Texas Property Management Fees: What Managers Charge in 2026
What property management costs in Texas
Property managers in Texas quote 8%–12% of collected rent. On Texas’s average apartment rent of $1,453, 9% works out to $131 a month, or $1,569 a year before a single lease is signed.
The arithmetic on a Texas rental
| Percentage manager at 9% | Ziprent flat | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly management | $131/mo | $199/mo |
| Twelve months of management | $1,569 | $2,388 |
| Tenant placement, one lease | $1,090 | $1,500 |
| Year one, one lease signed | $2,659 | $3,888 |
Here is the part most flat-fee pages skip: at Texas’s average apartment rent of $1,453, a 9% manager bills about $2,659 in year one against Ziprent’s $3,888. The percentage model is cheaper here on headline price. What the flat fee buys instead is a number that does not climb with rent, no markup on maintenance invoices, and a placement fee that is fixed rather than a share of a month’s rent. A Texas rental only has to reach $2,211 a month for the flat fee to win on management alone.
The break-even point is $2,211 a month: above that rent, 9% of rent costs more than $199.
That break-even assumes one property. Additional properties are $100 a month each rather than $199, so the comparison shifts with portfolio size: from 4 properties onward the flat fee is cheaper in Texas even at today’s rents — $499 a month against $523 at 9%.
Three years, one tenancy, no rent increase
Stretch the same $1,453 rent across three years with one tenancy and no increase, and the totals in Texas look like this. One 12-month lease and two renewals.
| Model | Three-year total | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| 9% of rent + placement | $5,798 | Excludes the two lease renewals a local firm would also bill on top. |
| Ziprent $199 flat + $1,500 placement + 2 renewals | $9,164 | Fixed. Includes both $250 renewals. |
| ZipGuarantee $250 flat | $9,000 | Fixed. Placement and renewals already included. |
None of those totals includes the add-ons. In Texas the usual ones are vacancy fee ($50-$100 per month), inspection fee ($50-$150 per inspection) and eviction fee (around $500 plus court costs). Ziprent bills for none of them.
The fees underneath the headline percentage
The quoted percentage covers management and nothing else. Everything below is billed separately by most firms in Texas.
| Fee | What it costs here |
|---|---|
| Monthly management | 8%–12% of collected rent |
| Tenant placement | 50%-100% of one month’s rent (roughly $727-$1,453 at Texas’s average rent) |
| Lease renewal | $200 up to one full month’s rent per renewal |
| Maintenance markup | 10%-15% of the vendor invoice on maintenance, running as high as 25% in some Texas metros |
| Also commonly charged | vacancy fee ($50-$100 per month); inspection fee ($50-$150 per inspection); eviction fee (around $500 plus court costs) |
Ziprent charges management at a flat $199, placement at a flat $1,500 per signed lease and $250 per renewal — and nothing else. No onboarding charge, no vacancy charge, no markup on contractor invoices. ZipGuarantee folds placement and renewals into $250 a month.
What Texas requires of landlords
Texas effectively bans local rent control: Local Government Code Sec. 214.902 lets a city adopt a rent control ordinance only if its governing body first finds a housing emergency caused by a disaster as defined in Government Code Sec. 418.004 and the governor then approves the ordinance, so no Texas municipality regulates rent levels in practice. Late fees are capped by statute rather than left to the lease — Property Code Sec. 92.019(a-1) deems a late fee reasonable only up to 12 percent of the periodic rent for a dwelling in a structure of four or fewer units, or 10 percent where the structure has more than four units. Collecting rent for an owner is licensed activity: Occupations Code Sec. 1101.002(1)(A)(x) puts a person who ‘controls the acceptance or deposit of rent from a resident of a single-family residential real property unit’ inside the definition of a broker, so third-party managers need a TREC license.
What to ask a Texas manager before signing
- Is the quoted 9% charged on rent collected or rent due, and do you bill in a vacant month?
- Managers here commonly charge for vacancy fee ($50-$100 per month), inspection fee ($50-$150 per inspection) and eviction fee (around $500 plus court costs) — which of those do you charge, when do they trigger, and are any capped?
- On a $500 repair, what do I actually pay, and what does the contractor receive?
Ziprent’s pricing in Texas
| Plan | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Management | $199 / month | Rent collection, maintenance coordination, inspections, day-to-day handling of the tenancy. |
| Tenant placement | $1,500 per lease | Marketing, showings, screening, lease preparation. Charged only when a lease is signed. |
| Lease renewal | $250 per renewal | Re-screening and paperwork when a sitting tenant renews. Not charged on ZipGuarantee. |
| ZipGuarantee | $250 / month | Management plus unlimited tenant placement and lease renewals folded into the monthly fee. |
All four lines are flat, and that is the trade. On a single Texas property at today’s average rent a percentage manager bills less in year one; what a flat fee buys is a number that cannot follow the rent up, no markup on repairs, and a second property at $100 rather than another full fee.
Texas property management fee questions
How much do property managers charge in Texas?
Is a flat fee cheaper than a percentage in Texas?
What does tenant placement cost in Texas?
What is the average rent in Texas?
More on Texas
Every Texas market we cover · Property management fees by market · Ziprent pricing
Sources
Rents: RentCafe, August 2026. Local and state requirements: Justia (statute text), Texas Statutes. The fee percentages and add-on charges above come from published fee schedules and industry surveys for this market, expressed as ranges because they vary by firm.