Ask around for the best landlord tips in Georgetown, Texas and you’ll hear plenty about screening, curb appeal and lease language. Almost nobody brings up bookkeeping. That’s a shame, because bookkeeping is where owners quietly lose money.
Most owners can tell you what rent their tenant pays. Far fewer can tell you what they actually kept last year after fees, repairs, taxes, insurance and empty weeks. Those are two very different numbers.
This post is for the single-family or condo owner who wants a clear list of what to track, how often to check it, and which numbers matter most. We cover cash flow, vacancy, fees, maintenance, deposits and the year-end paperwork. We’re a property management company, so yes, we have a point of view. But you can do most of this yourself with a spreadsheet and thirty minutes a month.
In This Guide
Start With Net Operating Income, Not Rent
Gross rent feels good. It’s the number on the lease and the number you tell your brother-in-law. It’s also a vanity number.
Net operating income, or NOI, is what’s left after you pay to run the property. Take rent collected, then subtract management, repairs, taxes, insurance and vacancy. Mortgage payments sit outside NOI, which makes it a fair way to judge the house itself.
Say a home rents for $2,000 a month. That’s $24,000 a year on paper. Here’s a made-up but realistic year:
- Rent collected after 10% vacancy: $21,600
- Management fee at 7%: $1,512
- Property taxes: $5,000
- Insurance: $1,600
- Maintenance reserve at 1% of a $300,000 home: $3,000
- NOI: $10,488
Add a leasing fee of $1,600 in a turnover year and NOI drops to about $8,888. Those are round numbers, not a forecast. But $24,000 turning into under $10,500 is the kind of gap most owners never see until they do the math.
If you only track one number, track NOI. It tells you whether the house is building wealth or quietly subsidizing someone else’s housing.
Compare Rent Collected to Rent Scheduled
Scheduled rent is what the lease says should arrive. Collected rent is what actually landed in the account. The gap between the two deserves a look every month.
Why the fee basis matters
Our management fee is 7% of collected rent, not scheduled rent. Say a tenant pays late twice in a year and one month comes in partly short. An owner who never reads the statement can’t tell whether the fee matched what really came in. With any manager, ask which basis the fee uses and check it against the statement.
What to log each month
- Scheduled rent: the amount on the lease.
- Rent collected: what arrived and the date it arrived.
- Pet rent: $25 a month per pet on our leases, so up to $50 for two pets.
- Management fee charged: it should equal 7% of the collected figure.
- Anything unpaid: carry it forward so it doesn’t vanish from view.
Late rent is one of the most common tenant issues we see. The gap isn’t rare, so watch it.
Budget for Vacancy Before It Happens
Every rental sits empty at some point. A lot of owners we talk to plan on zero days between tenants. Then a notice arrives and reality shows up.
A commonly cited range for vacancy budgeting on single-family rentals is 10% to 15% of annual rent. Owners often guess lower.
Picture a landlord who budgeted nothing for vacancy. A tenant gives notice and the turn takes six weeks. On a $2,000 rent, that’s roughly $2,800 in missing income. The mortgage, taxes and utilities still come due, all out of pocket.
Track these on every turn
- Days vacant: from move-out to the day the new lease starts.
- Turn costs: cleaning, paint and repairs done before listing.
- Leasing fee: 80% of one month’s rent with us.
- Carrying costs: utilities, lawn care and mortgage while the house is empty.
Growth from the Austin metro has made this market move fast. Self-managing owners are often surprised how quickly demand shifts between one lease and the next. Keep your own turn-time record and you’ll price the next vacancy more honestly.
Know the Full Cost of Management, Not Just the Percentage
Owners love to compare management percentages. We get it. It’s the number on the front of the brochure. It’s also the smallest part of the picture.
