This is more personal for me than for most. My son Sam is 21 and on the autism spectrum. When we got his diagnosis, we were a double-income family thinking about careers and retirement, and almost overnight our whole world reorganized around his needs. That is the lens I bring to every client who is planning a move with a special needs child or adult. In this situation, buying a home is not really about the house. It is about the services, the schools, the team, and a stack of planning most families have never had to think about. Here is what I have learned, both as a parent and as a realtor who does this work every week.
Special needs planning starts with your family’s real priorities, not a list of bedrooms and baths. In Texas, the single most important early step is getting on the Medicaid waiver interest lists right away, because the waits are long. And it truly takes a village, so build a team of the right realtor, schools, therapists, and legal and financial help before you need it.
Why does special needs planning change a home search?
Every special needs individual is different, and so is every family. When a special needs person is in the home, the whole family nucleus shifts to meet their needs, and the home search has to reflect that. For me, it becomes another layer of the goal planning I do with every client. Before we talk about the kitchen or the number of bedrooms, I want to understand the diagnosis, the daily challenges, and what you are really trying to accomplish. I have had clients who wanted a casita on the property so an adult child could have some independence while staying close. I have had families buy land and build two homes, one for them and one for their child. The right answer is different every time, and it starts with an honest conversation.
What is the most common mistake families make moving to Texas?
Not getting on the interest lists soon enough. In Texas, Medicaid waiver programs use interest lists, and the waits are long. According to a May 2026 briefing to the Texas House, more than 128,000 Texans were on the interest list for the Home and Community Based Services waiver, and advocates told lawmakers families can wait years for a spot. When you move here, getting on those lists should be one of the very first things you do, ideally on day one.
I learned this the hard way. We called one agency, got on the list they offered, and asked what else we should sign up for. They told us that was all they had. Four years later, I found out there was a second entity with its own separate list, and my son had lost four years because we did not know to ask anywhere else. The person who told us was not being malicious, she simply did not know what was outside her own silo. That is exactly why you want someone in your corner who has lived it.
Do your services and your place in line come with you?
It depends on what you are talking about. The Medicaid waiver interest lists are Texas-specific, so if you are coming from another state, you need to get on them right away. Within Texas, individual counties then layer their own services on top, and they can differ dramatically. My neighborhood sits in Travis County, while most of the area around us is in Williamson, so we work with one service provider and our neighbors across the line work with another. One county may be harder to reach but offer a broader range of services, while the next is easier to work with but has less depth.
This is why I sometimes tell clients that the services, not the house, decide where they land. If the first priority is the right program for your child, that choice dictates everything else. I have even had families decide not to move at all, turning down a better job in Texas because their support system elsewhere was stronger. When your focus has shifted to your child, that is the right call, and I will never push you away from it.
What about school and your child’s IEP?
Here is the good news for anyone relocating. Your child’s Individualized Education Program, or IEP, travels with you. A Texas district generally honors an IEP from another state for about 30 days while it conducts its own evaluation and writes a new, compliant Texas IEP. Unlike the waiver lists, school district services are available right away.
When you compare districts, look beyond the star ratings. Those grades can be pulled down simply because a school serves a large special needs population, which says nothing about the quality of its programs. I have been fortunate that Leander ISD, where my kids came up, is one of the stronger districts in Central Texas, along with Round Rock and Eanes. But the real question is what a specific school offers for your specific child. There are also tremendous local resources, like Leander ISD’s Destination Life seminar, which brings dozens of service providers together once a year. I still go every year just to learn what has changed, both for my family and for my clients.
How do you design the home itself around a child’s needs?
This is where real estate and special needs planning meet. I have helped families create a sensory room, a quiet space where a child can go to work through a hard moment. I have designed floor plans that put the child on one side of the house and the parents on the other, with living space in between as a buffer, so the family has both closeness and a little privacy. I have set up casitas for live-in caregivers. One family wanted a pool for aquatherapy and planned to build a structure over it so they could use it year-round, until the HOA said no to the structure. That is the kind of thing I try to catch early. We either confirm up front that it will not be an HOA problem, or we find a property without an HOA. Thinking downstream is the whole job.
Who should be on your team?
It truly takes a village. I think the realtor is the hub of the wheel because getting you into the right location, with the right schools, doctors, and therapists nearby, touches everything else. From there, it radiates out to the legal and financial side. You will likely want a special needs trust to protect your home and assets, and tools like ABLE accounts work much like a 529 plan, but for special needs. You’ll also deal with Social Security and Medicaid at some point.
One real estate-specific warning. When we set up our home in a special needs trust, we didn’t realize at first that changing the house’s legal ownership can knock you off your homestead exemption, which means a much bigger property tax bill. My wife caught it about 18 months in, and because Texas lets you go back two years, we recovered the difference. It is exactly the kind of nuance that is easy to miss, so lean on a qualified attorney and financial professional and ask these questions before you sign.
A few questions I hear all the time
What is a Medicaid waiver interest list? It is Texas’s waiting list for home and community-based services. The lists are long, so you want to get on them as soon as you arrive, even years before you expect to need the services.
Does my child’s IEP transfer to Texas? Yes. The district generally honors it for about 30 days while it completes its own evaluation and writes a new Texas IEP, and school services begin right away.
Do my services follow me if I move within Texas? Your place on the Medicaid waiver interest lists is statewide, but county-level services vary, so confirm what your new county offers before you choose a home.
Should I put my house in a special needs trust? Many families do, for protection. Plan the details, like the homestead exemption, with a qualified attorney and financial professional.
The Bottom Line
Special needs planning is not about finding a perfect house. It is about building a life around your family’s real needs, and the home is one piece of that. Get on the lists early, let the services guide the search when needed, and build the right team around you. If you are thinking about a move to Central Texas, reach out. Whether you ever hire me as your realtor or not, my heart is in helping these families, and Donna and I are always glad to point you in the right direction.
Written by Richard Fowler, REALTOR with the ARK Property Team at Pure Realty. Published October 20, 2026. Last updated October 20, 2026.
