: the City of Austin's ATXFloodPro for an Austin address, or FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) for any address (section 2).

Start mail forwarding two weeks out. The Postal Service says to allow at least 7 to 10 business days for forwarding to begin. Online, there's a $1.25 identity check, and standard forwarding lasts 12 months. Forwarding won't catch everything. The Postal Service says government agencies and banks don't let some mail be forwarded, including ID documents, credit cards, bank statements and insurance papers. Change your address with each of those senders yourself.

Ask your old utility for a letter before you leave. A new account can come with a deposit. A letter from your previous utility showing good payment history can help you avoid it, or lower it, with Pedernales Electric Cooperative, and City of Austin Utilities lists a reference letter as one way to have it waived.

Before you close: the hail deductible and flood insurance

Two things to price before you choose a policy. A buyer chooses the homeowners policy before closing, so do both then.

1. The hail deductible can be a percentage. A homeowners policy can set the wind and hail deductible as a percentage of the home's insured value instead of a dollar amount. An insurance industry group, the Insurance Council of Texas, gives this example: 2% on a $300,000 home is $6,000 out of your pocket. Turn the percentage into dollars before you choose a policy.
2. Floods need their own policy. Most homeowners policies don't cover flooding. A flood policy usually takes 30 days to start, but there's no wait if you buy it when you take out your mortgage. If the home is in a flood zone, your lender will require flood insurance. The City of Austin says the city "sits in the heart of Flash Flood Alley," so check the address on a flood map: the City's ATXFloodPro inside Austin, or FEMA's Flood Map Service Center anywhere.

Renting? Renters flood insurance covers the things you own inside your home. It also takes 30 days to start, so decide before you need it.

Move-in week: lights, water, gas and tolls

Electricity: the address decides who you call. Inside Austin Energy's area, the City of Austin's own utility is your provider, and there's nothing to shop for. Pedernales Electric Cooperative and Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative serve large areas around Austin, and Georgetown runs its own city utility. Where Oncor delivers the power, as in Round Rock, you choose the company that bills you. Check the address with the utility before move-in day, and have the power in your name from the day you arrive.

Water, trash and the rest. In Austin, one City of Austin Utilities bill can cover electricity, water, wastewater, trash and recycling, drainage and street fees. Outside Austin, who bills you depends on the address. Round Rock's city bill, for example, covers water, wastewater, drainage, trash and recycling.

What a MUD is. Some neighborhoods, often newer ones outside city limits, sit inside a Municipal Utility District, or MUD. It's a small local government that builds the water, sewer and drainage lines and pays for them with a property tax on the homes inside it. If you buy in one, the seller has to give you a written notice with the district's current tax rate before you sign a binding contract. Read the rate: it's added to your other property taxes.

Gas, if the street has it. Texas Gas Service serves Austin and many nearby cities. Atmos Energy serves others, including Round Rock and Leander. Whether a street has gas depends on the lines in that neighborhood, so check with the gas company by address.

Toll roads bill you by mail. Several Austin roads are toll roads, among them 183A, 290, 45SW, 71 and the MoPac Express Lane. They photograph plates and mail a bill if you don't have a tag. On the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority's roads, pay-by-mail rates are 50% higher than tag rates, plus $1 per bill and another $1 for out-of-state plates. Pay each mailed bill within 30 days: after that, the Mobility Authority adds $15 per bill at 30, 60 and 90 days past due. Tags from several other states work on its roads too, among them Oklahoma's PikePass, Kansas's K-Tag and Florida's SunPass.

