Property Management in
Austin, TX
Austin is the only city we serve where a rental house competes with a wave of new apartments. It is also the only one where the City runs its own enforcement programs for landlords, and where an Austin mailing address can feed any of five school districts. Managing here well means pricing against the real competition, knowing the City rulebook before a notice arrives, and checking the campus by address, not by ZIP.
Your Real Competitor Is the New Apartment
In the suburbs to the north, a rental house mostly competes with other rental houses. In Austin it also competes with a large stock of newer apartments offering concessions, and the tenant scrolling both lists is comparing them directly. That is why Austin rent is a pricing problem before it is a marketing problem.
The advantages a house has are real and specific: a yard, a garage, more space per dollar for a family, and a lease term the tenant chooses rather than the property manager's promotion calendar. The disadvantage is that a house has none of the amenity package or concession budget that an apartment community uses to close a lease.
So we set the price against the house's actual peers, present the space and the yard in the listing, and keep make-ready tight so the home is showable the day the last tenant leaves. On a market this soft, vacancy is the expensive number, not the last fifty dollars of rent.
Austin Has a Rulebook the Suburbs Do Not
Most cities north of Austin regulate landlords lightly. Austin does not. The City licenses short-term rentals, meaning stays of under 30 consecutive days, through Development Services: a new license is $836.30 and valid for two years, and from 1 July 2026 the City has been asking platforms to remove unlicensed listings. If you rent a house for 30 days or more, the STR license does not apply. If you want to run it as a short-term rental, it does, and the rules are enforced.
For long-term rentals, the piece that matters is the Repeat Offender Program, described below. We did not find a general registration requirement for long-term rental houses on the City's published pages, but the City's short-term-rental page is silent on the point rather than explicit about it, so we confirm current requirements with Austin Development Services when we onboard a property rather than relying on a summary.
Two statewide rules apply here as everywhere. Texas Local Government Code §214.902 bars municipal rent control, and Property Code Chapters 24 and 92 govern notices, deposits and repairs. Property tax is layered: the City of Austin rate is $0.579948 per $100 for fiscal 2026-27 and Austin ISD's rate was $0.9252 per $100 for 2025-26, before Travis County, Austin Community College and the hospital district levy on top. Rates change each year, so we verify them per parcel rather than quoting a citywide figure.
An Austin Address Is Not an Austin ISD Address
At least five school districts serve addresses inside Austin city limits: Austin ISD, Leander ISD, Pflugerville ISD, Round Rock ISD and Eanes ISD. One local guide estimates that roughly 30% of homes inside the city limits fall outside Austin ISD. Austin ISD serves around 75,000 students, so most of Austin is still AISD, but the exceptions are large and they sit in the areas where rental houses are common.
The complication is that the line runs by address, not by ZIP or neighborhood. A single street can straddle two districts, and a listing that names the wrong campus produces applicants who withdraw at verification. We confirm the campus and district by exact address before any listing goes live, and price against comparables in the same school zone rather than the same subdivision.
It matters to marketing, too. Families choosing a house are often choosing a specific campus, so the wrong one in a listing costs you applicants. Austin ISD publishes attendance area boundaries and a School Finder; Leander ISD and the other districts publish their own.
The Balcones Fault Runs Through the City
Austin sits on the Balcones Fault zone, which divides two different landscapes. West of it, the Edwards Plateau is hard limestone and steep, hilly terrain. East of it, the Coastal Plain is softer sediment and flatter ground — the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology explains that the east side subsided by roughly 700 feet, which is why west Austin is hilly and east Austin is flat.
For a landlord that boundary is a maintenance map. East Austin sits on the Blackland Prairie clay belt, where expansive clay swells with rain and shrinks in drought and moves slabs. West Austin homes sit on thinner soil over limestone, where movement is less common but poor drainage and hillside grading matter more. The service-area pages for Pflugerville and Hutto describe the same clay belt to the northeast.
