Building permits, zoning and land rules in Real County, Texas

Yes. Real County requires a countywide building permit through its floodplain development system for all new construction, additions, manufactured homes, travel trailers and subdivision proposals¹. Development outside the mapped floodplain requires an Exemption Certificate, while development inside it requires an Elevation Certificate¹. The Exemption Certificate costs $50 and the Elevation Certificate costs $100⁸. Failing to apply violates the court order and may bring a Class C misdemeanor, monetary penalties or a civil action to stop continued noncompliance¹. Real County has not separately confirmed a general building code, building inspections or certificates of occupancy, so ask the Flood Plain Coordinator what review your project will receive⁸.

The Real County Flood Plain Coordinator reviews, approves or denies development-permit applications for new construction, additions, manufactured homes, travel trailers and subdivision proposals⁸. For other land-use questions, the Real County Courthouse is the practical starting point⁹. Real County's subdivision and development rules govern unincorporated areas, not land inside a city's corporate limits unless an interlocal agreement applies¹⁰. If unincorporated land also lies in a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, county regulation still applies and the rules direct applicants to consult the County Engineer about which requirements control¹⁰. A hardship variance requires action by the Commissioners' Court on a formal agenda item¹⁰.

Real County has no zoning ordinance or planning office; the county's official site shows subdivision and development rules, not zoning, and Texas law grants county zoning authority only to a handful of specific, narrowly defined areas elsewhere in the state, none of which include Real County². Because the county has no zoning authority, there's no county minimum dwelling size, no setback rule, no lot-coverage limit and no building-height limit, and Real County has not published zoning districts³. Accessory dwellings, RVs, tiny homes and manufactured homes are unrestricted by county rule on an ordinary parcel³. The one carve-out is inside Real County's own platted subdivisions: an approved "under-sized" lot there may be used only for commercial purposes, and the county's subdivision rules specifically bar anyone from lodging, sleeping or living on one for even a single night⁶. That same under-sized-lot restriction also bars short-term or transient rentals, listing everything from a mobile-home park to a bed and breakfast as prohibited uses¹⁰.

A permit is required to construct, install, alter, extend or repair an on-site sewage facility (OSSF) anywhere in Texas, and TCEQ's own authorized-agent lookup lists Real County itself as the local agent countywide, with the Nueces River Authority also serving as an agent within 4 miles of the courthouse; the county's program is administered through the County Judge's office^4,7. Soils are the central challenge here: USDA data rates only about 0.8% of Real County's soils as free of severe limitations for a conventional septic drain field, so plan on an engineered or alternative system and a site evaluation for nearly any parcel⁵. A single-family home on a tract of 10 acres or more can qualify for Texas's 10-acre OSSF exemption if it also meets every other condition: a licensed site evaluator's or engineer's evaluation, no nuisance or groundwater pollution, every part of the system at least 100 feet from the property line, effluent kept on the property, and no other dwelling on the tract¹¹. If you're buying inside one of the county's platted subdivisions, lot size itself tracks water and sewer service: 10 acres with an individual well and OSSF, 1 acre with public water and an individual OSSF, or half an acre with both public water and public sewer⁶. After a permit is issued, the installer must give the permitting authority at least five working days' notice before the system is ready for inspection, and the authorization to construct expires if no inspection is requested within one calendar year¹².

Yes, on an ordinary parcel: because Real County has no zoning authority, RV, tiny-home and manufactured-home occupancy on your own private land is unrestricted by any county rule³. That freedom narrows inside the county's platted subdivisions if your lot was approved as an "under-sized" lot: those lots are restricted to commercial use only, and the subdivision rules explicitly prohibit lodging, sleeping or living there, whether or not money changes hands, for even one night⁶. Whatever you place on an ordinary parcel, once it's plumbed it still needs an OSSF permit through the County Judge's office, Real County's own listed TCEQ agent, and given how limited local soils are, get a site evaluation before you commit^5,7.

1. Confirm whether the parcel is inside a city, in unincorporated Real County or also within a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction; county subdivision rules govern unincorporated land, and the County Engineer can identify the applicable rules in an extraterritorial jurisdiction¹⁰.
2. Check whether the parcel sits in an approved subdivision with under-sized-lot restrictions⁶.
3. Contact the Real County Flood Plain Coordinator before work begins; new construction requires a $50 Exemption Certificate outside the floodplain or a $100 Elevation Certificate inside it^1,8.
4. Get a septic site evaluation; only about 0.8% of county soils have no severe limitation for a conventional system⁵.
5. Apply through the appropriate local OSSF agent before installing septic, or confirm that every condition of the 10-acre exemption is met^4,11. Request the construction inspection within one calendar year of the authorization, giving at least five working days' notice¹².
6. Register a proposed well with the Real-Edwards Conservation and Reclamation District and obtain an Operating Permit first if the district finds it nonexempt¹³.

Water is the headline issue twice over: septic soils are severely limited (only 0.8% of the county carries no severe limitation for a conventional drain field), and any well needs to be registered, and possibly permitted, with the Real-Edwards Conservation and Reclamation District^5,13. Real County is drought-prone, with severe drought in roughly 40.7% of years, even though the terrain is mostly workable, with about 71.3% of land at 15% slope or less and 62.7% wooded⁵. There's no federal land in the county to navigate around, but if your parcel is in a platted subdivision, check whether it's an approved under-sized lot before assuming you can live on it^5,6. It's rural and remote: about 4.1 people per square mile and roughly 81 miles from the nearest metro area, and a typical home insurance premium here runs about $1,991 a year⁵. Before you close, ask the Real County Flood Plain Coordinator whether the parcel needs an Exemption or Elevation Certificate, since that determines both your permit cost and whether you'll need an elevation survey⁸.