There are three things you can do with an inherited house: live in it, rent it out, or sell it. The right one depends on what the house costs to hold each year, what it would rent for, what it would sell for, and whether the family agrees. Here are the real 2026 numbers for Plano, Collin County and Dallas County, and a plain way to work through them.
Who’s writing this: Integrity Equity Solutions is a marketing company in Plano that works with real estate investors. We’re not attorneys, tax professionals, licensed real estate agents or brokers, financial advisors or estate planners, and we don’t claim to be an authority on any of it. This page is general information. The market figures come from the sources named next to them, read on September 30, 2026; the legal and tax points come from the agency pages linked, read on September 28 and 30, 2026. Numbers and rules change. Check anything that matters to your house with the appraisal district, the tax office, a Texas attorney or a CPA before you act on it.
The short version
- Keep it and live in it when someone in the family wants the house as their home and the numbers work. If an heir moves in, the homestead exemption can be applied for again.
- Rent it out when the family can agree on who runs it, the rent clears the taxes, insurance, mortgage and repairs with room to spare, and someone is willing to be a landlord. Rentals get no homestead exemption, so the tax bill is the full rate.
- Sell it when nobody wants to live there, the house needs more than the family wants to put in, the heirs are spread out, or the money matters more than the house. Sell soon after the death and there’s usually little or no capital gain to tax.
First, get three numbers
You can’t decide without these. Get them before the family meeting, not after.
- What the house was worth on the date of death. This is your tax basis if you sell (more on that below), and it’s the number everyone should be arguing from. Get a written valuation: an appraisal, or a broker’s opinion of value. The appraisal district’s number is a starting point, not the same thing.
- What it costs to hold for a year. Property taxes, insurance, the mortgage if there is one, utilities, lawn and upkeep. Add them up. The sections below give you the tax and insurance figures for this area.
- What it would rent for, and what it would sell for. Ask a local agent or property manager for both. The market figures below tell you the shape of the market, not your house’s number.
What the North Texas market looks like right now
These are the most recent figures we could source. They describe the whole county, not your street.
Sale prices, single-family homes, August 2026 (NTREIS Monthly MLS Summary Report, August 2026 and August 2025; MetroTex, September 10, 2026):
- Collin County: median $470,000. A year earlier it was $475,000, which the 2026 report lists as a 0% change. Call it flat.
- Dallas County: median $369,000. A year earlier, $373,500. Down about 1%.
- DFW overall: $390,000, “essentially unchanged from a year earlier.”
- Plano: we don’t have a clean single-family figure for the city alone, so use the Collin County number as your starting point and get a local opinion of value for the house itself.
Days on market, single-family, August 2026 (same reports): Collin County 58 days (56 a year earlier); Dallas County 48 days (51 a year earlier); DFW overall 58 days.
What that means for you: prices are flat, not falling, and not rising. Waiting a year to sell isn’t likely to get you more money on its own. It will cost you a year of taxes, insurance and upkeep. If you’re holding for a reason, hold. If you’re holding because you hope the market will bail you out, the numbers don’t support that right now.
Option 1: Keep it and live in it
This is the simplest option if someone in the family wants the house as their home.
The homestead exemption can come back. The exemption belonged to the person who died, and it doesn’t carry over automatically. But if an heir lives in the house, both Collin CAD and Dallas CAD accept an heir-property homestead application with an affidavit of ownership (Comptroller Form 50-114-A), the death certificate, a recent utility bill, and any court record about ownership if there is one. Collin CAD’s guidance says an heir owner can qualify for a 100% exemption even when the home has co-owners. Apply early.
The mortgage stays, and the lender can’t call it. Federal law stops a lender from calling a loan because the house passed to a relative on the borrower’s death (12 U.S.C. §1701j-3(d)). The heir who takes over is a “successor in interest” under the CFPB’s servicing rules and can keep paying without refinancing. Send the servicer the paperwork it asks for and keep paying.
If several heirs own it and one lives in it, settle in writing who pays what and whether the one living there pays the others anything. That conversation is easier before someone moves in than after. If the family can’t agree, it becomes a court matter and an attorney’s job to explain; we covered that in selling an inherited house in Texas.
When keeping makes sense: the person moving in can carry the costs, the other heirs are content with the arrangement (or are bought out at a number everyone accepts), and the house doesn’t need work the family can’t fund.
Option 2: Rent it out
Renting keeps the house in the family and brings in money. It also makes someone a landlord, and it changes the tax bill.
You lose the homestead exemption. The Texas Comptroller’s rule is that a residence homestead exemption is for property the owner uses “as the individual’s principal residence.” A rental isn’t that. So the property taxes on a rental are the full rate with no exemption, and the bill can be a lot higher than what the previous owner paid.