The first 30 days: insurance, the emissions test, and the car

You have 30 days. That's the Texas DMV's deadline to register a car after you move here, and it comes due 60 days before the license does. The DMV's own checklist says the steps "must be followed in the order listed":

1. Car insurance that meets Texas minimums. At least $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per accident and $25,000 for property damage. The state's checklist says to get Texas insurance. The Travis and Williamson county tax offices will also take an out-of-state policy that meets those limits: bring its declarations page, the policy's summary page.
2. An emissions test, if you live in Travis or Williamson County. Texas stopped requiring safety inspections for most cars on 1 January 2025, but these two counties still test gas vehicles from 2 to 24 years old. If your car doesn't need the test (an electric car or a diesel, for example, or any car in Hays, Bastrop or Caldwell County), you certify its vehicle identification number on the application form instead.
3. The county tax office, in person. Bring the title or your last out-of-state registration (not a temporary one), the completed Application for Texas Title and/or Registration (Form 130-U), a photo ID and proof of insurance. If there's a loan on the car, bring the lender's name and address, and the date of the loan. If the car is leased, ask the leasing company for a power of attorney right away: Williamson County requires the leasing company's signed Limited Power of Attorney, form VTR-271. Since 5 March 2026, a first registration in Texas needs an unexpired ID from the state's list. A REAL ID license from any state (the one with a star) works. So does a U.S. passport, or a license without the star plus a U.S. birth certificate.
4. Then the driver license office (section 5).

What the car will cost to register. The state's base registration is $50.75, plus $1 for TexasSure, the state's insurance check, plus county fees. If the car was registered in your name in your old state, or you leased it there before the move, the state's vehicle tax is a flat $90 new-resident tax. If not, or if you buy a car after you move here, you pay 6.25% of the price instead, minus any sales tax you already paid another state. In Williamson County, for example, the title fee is $33, and the county's estimate for a car's yearly registration is $78.25 in all. That total already includes the state's inspection fees. One of them, $7.50 a year for most cars, replaced the old safety inspection. Electric cars add a $200 yearly fee at renewal.

Check before you go. The Texas DMV says some county tax offices require appointments, so look at yours online first. Williamson County handles new-resident transfers until 5:30 p.m. on Mondays and 4 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, and suggests avoiding 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and the start and end of the month. Travis County's lobbies can close when they fill up, so go early in the day.

By day 90: the Texas driver license, and voting

Book the appointment before you move. Every Texas driver license office works by appointment only, and you can book up to six months ahead. You can book before you move, on the state's scheduler at txdpsscheduler.com. Same-day slots are few and fill fast, and an appointment is canceled once you're 30 minutes late. Book a date after the car will be registered, and well before day 90.

What to bring

1. Proof of who you are. A U.S. passport covers this and your citizenship at once. Without one, the license office accepts combinations, such as a certified birth certificate plus your old license and your Social Security card.
2. Proof of U.S. citizenship or lawful presence.
3. Your Social Security number.
4. Two printed documents with your name and Texas address. A deed, a mortgage statement or a lease, your Texas car registration, a utility bill from the last 180 days, or an insurance policy, among others. Two bills for the same service, from different months, count as only one.
5. Texas registration and proof of insurance for every car you own. If you don't own one, you sign a statement saying so.
6. Your out-of-state license. You hand it in.

The state's online REAL ID document check builds a list of what to bring for your visit.

You don't have to wait 30 days to go. If you're handing in a valid out-of-state license, the license office waives its rule that one document show 30 days in Texas.

No tests, if you're 18 or older and your old license is valid, or expired less than two years. Under 18, the driving test still applies. For ages 18 to 84, the license costs $33 and lasts eight years.

Don't drive? Get a Texas ID card instead. It costs $16 at 59 and younger, or $6 at 60 and older, and it works for the homestead exemption too.

Bought a home? Make sure the license shows its address. The homestead exemption depends on it (section 6).

Register to vote at the license office, or sooner by mail. The license application asks whether you want to register to vote, and the Department of Public Safety, which runs the license offices, sends your answer to the Texas Secretary of State. A Texas registration takes effect 30 days after it's submitted, and the deadline is 30 days before an election. If an election is close and your appointment isn't, send an application to your county's voter registrar instead (in Travis County, the Tax Office). Texas's online form has to be printed and mailed.

If you bought: the homestead exemption and the property tax year

The homestead exemption is the one step here that pays you back every year. It's a tax break on the home you live in. The Travis Central Appraisal District says it saved the average Travis County owner $3,663 in 2025. Texas has no state property tax. Cities, counties, school districts and other local districts tax your home, and the homestead exemption takes $140,000 off its value for school district taxes, and $60,000 more if you're 65 or older or disabled.

