Question 1

What do property taxes actually run on a Fort Worth investment property?

Accepted Answer

Budget roughly 2% to 2.5% of value a year, and confirm the parcel before you lock a payment. We publish that as a range on purpose. The City of Fort Worth rate alone is about $0.67 per $100 of value, and a typical Fort Worth property stacks city, Fort Worth ISD, Tarrant County, Tarrant County College and the hospital district to roughly $2.24 per $100. But the aggregators that report a countywide effective rate disagree with each other, one at about 1.52% and another at about 1.77%, and the practical spread across addresses runs wider than either. The only number worth underwriting is the one for your parcel, from the Tarrant Appraisal District rates page or the county's Truth in Taxation summary. On a conventional file that figure feeds the escrow that sets your qualifying ratios, so a guess at application is what kills the loan two weeks later.

Question 2

Will my tax bill match what the seller has been paying?

Accepted Answer

If the seller lived there, almost certainly not, and the gap is bigger than most investors expect. The Texas homestead exemption and the 10% homestead appraisal cap apply only to owner-occupants. A rental or a flip is taxed on full assessed value with neither one. Texas Proposition 13, which passed on November 4, 2025, raised the school-district homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 and is worth roughly $350 to $500 a year to a typical homeowner, and none of that follows the property to you. Pro formas built off a neighbor's bill or the seller's last statement understate carry, often materially. Pull the go-forward assessment and talk to your CPA about how it lands on your return.

Question 3

Does it matter which county the address sits in?

Accepted Answer

Yes. This metro spans three counties and three rulebooks. Tarrant covers Fort Worth, Arlington, Keller, Mansfield, Grapevine and Southlake. Weatherford sits in Parker County and Burleson sits in Johnson County, each with its own appraisal district, tax rates and municipal permitting. Rates move inside Tarrant too: the City of Arlington adopted a total rate of $1.0929 per $100 for tax year 2025, which the city called its lowest in 20 years. Parker and Johnson run broadly similar to Tarrant, and we won't put a finer point on it than that because the published county averages are dated and disagree. Underwrite the parcel's actual jurisdictions, not the county you think it's in.

Question 4

How should I budget insurance on a North Texas rental?

Accepted Answer

Get a bindable quote before you close, not after, and check the roof age first. Texas logged 878 major hailstorms in 2024, nearly double the next closest state, and hail is the costliest peril in the DFW region. The statewide average annual homeowners premium reached $3,506 in 2025, and what a specific North Texas property quotes at turns on roof age, claims history and carrier. We don't publish a rate-increase percentage because the available sources disagree by a factor of four. Roof age gates both insurability and premium here, which is also why a flip that leaves a 15-year-old hail-damaged roof in place can fail the buyer's insurance step at exit. On a conventional file the premium sits in your escrow and your qualifying payment, so quote it during diligence.

Question 5

Is Fort Worth a market I want a 30-year loan in?

Accepted Answer

The demand side is as durable as anything in the country, and it's a headcount story rather than a percentage story. Fort Worth added 19,512 residents in the year to July 1, 2025, reaching 1,028,117 people and the top 10 largest US cities, the second-largest numeric gain of any American city. The DFW metro added 123,557 residents in the same period. On the supply side, far north Fort Worth holds the largest industrial construction pipeline in the country at 7.7 million square feet across 20 projects, anchored by AllianceTexas, which has drawn $18.3 billion of investment through 2025 across 590 companies and more than 66,000 employees. That jobs base is the honest reason lot absorption and rental demand hold up in the northwest ISDs. It is not a promise about your rent or your value.

Question 6

Conventional or DSCR for a Fort Worth rental right now?

Accepted Answer

With prices roughly flat, documented income is often the file that survives the ratio test. Fort Worth-Arlington MSA home prices were about flat year over year as of May 2026 after small declines through the spring, and statewide Texas ran 5.3 months of supply at 64 days on market. That is a market you underwrite to today's rent and today's tax bill, not to appreciation. A DSCR loan qualifies on the property's rent, so a Tarrant County tax escrow with no homestead exemption presses directly on the coverage ratio. Conventional financing qualifies on you instead and is usually the lower long-term cost when your returns support it. Send us the address and we'll run both.

Question 7

What is a conventional investment property loan?

Accepted Answer

It is standard, competitively priced financing for a non-owner-occupied investment property, the long-term loan you take when your file fits the conventional box. It usually carries a lower rate than a bridge or DSCR loan, in exchange for full documentation.

Question 8

How is it different from a DSCR loan?

Accepted Answer

A conventional loan qualifies on your documented personal income and credit, while a DSCR loan qualifies on the property's rent. Conventional pricing is often lower if you can document your income and you are within the limit on financed properties; DSCR is easier to scale and skips the income docs. We compare both and put you in the one that fits.

Question 9

How much do I need to put down?

Accepted Answer

Plan on roughly 20% to 25% down on an investment-property purchase, with the best pricing at lower leverage and higher credit. Cash-out refinances are typically capped a bit lower than purchases.

Question 10

What credit score do I need?

Accepted Answer

Conventional investment financing generally wants a credit score around 580 or higher, and your rate improves meaningfully as your score and reserves go up. We will tell you up front where your file lands.

Question 11

What can I use it for?

Accepted Answer

Purchases, rate-and-term refinances, and cash-out refinances on non-owner-occupied 1-4 unit investment property. If you will live in the property, that is owner-occupied financing, which we refer to a trusted partner rather than originate here.

Question 12

What documents are required?

Accepted Answer

Because it is fully documented, expect to provide income verification, tax returns, bank statements, and the standard conventional paperwork. If that documentation is a hurdle, our DSCR and bank-statement programs are the no-tax-return alternatives.

Conventional Investment in Fort Worth

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Conventional Investment in Fort Worth: local questions

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