The practical rule is the same either way: consistent perimeter moisture and good drainage, checked at every inspection. We treat foundation moisture as a managed item on every Austin property, and we note which side of the fault a home sits on when we set its reserve.
One Day a Week, Year-Round
Austin Water calls itself one of the only cities in Texas to adopt permanent year-round conservation watering rules. Under the Conservation Stage in effect since 2 September 2025, automatic irrigation is limited to one designated day per week, before 10 a.m. or after 7 p.m. Hose-end sprinklers and drip irrigation are allowed two days a week within the same hours.
Days are assigned by whether the address is odd or even. On the City's watering-day page, odd addresses water on Wednesday and even addresses on Thursday for automatic systems. Several third-party guides list different days; the City's own page is the one that counts, and it is the one we program controllers to.
The Conservation Stage is the baseline, and Austin Water moves to Stage 1 when combined Highland Lakes storage drops to 1.4 million acre-feet. Austin spent from August 2023 to September 2025 in Stage 2 before the July 2025 floods refilled the lakes, so the stage can change quickly. We reset controllers when it does. Texas Property Code §202.007 bars an HOA from penalizing a lawn that is dormant because of mandatory water restrictions, and we cite it when a notice arrives anyway.
Halloween 2013 and the Onion Creek Buyouts
Flood risk in Austin is parcel-specific, not citywide. The clearest example is the Onion Creek corridor in south Austin. On Halloween morning 2013, flooding killed five people and damaged more than 500 homes. The City has since bought out hundreds of properties in the floodplain, with $60 million authorized in 2014 for additional buyouts and Phase 1 buyouts of 232 houses authorized in March 2015, according to FEMA.
The takeaway for an owner is not that Austin floods. It is that some parcels are at documented risk and many are not, and the FEMA flood map is the tool that tells you which. Creeks that run through the urban core carry mapped floodplains of their own.
We check each parcel against FEMA's Flood Map Service Center and the City's floodplain maps before recommending a rent or a reserve, because a mapped floodplain changes insurance requirements and the tenant's risk, and neither shows up in a rent comparable.
HOME Changed What a Lot Can Hold
Austin's HOME initiative rewrote the rules for residential lots. Phase 1, effective 5 February 2024, allows up to three units on lots zoned single-family, covering duplexes and three-unit residential uses. Phase 2, effective 16 August 2024, allows one home on lots of at least 1,800 square feet but less than 5,750 square feet. Neither phase carries an owner-occupancy requirement.
For a rental owner that has two effects. A house on a large lot may now be able to add a second or third unit, which is income you can plan for. And the neighbor's lot may hold more homes than it used to, which changes the supply your house competes against block by block. Some HOME provisions have been challenged in court, so the rules are in effect but the landscape is still moving.
We do not manage construction, and we do not recommend a redevelopment. What we do is flag it in the owner analysis when a property's lot size opens an option, and tell you what the extra unit would rent for against the apartment market above.
The Repeat Offender Program: A Landlord Rule Only Austin Has
The City of Austin requires single-family and multifamily rental properties that are not owner-occupied to register with its Repeat Offender Program once they cross a code-violation threshold. It is a rental-registration program with an annual fee and annual inspections, and no other city we serve runs an equivalent. The best protection is never getting there.
We inspect every Austin property against the City's habitability standards at onboarding and at every renewal, respond to any notice of violation the day it arrives and track the correction deadline, so a single notice never becomes a second one. That is what keeps an owner off the list.
Apartments Fell Hard. Houses Barely Moved.
Austin built its way to lower rents. Apartment supply outran demand, vacancy climbed and rents slid for three years. Single-family rents held up far better, but a house owner still prices against that apartment market every time a tenant compares listings.
Rentometer puts a three-bedroom house at roughly $2,600 to $2,800 a month and a four-bedroom at $3,500 to $3,800, both above its apartment averages. Those are the ranges its public page states; the full statistical table is behind a paywall, so treat them as brackets rather than medians. Rentometer also reports single-family rents down 0.9% in the first half of 2026 against the same period of 2025, and groups Austin with Sun Belt markets that cooled under heavy construction and widespread concessions.
