Selling an RV You Still Owe Money On in Texas

While there is a lien, the lender has the title, in one of two forms:

• A paper title. TxDMV’s buying and selling page says that when there is a lien on a vehicle, the lienholder receives the title.
• An electronic title. Under TxDMV’s Electronic Lien and Title program, the title is created and held by TxDMV in the state database, and the lender keeps the electronic record instead of a paper certificate.

Your lender can tell you which kind yours is. Either way, you will not have a title in hand to sign over until the lien is released.

TxDMV’s lien page says that after the loan is paid off, the lienholder has 10 days from receiving the payment to release the lien. What happens next depends on the title:

• Paper title: the lienholder mails you the title. To get the lien taken off the title itself, you take the title, the release of lien letter and a Form 130-U to your county tax office.
• Electronic title: the lender sends TxDMV an electronic release, and no action is needed from you. TxDMV converts the record to a paper title and mails it to the recorded owner or a third party.

Keep the original release of lien. TxDMV’s title copy page notes that a paid-off lien can still be recorded on the title, and then the original release from the lender is required. A fax or photocopy is not accepted.

A private buyer needs what TxDMV lists on its buying page: the signed title, a Form 130-U signed by you with the sales price on it, and supporting documents such as the release of lien. TxDMV tells buyers never to walk away from a private sale without the title, and suggests they run the VIN through Title Check first.

That puts the payoff in the middle of the deal. The lender holds the title until the loan is paid, so the loan has to be paid off, and the lien released, before you can hand the buyer a signed title. If the sale price does not cover the payoff, the difference has to come from you before the lien comes off.

Once it is sold, protect yourself. TxDMV says a vehicle has to be titled in the buyer’s name within 30 days of the sale, and that a seller who files a Vehicle Transfer Notification within 30 days of the sale cannot be held responsible for parking tickets and tolls run up by the buyer.

A dealer handles the payoff as part of the deal. On TxDMV’s lienholder page, when a dealer pays off a loan on a vehicle taken in trade with an electronic title, the lienholder has 10 business days after receiving the payment to release the lien, and TxDMV mails the paper title to the dealer.

One more step is yours. TxDMV says a dealer does not have to title a vehicle it buys or takes in trade in the dealership’s name, so it can stay in your name until the dealer sells it. File a Vehicle Transfer Notification so the state’s record shows it as sold.

A loan does not change how you sell to us. On a consignment, a cash offer or a trade, we confirm the payoff with your lender, it comes out of the sale at closing, and you get the rest. Bring the lender name and your account number. The title work happens here at closing.

The one thing we need is a way to clear the loan: we do not take a unit on consignment with an active lien and no payoff plan. The seller form on the consignment page asks whether there is a loan and about how much the payoff is. Not sure which way to sell? Consign, cash offer, or sell it yourself, compared.

Checked October 9, 2026. If this page and the state ever disagree, the state is right.

• TxDMV: Add or Remove a Lien on a Vehicle
• TxDMV: Electronic Lien and Title Program (ELT)
• TxDMV: Buying or Selling a Vehicle
• TxDMV: Get a Copy of Your Vehicle Title
• TxDMV: Title Check, Look Before You Buy
• TxDMV: Application for Texas Title and/or Registration (Form 130-U, PDF)