Tyler is flat and slow, so a flip has to be bought right.
Healthcare payrolls anchor the tenant base across Smith County. USA Mortgage funds investors here. Severed mineral rights run through parts of the county. Business-purpose loans only, and every structure is set in underwriting.
You hear yes or no from the people holding the capital.
Healthcare is the economy, not the story
Education and health services account for 27,700 of the metro's 122,100 nonfarm jobs, 22.7% of everything, anchored by UT Health East Texas and CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances and reinforced by 230 resident physicians training across the UT Health East Texas system, tied to the new UT Tyler School of Medicine.
A genuinely lower-cost tax stack
A City of Tyler investor parcel runs about 1.63% of assessed value in property tax against roughly 2.00% in Killeen, and an unincorporated Tyler ISD parcel runs closer to 1.46%. Tyler makes some of that back in sales tax, at the state maximum 8.25%.
Small metro, slow market, real yield
Median list price has drifted down for four straight years to $370,250 in July 2026, so a flip has to be bought right rather than banked on appreciation, while gross rental yields still run 6.1% to 6.9% across Tyler, Whitehouse, and Lindale.
Loan programs in Tyler
Acquisition through exit, all funded or arranged by one lender.
Do you lend in Tyler and the rest of Smith County?
Yes, across all of Smith County. We are a Texas direct lender headquartered in Bee Cave, and we fund deals in Tyler, Lindale, Whitehouse, Bullard, Flint, Hideaway, Troup, and Winona. The Tyler MSA is defined as Smith County alone, population 252,549 in 2025, up from 234,205 in 2020, about 1.5% growth a year, every year positive. Every loan is business-purpose only, on investment property, and terms are subject to underwriting. See how we lend across Texas or talk to us.
What will property taxes cost me on a Tyler investment property?
Budget roughly 1.63% of assessed value inside the city, with no homestead relief for an investor. The Texas Comptroller's 2025 rate table puts the City of Tyler stack at county 0.364231 plus city 0.236452 plus Tyler ISD 0.845000 plus Tyler Junior College 0.185068, which sums to about 1.630751 per $100 of value. An unincorporated parcel in Tyler ISD costs even less, about 1.4632, since it carries no city rate at all. The spread across the county is real: Bullard's stack runs about 2.1658, driven mostly by Bullard ISD at 1.2469 against Tyler ISD's 0.8450, roughly $1,350 a year more on a $250,000 basis. Every rate here is tax year 2025; Smith County was still adopting 2026 rates as of mid-2026. Talk to your CPA or tax advisor about your own position. See the DSCR program. Subject to underwriting.
The city code has no short-term rental ordinance, but that is not the same as no oversight. A full-text search of the City of Tyler Code of Ordinances, current through the July 2026 codification, returned zero results for "short term rental," "short-term rental," and "vacation rental": no permit, no registration, no density cap. The city does levy a 9% hotel occupancy tax under Code section 2-16, and its definition of "hotel" is broad enough to plausibly reach a whole-home rental, so confirm HOT liability with the city before you list. Suburb-level STR rules in Lindale, Whitehouse, Bullard, Troup, Arp, and Winona have not been confirmed, so do not assume Tyler's posture carries over. Subject to underwriting.
I keep hearing about severed mineral rights around Tyler. Does that affect a loan?
It can affect the title, and it has a lower-cost fix. The East Texas Oilfield, discovered in 1930, reaches into southeastern Smith County, and Texas law makes the mineral estate dominant over the surface: the owner of severed minerals can use the surface as reasonably necessary to develop them, and the Railroad Commission generally has no jurisdiction to referee a dispute. Read the title commitment's Schedule B mineral exception before closing and ask whether the seller is reserving minerals under TREC form 44-3. Where a reservation shows up, the Minerals and Surface Damage Endorsement, Form T-19.2, is a promulgated Texas title product priced at $50 on an owner's policy and $0 on a loan policy. No data exists on what share of Smith County parcels actually carry severed minerals, so we do not quote one. See the fix and flip program. Subject to underwriting.
How flat is the Tyler market, and how should that change how I underwrite a deal?
Flat and slow, not falling apart, so the discipline is at purchase. Median list price in the Tyler MSA was $370,250 in July 2026, down 1.3% from a year earlier and 6.2% off the July 2022 peak, four straight years of shallow decline. Homes took a median of 66 days to sell that month, with roughly 36% of the 1,421 active listings carrying a price cut. The tenant base rests on a payroll: 27,700 of the metro's 122,100 nonfarm jobs sit in education and health services, 22.7% of everything, anchored by UT Health East Texas and CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances, plus 230 resident physicians training across the UT Health East Texas system alongside the new UT Tyler School of Medicine. Gross rental yields on Zillow's value and rent data run about 6.1% to 6.9% across Tyler, Whitehouse, and Lindale. Subject to underwriting.
It depends on the program, and on the asset-based loans there is no minimum at all. Fix and flip, commercial bridge and ground-up construction are underwritten on the property and the equity, so we run credit but it carries far less weight than at a bank, and weaker credit is usually met with lower leverage rather than a decline. DSCR and bank statement loans start at 640, conventional investment starts at 580, and transactional funding has no credit check at all. There is no hard credit pull to start a conversation about a Smith County deal. Subject to underwriting.
On a $255,000 Tyler purchase, how much comes from me?
On a purchase at that price, anywhere from nothing to about 25%, depending on the program. Fix and flip funds up to 90% of the purchase and up to 100% of the rehab, capped to ARV. DSCR and conventional run up to 80% LTV: on a $255,000 Tyler purchase that is $204,000 financed and $51,000 from you (255,000 x 80% = 204,000). Construction funds up to 85% of cost, commercial bridge up to 75% LTV, bank statement loans start at 20% down, and transactional funding covers up to 100% of the A-to-B leg. Tyler's mid-tier value was $255,430 in June 2026, so those percentages land on real local numbers. Subject to underwriting.
Arp stock runs about $170,191. Is a purchase that small under your loan floor?
No. Most residential programs start at $100,000, so an Arp buy at that value clears it. Fix and flip, DSCR and bank statement loans all start there. SBA starts at $350,000 and portfolio blanket loans at $500,000. That floor is worth checking in a market this affordable: Arp is the county's lowest-cost stock at $170,191 and Tyler proper runs $255,430 (June 2026), so a normal purchase clears it, but a very low-basis distressed buy can land under it on the purchase alone. Subject to underwriting.
Local rules move. Every tax rate, fee, ordinance and market figure here comes from a primary source and carries the date we read it, and we correct them as the rules change. Where a number is mid-change or we could not verify it, we say so rather than guess. Before you commit a budget, confirm anything that drives it with the city or county, and talk to your attorney or CPA on questions of law or tax.
Published by USA Mortgage Funding, LLC, NMLS #152588. Researched from primary sources by our team, drafted with AI assistance, and every figure checked against its source before publishing. Where an answer rests on a public record, that record is linked under it. Figures read on 2026-08-13.
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