Conventional Investment in San Marcos

Yes, across most of the county core. Zillow's July 2026 mid-tier home value came in at $262,700 in Maxwell, $299,223 in Kyle, $310,480 in San Marcos, $340,454 in Martindale and $355,320 in Buda, all comfortably inside where a standard 30-year investor loan covers the purchase. Wimberley ($604,777) and Dripping Springs ($697,226) are the two Hays County markets where a conventional loan stops covering the deal on its own, and it is worth pricing those against our DSCR and portfolio programs instead.

Not on a documentation basis; conventional financing does not carry the loan-size floor some of our other programs do. Our portfolio loans typically start around $500K, built for pooling several doors under one facility. A single-door conventional purchase carries no comparable floor: at Maxwell's $262,700 mid-tier value or Kyle's $299,223, an 80% LTV purchase produces a loan well inside a normal conventional file. At these prices, what limits the deal is your documented income and reserves, not the loan amount. If your income does not document cleanly, ask about our DSCR or bank-statement programs instead.

The escrow line runs on the full parcel bill, with no homestead exemption or 10% appraisal cap to soften it, because this is investment property. A San Marcos parcel carries Hays County at 0.3999 per $100 (which includes the Special Road line, an exemption for homesteads only, not a rate investors skip), the City of San Marcos at 0.6515, and San Marcos CISD at 1.0152, for a total of 2.0666 per $100, about $6,200 a year on a $300,000 basis. That is the number a conventional underwriter runs into your ratios, not a capped one. Texas has no state income tax on the rent itself, which is the other half of the ledger worth pricing in. A handful of San Marcos parcels also carry a public improvement district assessment (Trace, River Bridge Ranch, Whisper or Whisper South) that rides on the same county tax statement but never shows on the appraisal district's rate sheet, so confirm the parcel before you finalize the numbers. Talk to your CPA about how the full carry affects your return.

When the city's occupancy cap would pinch a rent-based DSCR qualification. San Marcos limits a single-family dwelling to three unrelated adults (Ordinance 2023-72), with the property owner and manager personally liable and a parking-based test the city uses as evidence. A DSCR loan qualifies off the property's rent, so a house priced by an investor as a four-bedroom, four-rent unit does not actually clear that ceiling here, and the DSCR math has to be run on what the property can legally collect. A conventional loan qualifies on your documented income instead of the property's rent, so the cap does not gate the approval for a borrower whose file documents cleanly. The ordinance still binds the property either way; it just stops deciding whether the loan closes. If your income does not document cleanly and the rent still pencils under the cap, our DSCR loan is the better fit; send us the address and we can run both.

About 20% of the purchase, plus closing costs. Leverage runs up to 80% LTV, so on San Marcos's own mid-tier home value of $310,480 as of July 2026, that is up to $248,384 from us and $62,096 from you (310,480 x 20% = 62,096). Layer the 2.0666 tax stack from above into your escrow before you finalize the number, since it lands in full with no homestead exemption. Subject to underwriting.

Yes, a mandatory rental registration on day one. Every long-term rental inside San Marcos city limits must register under City Code section 34-821, in force since January 1, 2021, and the Development Code repeats the same duty. A multifamily complex files once for the complex, not once per unit, and rentals to the owner's family are exempt. We found no comparable long-term registration requirement in the other cities on this corridor, but confirm with each city rather than assuming. The registration fee, renewal cycle and any inspection requirement are not published, so budget for the filing itself and confirm the current details with the city before closing.