Apartments are the harder-hit segment. RentCafe shows the average apartment at $1,641, down 2.25% in a year. Matthews reported multifamily vacancy at 13.5% in the first quarter of 2026 with rents down 4.7% and 14,600 units still under construction. Northmarq's second-quarter report describes rents beginning to reverse a three-year slide as deliveries slow and absorption improves, so the direction may be turning — but not so far that a house owner can ignore it.
We did not find a published single-family rental vacancy rate or rental days-on-market for Austin, and we would not trust one that claimed to cover the whole city. A Mueller townhouse and a Circle C four-bedroom are not competing for the same tenant. We price against live comparable leases in the specific neighborhood and school zone, and we protect a good tenant at renewal rather than chase the last fifty dollars.
Where We Manage in Austin
We manage single-family rentals across the whole city. These are the areas where they concentrate. Neighborhoods are grouped by side of town, not by school district, because the district has to be confirmed by address either way.
North and Northwest
Largely Leander, Round Rock and Pflugerville ISD territory
- Avery Ranch
- Steiner Ranch
- Anderson Mill
- Great Hills
- Balcones Woods
- Milwood
- Jollyville
- Canyon Creek
Central and East
Older housing stock, Blackland clay to the east
- Hyde Park
- Crestview
- Windsor Park
- Mueller
- Cherrywood
- Walnut Creek
South and Southwest
Hill Country limestone and the Onion Creek floodplain
- Circle C Ranch
- Travis Country
- Shady Hollow
- Onion Creek
- Southpark Meadows
- Brodie Oaks
Why Tenants Choose Austin
The deepest employer base in the region, a large student and public-sector population, and a housing market where renting a house is a standard choice, not a fallback.
Tech and manufacturing employers
Apple, Dell Technologies, Samsung Austin Semiconductor and Tesla each employ more than 6,000 people in the Austin area, according to Opportunity Austin. Google, Oracle, IBM, Meta and AMD sit in the next tier, and each pulls in relocation tenants who arrive on a start date.
Government and education
The State of Texas, the University of Texas at Austin, the City of Austin and Austin ISD are all among the largest employers in the area. That base is less cyclical than tech, and it produces steady demand for family-sized rental houses near campuses and the Capitol complex.
Healthcare and retail
Ascension Seton, St. David's HealthCare, Baylor Scott & White and H-E-B round out the employers with more than 6,000 people each. Nurses and hospital staff are a reliable tenant pool for houses close to the medical districts.
Space per dollar
A three-bedroom house at $2,600 to $2,800 sits beside a $1,641 average apartment. For a family or a household working from home, the extra space and a yard are the reason to rent a house, and that is the pitch a house listing should lead with.
What It Costs in Austin
The same published fee schedule as every other city we serve. No location surcharge, no setup fee.
What You Pay
Three Things You Never Pay
And the One Percentage
On a $400 repair that's $40. On a $12,000 roof it's $250, not $1,200.
Month to month. No fixed term and no termination fee — cancel with 30 days' written notice.
Flat $100 monthly management, any rent, no tiers. Leasing is $1,200 flat. Lease renewal is $200 and includes one mid-tenancy inspection. Repair coordination is 10% of the vendor invoice, capped at $250 per job. Home-warranty and insurance claims carry no fee. Inspections are $100, with move-in and move-out performed as standard. Tenants pay a one-time $150 lease administration fee at signing and an application fee — there is no recurring monthly resident fee.
Everything We Handle for Austin Owners
Every service below is delivered across Austin from our Cedar Park office, including the three things this city demands most: pricing against apartment supply, Repeat Offender Program risk screening, and school-district verification by address.
Full-Service Property Management
One company handling marketing, screening, rent, maintenance, and compliance end to end — for a flat $100 a month, any rent, with no setup fee.
