A conventional investment property loan, for Tyler rentals.
Standard, competitively priced financing for non-owner-occupied investment property when your file fits the box. Often the lowest-cost option for a long-term hold, in exchange for full documentation. A Smith County stack runs lighter unincorporated than inside Tyler or Bullard city limits. We'll compare it against DSCR so you take the structure that fits; business-purpose only, subject to underwriting.
Typical figures, subject to underwriting and market conditions. Not a commitment to lend.
How it works
For investors who qualify conventionally, this is usually the lowest-cost long-term money on a buy-and-hold. We help you weigh it against our DSCR and bank-statement programs so the loan matches your file and your goals.
Tyler-area homes price well under the conforming loan limit. Is my loan too small for conventional financing?
Usually not. Zillow's June 2026 mid-tier values run from $170,191 in Arp up to $351,357 in Hideaway, with the core Tyler market at $255,430, Winona at $236,517, Whitehouse at $290,533 and Lindale at $299,908. A conventional investor loan on a purchase anywhere in that range is a routine file size for us. Where loan size gets tight is a small distressed buy well under the metro's low end, the kind of deal more often financed as a fix and flip and refinanced into conventional terms once it's stabilized. Fixed underwriting and closing costs don't shrink with the price tag, so send us your purchase price and we'll tell you straight which structure fits.
How much do Smith County property taxes affect my qualifying ratio, with no homestead exemption?
Budget close to 1.63% of assessed value inside the City of Tyler, with no homestead relief on an investment property. The Texas Comptroller's 2025 rate table sums a Tyler city parcel's stack at county 0.364231, city 0.236452, Tyler ISD 0.845000 and Tyler Junior College 0.185068 per $100 of value, about 1.630751 in total. That's roughly 37 basis points a year lighter than the Killeen-area stack, close to $940 a year on a $255,000 house. The trade-off: Tyler also charges the maximum legal local sales tax, 8.25% total, so the light property tax isn't free money for the city. Smith County held its rate flat for fiscal 2026, but commissioners gave preliminary approval to an increase for tax year 2026 that wasn't final as of this writing, so run the current adopted 2025 rate for underwriting, not an assumed 2026 number, and confirm the live figure with Smith CAD before you lock a purchase price.
Does buying in Tyler ISD versus Bullard ISD change what I can qualify for?
Yes, and it's the biggest lever inside your control before you sign a contract. Tyler ISD's 2025 rate is 0.845000 per $100 of value, while Bullard ISD runs 1.246900, a gap of about 40 cents per $100 driven almost entirely by the school district. Stacked with the rest of each jurisdiction's rates, the full Tyler city stack runs about 1.630751 against Bullard's roughly 2.165834, a difference near $1,350 a year in escrow on a $250,000 basis. That escrow is part of the payment your file qualifies against on a full-documentation conventional loan, so it's worth pricing before you underwrite. Confirm the exact rate on the specific parcel with Smith CAD, since city and school lines aren't the whole stack.
Tyler rents run about 6.45% gross against value. Conventional or DSCR on a rental here?
If your tax returns support the file, conventional is usually the lower long-term cost, and that yield trend is moving in the borrower's favor. Zillow's June 2026 read shows Tyler rents at $1,372 against a $255,430 value (6.45% gross), Whitehouse at $1,663 against $290,533 (6.87%), and Lindale at $1,536 against $299,908 (6.15%), while rents rose 1.2% year over year even as values slipped 1.0%. That combination is what makes a DSCR loan pencil reliably in this metro. But DSCR still measures the deal on the rent roll, not on you. If your documented income clears the ratio test on its own, conventional financing qualifies on your file instead, and it's usually the lower-cost structure when it fits. Send us the address and both sets of numbers and we'll run them side by side.
I'm buying near Lake Palestine in the unincorporated county, not inside a city. Does that change my tax escrow?
Yes, and usually for the better. An unincorporated Smith County parcel in Tyler ISD carries no city tax at all: county 0.364231, Tyler ISD 0.845000, Smith County ESD #1 0.068865 and the junior college 0.185068 sum to about 1.463164 per $100, lighter than the roughly 1.630751 stack inside Tyler city limits. Smith County is also a light special-district market by Texas standards: only one municipal utility district exists countywide, East Texas MUD of Smith County at 0.221157, versus the routine 0.78 to 1.00 MUD overlays seen in faster-growing metros. Still pull the parcel's full overlay list from Smith CAD before you lock a purchase price, since a MUD or ESD line can sit over a specific lot even where the base stack looks light.
My credit is in the low 600s. Can I still buy a Tyler rental with conventional financing?
Probably. Conventional investment financing starts at a 580 score, the lowest floor of anything we place. The trade is documentation: this is a fully documented loan, so the tax returns and income have to carry the file, which is exactly why a Tyler investor with heavy write-offs sometimes fails a conventional test that a weaker-credit W-2 borrower passes. If the returns do not support it, a DSCR or bank statement file starts at 640 and qualifies off the property or your deposits instead. Subject to underwriting.
On a $255,000 Tyler purchase, what do the down payment and the escrow come to?
About $51,000 down, plus close to $4,158 a year in tax escrow. Max leverage is 80% LTV on non-owner-occupied property, so a $255,000 purchase is $204,000 financed and $51,000 down (255,000 x 80% = 204,000). Tyler's mid-tier value was $255,430 in June 2026, so that is roughly what the market asks. The escrow is the part investors underprice: about 1.63% of assessed value inside the City of Tyler at 2025 rates with no homestead relief, close to $4,158 a year on that basis (255,000 x 1.630751% = 4,158), and that payment is what your file has to qualify against. 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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