Here’s how our fees break down on a made-up $2,000 rent:
| Fee | How it works | On a $2,000 rent |
|---|---|---|
| Management | 7% of collected rent, monthly | $140 a month |
| Leasing | 80% of one month’s rent when a tenant is placed | $1,600 once |
| Lease renewal | Flat fee | $250 |
A low percentage is not the same as a low cost. A company charging 7% that fills homes fast can cost you less over a year than one charging 8% that takes 45 days to place a tenant. At $2,000 rent, every extra week empty costs about $460.
Track each fee as its own category on your books. Management, leasing and renewal are three separate lines, which makes them easy to total at tax time. Compare managers over a full year, not a single month.
Set Aside a Maintenance Reserve and Log Every Invoice
Repairs don’t arrive on a schedule, but the average cost over time is predictable enough to plan for.
The reserve
A commonly cited rule of thumb is 1% to 2% of the property’s value per year. On a $300,000 home, that’s $3,000 to $6,000. Central Texas adds its own pattern. HVAC costs tend to spike in summer, and a rare hard freeze can send plumbing bills up. Build both into your reserve instead of treating them as surprises.
The paper trail
Every repair should have an invoice tied to the right property. Most of our maintenance work comes through a short list of local vendors. Pates Repairs and M2 handle general contracting, Asics Plumbing covers plumbing, and Cool Kids handles HVAC and plumbing. Keeping those invoices organized by vendor makes year-end much easier.
Speed matters here too, because small problems get expensive when they wait. We generally respond to maintenance requests the same day. One client who switched to us put it this way: “They recently sent someone to trim our tree and the process only took about a week which was super fast compared to the last PM we had.”
Treat Security and Pet Deposits as the Tenant’s Money
Deposits sit in your account, but they aren’t yours. A tenant’s claim to the deposit comes ahead of your creditors, so track deposits as money you owe, not income.
Texas sets a deadline for returning deposits and attaches penalties for wrongfully keeping one. Miss the timeline or skip the itemized list and you can turn a small dispute into an expensive one. Check the current statute before you act.
What the rules say
- The deadline: return the deposit on or before the 30th day after the tenant moves out. Log each move-out date and the day-30 date.
- Deductions: you can deduct damage and charges the tenant is legally liable for under the lease. You cannot deduct normal wear and tear.
- The itemized list: if you keep any part of the deposit, send the remaining balance plus a written description and itemized list of deductions. The one exception is when the tenant owes rent at move-out and nobody disputes the amount.
- The proof: keep move-in and move-out records and every repair invoice behind a deduction.
Pet deposits
Our pet deposit is $500 per pet, up to two pets. It’s refundable, so it belongs on the liability side of your books. Pet rent of $25 a month per pet is income. Mix them up and your income looks bigger than it is. Then the tenant moves out and you owe money you already spent.
We’d also keep deposits apart from operating cash as plain good bookkeeping. Ask your attorney how to hold them in your situation.
“NOI: $10,488”
Give Property Taxes and Insurance Their Own Lines
Texas has no state income tax, but property taxes here run high compared with much of the country. For a rental, that bill is often one of the biggest costs on the page.
Track these every year:
- The tax bill: the amount and the due date.
- How you pay it: through a mortgage escrow account or directly.
- The appraisal notice: read it when it arrives. If it looks off, ask your tax professional about your options.
- The insurance premium: the amount, the renewal date and any jump from last year.
None of these send a friendly reminder when it’s convenient for you. Put the dates on a calendar.
Plan Ahead for Lease Renewals and Rent Changes
A renewal is a money event. Our flat renewal fee is $250. A new placement on a $2,000 rent carries a $1,600 leasing fee, so a renewal saves $1,350 in fees before you count a single empty week. Calendar the $250 so it’s a planned expense, not a surprise on the statement.
Renewal is also when you set rent. Overprice and the tenant leaves. Underprice and you leave money on the table every month. Look at real listings for comparable homes nearby before each renewal and write down what you found.
Another client wrote that they appreciated our “patience when answering my questions about the lease renewal.” Renewal terms and fees can raise questions, and we’d rather answer them twice than have you guess.
