Real Estate Bookkeeping In Texas
Texas carries the largest absolute volume of the twelve states, spread across Houston, Dallas and Austin, with heavy build-to-rent and a large owner-operator base holding mixed residential and commercial.
Locate the city nearest to you and select your software below to learn more. Don’t see your city? Schedule a meeting with us to learn more about how REA can help your property management accounting needs.
Texas at a glance
- Security deposit return
- 30 days
- Governing statute
- Texas Property Code Ch. 92
- Cities we publish
- Austin · Dallas · Houston · San Antonio
What Texas Law Changes About Your Books
Deposit Handling and Trust Requirements
Trust and deposit rules are set state by state, and they change the accounting itself, not just the paperwork around it. A deadline is a ledger requirement: you cannot return a deposit inside a statutory window if the ledger cannot say what is owed.
Security deposits
Texas Property Code Chapter 92 requires the deposit to be returned within 30 days of lease termination, with itemized written deductions.
Trust and segregation
Texas does not mandate a separate statutory escrow account the way Florida does, which makes voluntary segregation and clean per-tenant ledgers the operator's own control rather than a legal default.
What we do about it
- Deposit liabilities tracked per tenant, so a 30 days deadline is answerable from the ledger
- Trust accounts reconciled three ways, including every beneficiary balance
- Deduction documentation recorded against the correct ledger, not filed separately
- Aging deposits flagged before the statutory window closes
Summary of statutory requirements provided for orientation. It is not legal advice, and local ordinances can impose stricter rules than the state minimum.
Cities We Cover in Texas
Market by Market
We work with property managers and investors across all of Texas, all 1,480 cities and towns of it. The markets below are the ones we publish Texas-specific detail for. If yours is not listed, the same team and the same Texas Property Code Ch. 92 rules still apply.
Austin
Austin’s rental market is one of the most active in the country, driven by sustained tech-sector migration, a large university population, and a build-to-rent pipeline that continues to expand across the metro. With Texas preempting local rent control and no traditional zoning code constraining development, property managers here operate in a high-volume, high-velocity environment where accurate AppFolio accounting is not optional.
Bookkeeping by platform
Dallas
Dallas property managers oversee some of the most diverse commercial and mixed-use portfolios in the Sun Belt, where large multifamily communities, commercial strip centers, and master-planned HOA developments often fall under the same management umbrella. With no state rent control and a landlord-friendly regulatory environment, the complexity in Dallas lies in portfolio scale and commercial lease accounting rather than compliance entanglements.
Bookkeeping by platform
Houston
Houston’s property management market is defined by a city without a traditional zoning code, which means portfolios routinely mix single-family rentals, small multifamily, commercial, and mixed-use properties on the same block or even the same owner’s books. That structural complexity demands accounting that can handle diverse asset classes without losing precision.
Bookkeeping by platform
San Antonio
San Antonio is a high-volume, moderate-rent market, which changes what the accounting has to be good at. Margins per door are thinner than in Austin or Dallas, so the difference between a well-run and a badly-run set of books shows up directly in owner distributions rather than being absorbed by rent growth.
Bookkeeping by platform
Select Your Software
We Work Inside Your Platform, From Anywhere in Texas
Services Available in This State
Every back-office function below is available on its own or as part of a full monthly close, anywhere in the state.
Experts In All Property Types
Residential, commercial and everything in between. The asset class changes what the books have to prove, and our teams are staffed accordingly.
- Single-Family
- Multifamily
- Student Housing
- Affordable Housing
- Community AssociationsSee the page
- CommercialSee the page
Check Out What Our Clients Have To Say About Us
Property Managers, Investors & Owner Operators
Handed over the whole accounting function
I highly recommend Real Estate Accounting (REA) services from this group. They truly are great and have helped us tremendously at a time we needed it the most. I felt very comfortable giving up all my accounting responsibilities to this team and I'm still glad I made the decision to work with this group. Nothing less than an amazing experience!
Day-to-day financial operations
REA and team have been nothing but excellent helping our firm with its day to day financial needs. Their expertise, professionalism, and timeliness have made our lives so much easier. We foresee a long relationship with REA and team.
Onboarding and responsiveness
Real Estate Accounting truly is a special company. They helped as if they were a part of our company, with the concern and caution as an employee would have, but even more. They quickly ascertained our needs and developed an effective team to help with our accounting needs. They were extremely responsive and always accurate. I would recommend their services to anyone who needs help with their property management accounting.
230+
Property Accountants
30M+
Commercial Sq. Ft.
Up to 50%
Saved vs In-House
Every month
On-Time Close
Property Accounting for Texas Portfolios
Schedule a call and we will walk your Texas deposit and trust setup, tell you whether it reconciles today, and scope the monthly work.