Learn moreTenant Screening & Placement
Marketing, showings, and a full credit, background, eviction, and income check — so the tenant who signs is the one who pays.
Learn moreRent Collection
Online tenant payments, late notices issued on schedule, and your disbursement by the 10th with an itemized statement.
Learn moreProperty Maintenance Services
Vetted local vendors, 24/7 emergency response, and an approval threshold you set — with every invoice documented in your portal.
Learn moreProperty Inspections
Move-in, mid-tenancy, and move-out inspections with timestamped photos — the evidence that settles a deposit dispute before it starts.
Learn moreLease Renewals
Early outreach, a rent recommendation grounded in live comparables, and the paperwork handled — because turnover costs far more than a renewal.
Learn moreEviction Services
Notice, filing, and attorney coordination handled to the letter of Texas law — with re-leasing started the moment possession is recovered.
Learn moreProperty Management in Austin, Answered
Do you manage properties in all of Austin?
Yes. We manage single-family rentals across the whole city. Our only office is in Cedar Park, so we serve Austin from there rather than from a separate Austin location, and our vendors are chosen for how quickly they can reach each part of town. If a property is outside the city, call us and we will say honestly whether we are the right fit.
Why are Austin rents softer than the suburbs?
Apartment supply. RentCafe shows the average apartment at $1,641, down 2.25% in a year, and Matthews reported multifamily vacancy at 13.5% in the first quarter of 2026 with 14,600 units still under construction. Single-family rents held up better — Rentometer has them down 0.9% in the first half of 2026 — but a house still competes against that apartment market. We price against live comparable leases in your neighborhood rather than a citywide number.
What is the Repeat Offender Program?
It is a City of Austin registration program for non-owner-occupied rental properties, including single-family houses, that accumulate code violations. A property registers if it receives two uncorrected notices of violation for dangerous or habitability-impairing conditions, five such notices on separate days, or two citations, within 24 months. The annual fee is $983, the owner stays on the list for at least two years, and the property is inspected every year. We inspect at onboarding and at each renewal and act on any notice right away, so an owner does not reach that threshold.
Does Austin require a rental license or registration?
Texas has no statewide rental licence. At the city level, Austin licenses short-term rentals of under 30 consecutive days, at $836.30 for a new two-year license, and it runs the Repeat Offender Program for properties with serious code violations. We did not find a general registration requirement for long-term rentals on the City's published pages, but we confirm current requirements with Austin Development Services before onboarding a property rather than rely on a summary, because these programs change.
Which school district will my Austin rental feed?
It has to be checked by address. At least five districts serve addresses inside the city limits — Austin ISD, Leander ISD, Pflugerville ISD, Round Rock ISD and Eanes ISD — and a single street can straddle two of them. Austin ISD serves around 75,000 students, but one local estimate puts roughly 30% of Austin homes outside it. We verify the campus by exact address before a listing goes live.
What are Austin's watering rules?
Austin has been under the Conservation Stage since 2 September 2025. Automatic irrigation is limited to one day a week, before 10 a.m. or after 7 p.m.; hose-end sprinklers and drip are allowed two days. Per the City's watering-day page, odd addresses water on Wednesday and even addresses on Thursday. Several third-party guides list different days, so we program controllers to the City's page and reset them if the stage changes.
Can I add a unit to my Austin rental house?
Often, yes. Under HOME Phase 1, effective 5 February 2024, single-family lots can hold up to three units, and neither phase requires owner occupancy. Whether your particular lot qualifies depends on its size, setbacks and utilities, so confirm with Austin Development Services first. We do not build, but we will tell you what an added unit would rent for and how it changes your management fee — which does not change, because it is a flat $100 a month per property.
Is flooding a risk in Austin?