File it yourself. You apply once, with the appraisal district for the county the home is in, and don't refile each year unless the district asks. Answer any letter it sends checking on your exemption: the Hays County district, for one, rechecks every homestead every five years. Travis, Williamson and Hays all take applications online. There's no fee to file, and the Travis Central Appraisal District says owners who need help with the forms "should never pay someone to assist them."

Your Texas license or ID card has to come first. The application needs a copy of your Texas driver license or ID card, and the address on it has to match the home. (If you're on active duty, or married to someone who is, the appraisal district can waive the match when you send a copy of a military ID and a utility bill for the home in your or your spouse's name.) You also certify that you don't claim a homestead exemption on another home, in Texas or anywhere else. If you still claim one on a home in your old state, deal with that before you file here.

When to file. The usual deadline is before May 1. The exemption normally starts on the January 1 after you own and live in the home. If the seller didn't have the exemption in the year you buy (a brand-new home, for example, or one owned by an investor), you may get it for the rest of that year: apply before the first anniversary of buying. Travis County's appraisal district says you can file now and it will apply to the year you qualify. Missed the deadline? You can still file up to two years after the date that year's taxes became late, and if you already paid, the refund comes without asking.

Your first tax bill looks like the seller's. The next one may not. The seller's homestead exemption, and the seller's 10% yearly limit on how fast the home's taxable value can rise, usually stay on the bill for the year you buy. Both drop off the next January 1. Your own exemption starts then (sooner only if the seller didn't have one), and your own 10% limit starts a year after that. So the first appraisal after you buy can be the home's full market value. The seller's tax bill is not a forecast of yours.

The tax year, so nothing sneaks up on you

1. Spring: the appraisal district mails a notice of your home's value. For homesteads, the law says by April 1 or as soon after as practical.
2. Protest by May 15, or within 30 days of the date the notice was mailed, whichever is later. Count from the mailing date, not the day it reaches you. You can do it yourself: in Travis County, online, by mail or in person.
3. October: tax bills go out.
4. Pay before February 1, or the taxes are late. If your lender pays from an escrow account, check that it did.

The checklist

Before you move

• Check the mover in FMCSA's Registered Mover Database, and get a written estimate. (Mover ________ U.S. DOT number ________)
• Coverage: full value protection is the default. Sign for released value (60 cents a pound) only if you mean to.
• Check the new address: electric company, county, school district, flood map.
• Set up electricity, water, trash and gas in your name from move-in day. Ask your old utility for a letter showing your payment history.
• Start mail forwarding (allow at least 7 to 10 business days), and change your address directly with banks, card companies and insurers.
• Book the driver license appointment, for a date after the car will be registered.
• Pack where you can reach them: passports or certified birth certificates, Social Security cards, car titles or registrations, your car insurance's declarations page, the children's school and shot records, and each pet's rabies certificate.

Before you close (if you're buying)

• Turn the wind and hail deductible into dollars, and decide on flood insurance. Bought with the mortgage, flood insurance has no 30-day wait.

Move-in week

• A toll tag, or a plan to pay mailed toll bills within 30 days.

By day 30

• Car insurance that meets Texas minimums: at least $30,000 per person, $60,000 per accident and $25,000 for property.
• An emissions test, in Travis or Williamson County.
• Register the car at the county tax office. Bring an unexpired ID from the state's list, such as a REAL ID license or a U.S. passport. (Date ________)

By day 90

• Texas driver license, showing your home's address. (Date ________)
• Register to vote, at least 30 days before an election.

If you bought

• File the homestead exemption with the appraisal district. No fee; the usual deadline is before May 1. (Filed ________)
• Spring: watch for the appraisal notice. Protest by May 15, or within 30 days of the date it was mailed if that's later.
• Pay the tax bill before February 1, or check that your lender paid it from your escrow account.

Settling in

• Enroll the children: birth certificate, school records, immunization records.
• Register pets where your city requires it.
• Find your watering days.
• Renting? Decide on flood cover for your belongings. It takes 30 days to start.