Freeze Season Is Here: Protect Your Cash Flow
Houston’s rental market continues to shift, and staying informed is the easiest way to protect your cash flow. Below is a straightforward breakdown of how the market is moving, how Emerson performed this month, and what smart investors should be watching.
Portfolio Performance Overview
We snapped back to outperforming the Houston market across every major metric this month:
Rent Collection Rate: 96.5 percent
Houston average: 92.6 percentEviction Rate: 0.8 percent
Houston average: about 9 percentOccupancy Rate: 94.7 percent
Houston average: 90.8 percent
After a few months of cleaning up tough evictions and getting hard-to-lease homes across the finish line, our numbers strengthened heading into year-end.
Quick Tip: Avoid ending leases in October, November, or December unless there’s a strategic reason. Winter vacancies drag out, cost more, and can erase gains from an otherwise solid year.
Houston Market Snapshot
Inventory continues climbing to record levels, which is keeping rent growth muted:
New Listings (HAR): 5,935 to 7,122 (+20.0 percent YoY)
Average Rent: $2,251 to $2,262 (+0.5 percent YoY)
Average Days on Market (DOM):
HAR: 39 days
Emerson: 36 days (32.4 percent faster)
If you’ve been following along, this theme won’t surprise you. More inventory means more competition and less pricing power. The good news: you don’t need fancy strategies. You need fundamentals:
Strong make-readies
Tight screening
Realistic pricing
Adequate reserves
These alone separate professional operators from hobbyists who will inevitably pivot to their next shiny object, probably some crypto MLM hybrid.
We did have a handful of homes with longer DOM, mostly in fringe or lower-demand areas such as Freeport. These properties finally leased, which raised our monthly average slightly.
Investor Note: This is not a forgiving acquisition market. Buy with long-term desirability in mind. Cash flow projections only matter if the home stays rented.
Maintenance Update
Median Speed of Repair: 6.1 days
National average: about 6 to 7 daysResident Satisfaction: 4.4 out of 5.0
Cancelled Work Orders: 21.8 percent
A few large repairs bumped timelines up, but not because of operational delays. Resident satisfaction remains strong, and we continue to cancel one in five work orders, usually because the issue is resident-caused or solved through troubleshooting.
Our goal is simple: protect your maintenance budget while delivering a resident experience that improves renewals and reduces turnover. Both directly shape your long-term returns.
Owner and Resident Satisfaction
Owner Retention: 99.5 percent
Lease Renewal Rate: 38 percent
National benchmark: 55 to 65 percent
Owner retention increased again as we finalized a few strategic off-boardings and completed several sales.
The metric we’re watching closely is our renewal rate. Historically we’ve been near 80 percent, so the recent dip stands out. Most non-renewals are tied to life events like relocations or family changes, not operational issues. I’ll share a deeper analysis in the annual letter, but improving this number is a top priority.
Value-Add Spotlight
A recent turnover at 3208 Windchase Blvd totaled $3,407 and included:
Repairs
Deferred and preventative maintenance
Painting
Cleaning
The result: a $75 monthly rent increase (five percent), taking it from $1,500 to $1,575, and it leased in 23 days.
In a flat or declining rent environment, strategic upgrades and property condition still move the needle. Quality homes command quality rent.
Owner Insight of the Month: Freeze Damage Prevention
Even a short Houston freeze can burst pipes and create thousands in damage. Most losses come from simple, preventable oversights:
Hose bibs not covered
Heat not left on
Exposed pipes unwrapped
Utilities turned off
Water left on at vacant homes
Key Points to Know:
Freeze damage is almost always an owner expense
Insurance can deny claims if utilities weren’t active or basic prep wasn’t done
One freeze event can wipe out years of cash flow
Here’s what we’re doing:
We’ve already sent winterization instructions to residents and prepped our emergency vendors. Once freeze dates are announced, we’ll notify residents, audit vulnerable homes, and conduct vacant property checks to ensure utilities are on and water is off.
Your action:
If you have properties outside of our management, shut the water off at any vacant home. This alone prevents most catastrophic losses.
Final Thoughts
The Houston rental market is competitive, evolving, and full of both challenges and opportunities. Whether it’s keeping properties rent-ready, troubleshooting maintenance to save money, or holding through a rebalancing housing cycle, the fundamentals remain the same:
👉 Protect your cash flow, manage vacancies aggressively, and look for hidden value in your current portfolio.
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