Keep Separate Books for Each Property
Say an owner has two homes and drops every repair invoice into one bucket. At tax time, nobody can say which home earned what. The CPA estimates the split, and estimates can leave deductions on the table.
Keep each property separate from the start. For each one, track:
- Income and pet rent
- Management, leasing and renewal fees
- Repairs, by invoice
- Property taxes and insurance
- Deposits held
AppFolio keeps statements by property, which gives you a clean starting point. Ask your CPA exactly what they want to see. We don’t give tax advice, and tax rules deserve a professional’s eye.
Watch How Tenant Behavior Shows Up in Your Numbers
Rental properties in Georgetown, TX draw a mix of long-term residents, tech workers tied to the Austin corridor, and families connected to Fort Hood in Bell County. Relocators and military families sometimes need to leave mid-lease. Early termination can hit your income with little warning.
We manage across Williamson, Travis, Hays and Bell counties, and owners of rental homes in Austin, TX see the same patterns. Tenant behavior shows up in the books in a handful of ways:
- Late rent: it delays your cash and can distort your fee check.
- Early lease termination: it triggers a vacancy and a new leasing fee.
- Property damage: it becomes a repair invoice and sometimes a deposit deduction.
- Unauthorized pets or occupants: they add wear and break your lease terms.
- Maintenance abuse: it inflates your repair line without improving the property.
Tracking these tells you whether you had a one-off or a pattern. Patterns are the ones to fix.
Read the Monthly Owner Statement Every Month
Your statement is the best financial tool you already have. Most owners skim it. Read it.
- Rent collected: does it match what the tenant paid?
- Management fee: does it equal 7% of that collected figure?
- Repairs: does each charge have an invoice you can open?
- Deposits held: do they match the lease?
- Anything surprising: question it now, not in December.
We use AppFolio, so owners can see financial reports in the owner portal any time. Mandy Crane, one of our property managers, is glad to go through any line with you.
At year-end, pull the full-year report, check your NOI against what you expected, and hand the package to your CPA. Doing that every January beats panicking every April.
What Good Owner Reporting Looks Like From a Manager
If you’re hiring help, reporting is where you can tell a good manager from a bad one. Ask to see a sample statement. Ask how fast they answer questions about it. Ask what each fee is called and when it’s charged.
Our owner, Rebecca Klepac, started in property management at 18 in multifamily. She then spent eight years in single-family for a broker before starting Rely. Four years in, we manage 215 properties for 120 owners. We pride ourselves on transparency and quick response times. Our standard is 24 to 48 business hours, though we usually answer much sooner.
When you read property management Georgetown Texas reviews, look past the star ratings. Look for comments about communication, clear statements and follow-through. One client wrote that we are “professional, responsive, and truly care about both the property and the tenants.” That’s the standard we try to meet on every statement.
If keeping your numbers straight feels harder than it should, we’re open to a conversation.
FAQ
What’s the difference between gross rent and NOI?
Gross rent is what the tenant pays. NOI is what’s left after management fees, repairs, taxes, insurance and vacancy, before mortgage payments.
How much should I budget for vacancy?
A commonly cited range for single-family rentals is 10% to 15% of annual rent. Adjust it as you collect your own turn-time numbers.
When do I have to return a tenant’s security deposit in Texas?
Texas generally requires the refund on or before the 30th day after the tenant moves out. There’s an exception tied to the tenant’s forwarding address, so check the current statute or ask an attorney.
Can I deduct normal wear and tear from the deposit?
No. Texas lets you deduct damage and charges the tenant is legally liable for under the lease, but not normal wear and tear. If you keep any part, you also owe the tenant an itemized list.
Should I count a pet deposit as income?
No. It’s refundable, so it’s money you may owe back. Pet rent, which is $25 a month per pet on our leases, is the part that counts as income.
How often should I review my rental’s numbers?
Read your owner statement every month. Check NOI and your reserve once a quarter, and do a full-year review with your CPA after the year closes.