It depends on the parcel. The Onion Creek corridor in south Austin has the most documented flood history: the October 2013 flood killed five people and damaged more than 500 homes, and the City has bought out hundreds of floodplain properties since. Other creeks across the city carry mapped floodplains of their own. We check each parcel against FEMA's flood maps before recommending a rent or reserve.
Other Areas We Serve
We manage single-family rentals across the Austin area.
How we check the Austin numbers
Every figure on this page is attributed where it appears. These are the primary sources behind them — go and check us.
Last reviewed
- City of Austin — Repeat Offender Program Registration triggers, the $983 annual fee, two-year minimum listing and annual inspections
- City of Austin — Short-Term Rentals STR licence for stays under 30 days, the $836.30 new-licence fee and the 1 July 2026 platform-removal date
- City of Austin — HOME Amendments Up to three units on single-family lots (Phase 1) and 1,800 sq ft small lots (Phase 2)
- City of Austin — Tax Rates City property tax rate of $0.579948 per $100 for fiscal 2026-27
- Austin Water — Drought Response Conservation Stage since 2 September 2025 and the Stage 1 storage trigger
- Austin Water — Find Your Watering Day Odd/even address watering days: Wednesday for odd, Thursday for even, on automatic systems
- Austin ISD — Taxes & Debt Austin ISD tax rate of $0.9252 per $100 for 2025-26
- Austin ISD — Attendance Area Boundaries Attendance areas that decide which campus a household is assigned to
- Leander ISD Attendance zones for the northwest Austin homes it serves
- Round Rock ISD Attendance zones for the north Austin homes it serves
- Rentometer — Austin House rent ranges for 3-bedroom and 4+ bedroom homes
- Rentometer — 2026 Mid-Year Single-Family Rental Report Austin single-family rents down 0.9% in the first half of 2026
- RentCafe — Austin Average apartment rent of $1,641, down 2.25% year over year
- Matthews — Austin Multifamily Q1 2026 Multifamily vacancy of 13.5%, rents down 4.7% and 14,600 units under construction
- Northmarq — Austin Market Insights Q2 2026 Rents beginning to reverse a three-year slide as supply slows
- FEMA — Lower Onion Creek Buyout Project October 2013 flood, floodplain buyouts and funding
- Bureau of Economic Geology — Central Texas The Balcones Fault zone dividing the limestone west from the softer coastal plain east
- Opportunity Austin — Major Employers Employers by size band, including those with more than 6,000 staff
- Texas Property Code, Chapter 202 §202.007, which bars HOA penalties for a lawn dormant under mandatory water restrictions
- Texas Property Code, Chapter 92 Residential lease rules — deposit accounting, repair duty, disclosure and retaliation
- Texas Property Code, Chapter 24 Notice to vacate and forcible detainer procedure
- Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 214 §214.902, which preempts municipal rent control
- FEMA Flood Map Service Center Flood zone for an individual address — always check the parcel, not the city
- Texas Real Estate Commission Broker licensing required to manage rentals for others
Market figures reviewed September 2026 and attributed inline to Rentometer, RentCafe, Matthews, Northmarq, the City of Austin, Austin Water, Austin ISD, FEMA, the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, Opportunity Austin and LRG Realty. House rents are the ranges Rentometer states publicly, not medians; its full table is paywalled. No single-family rental vacancy rate or rental days-on-market was found for Austin. The school-district count is a minimum, and the roughly 30% of homes outside Austin ISD is one local guide's estimate, not an official figure. Austin's watering days come from Austin Water's own page; third-party guides list different ones. The Repeat Offender fee is the City's current $983. Property tax rates change every year and are verified per parcel. HOME provisions have been challenged in court. The City's published pages describe short-term-rental licensing and the Repeat Offender Program; we confirm any other city requirement with Austin Development Services at onboarding. Nothing on this page is legal, tax or insurance advice.
Own a Rental in Austin?
Get a free rental analysis. We will price it against the apartment market it actually competes with, confirm its school district and flood zone by address, and screen it for the City rules that can cost an Austin owner money.