New to this in Texas...

[Brent Russell]

Small town guy from/in Texas, looking seriously into getting into the "subject to" side of the real estate market.

[Chris Reed]

I'm not an expert in subject-to, but I did quite a bit of research into the strategy and the laws that effect it.  I would suggest you do three things:

• Learn everything you can about it.  Books, webinars, blogs, etc.
• Create an imaginary property and walk through the deal.  Fill out all paperwork and mock all filings the same as you would in a real deal.  Then throw every "worst case" scenario at it and see how you fair.  Have your friends and family try to break it.  Walk through the numbers for 2-5 years and see where you are.  If you lose money, reconstruct and try again.
• Find a REAL GOOD real estate attorney.  Not someone who does real estate with other things, but someone that lives and breathes real estate law and ASSet protection.

I say these things because, not only does the paperwork have to be "perfect", but the attorney needs to know all current laws and how they are viewed in the eyes of the courts.  There is alot of liability to be mitigated in subject-to, and you need to be way out in front of it or it WILL run you over.  I don't want to scare you because it is a viable strategy, but it's actually one of the riskier strategies that I know of given the ways that most people execute it.