What that costs here. These are the 2025 tax rates, per $100 of taxable value, before any exemptions (Collin County Tax Assessor, 2025 Tax Rates and Exemptions; Dallas County Tax Office, 2025 Tax Rates):
- A Plano address in Plano ISD: county 0.149343 + city 0.437600 + Plano ISD 1.039550 + Collin College 0.081220 = 1.707713, about 1.71%.
- A Dallas address in Dallas ISD: county 0.215500 + Parkland Hospital 0.212000 + Dallas College 0.106575 + city 0.698800 + Dallas ISD 0.993835 = 2.226710, about 2.23%.
Some Plano and Dallas addresses are in other school districts, so their rates differ. The 2026 rates are being set now. Check your own address with the appraisal district or the tax office.
Insurance goes up too, usually. The Texas Department of Insurance’s statewide average homeowners premium was $3,291 in 2024 and $3,506 in 2025 (preliminary) (TDI, Texas Homeowners Insurance Market Overview). That’s a homeowners policy; a rental usually needs a different kind of policy, so ask your insurer for a quote on the house as a rental. There’s no county figure.
What it might rent for. HUD publishes a fair market rent by ZIP code each year. For a 3-bedroom, HUD’s 2027 figures for Plano ZIPs run from $2,390 (75075) to $3,030 (75024), with 75023 at $2,770 and 75025 and 75093 at $2,860 (HUD USER, FY2027 Small Area Fair Market Rents). Two cautions: HUD’s number covers every kind of rental, apartments included, and it includes utilities. A single-family house may rent for more or less. Ask a property manager for a rent opinion on the actual house.
A worked example, so you can see the shape of it. Take a house at the Collin County median, $470,000, in Plano ZIP 75023, with no mortgage:
| Per year | |
|---|---|
| Rent at HUD’s 2027 fair market rent, $2,770 × 12 | $33,240 |
| Property tax at 1.707713% of $470,000, no exemption | − $8,026 |
| Insurance at the 2025 Texas statewide average | − $3,506 |
| Left before management, repairs, vacancy and any utilities you pay | $21,708 |
That last line is not profit. Out of it come repairs (a roof, an air conditioner, a water heater), the months the house sits empty between tenants, a property manager if you use one, and any utilities the lease leaves with you. If there’s a mortgage, subtract twelve payments too.
Run the same table with your house’s real rent, real tax bill and real insurance quote. If the bottom line is thin, renting is a lot of work for not much.
Being a landlord is a job with rules. Texas Property Code chapter 92 sets them. Two you’ll meet early: a landlord “shall make a diligent effort to repair or remedy a condition” the tenant reports in writing, when the tenant is current on rent and the condition “materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant” (§92.052); and a landlord must refund a security deposit “on or before the 30th day after the date the tenant surrenders the premises” (§92.103). The Texas State Law Library’s landlord-tenant guide is a plain-language place to start. If you’d rather not deal with any of that, a property manager will, for a fee.
When renting makes sense: the house is in good shape, the rent clears the costs with a cushion, one heir is willing to run it (or the family will pay a manager), and everyone agrees on how the money and the decisions are split. When it doesn’t: the house needs work first, the heirs live far away and don’t agree, or the cash flow is thin. An empty house that’s “going to be a rental someday” is the most expensive option on this page.
Option 3: Sell it
Selling ends the carrying costs and turns the house into money the heirs can split. Two ways to do it.
List with an agent when the house is in decent shape or the estate can fund the repairs, the heirs can wait, and the goal is the highest price. With Collin County houses averaging 58 days on the market and Dallas County 48 in August 2026, plan on a couple of months from listing to closing, plus any cleanout and repairs before it goes on. You’ll pay commission and seller closing costs. For most families with a sound house and time, this is the better financial outcome, and we’ll say so when we see it.
Sell as-is to an investor when the house needs more work than the family wants to fund, it’s full, the heirs are spread out, or the mortgage is behind and the clock is running. An as-is sale trades some price for no repairs, no showings, no cleanout and a closing date you pick. The price will be below what a fixed-up house would list for. That’s the deal.
Either way, the estate has to be far enough along that someone has the authority to sign. Selling an inherited house in Texas walks through that, the court costs, and the questions to ask any buyer, including us.
The tax reason to sell sooner rather than later. The IRS says the basis of inherited property is generally “the fair market value (FMV) of the property on the date of the decedent’s death” (IRS, Gifts and Inheritances). In plain terms: sell for about what it was worth on the date of death and there’s usually little or no capital gain to tax. Hold it for years and sell later, and any increase over the date-of-death value is gain. Texas has no inheritance tax. A CPA can run your numbers; we don’t do tax work.
A simple way to decide
Sit down with the three numbers from the top of this page and answer these in order:
- Does anyone want to live in it? If yes, and they can carry it, that’s usually the answer. Go to Option 1.
- If not, does the rent clear the costs with room to spare, and is someone willing to be the landlord? Run the worked table with your real figures. If it’s thin, or nobody wants the job, skip Option 2.
- Then sell. If the house is sound and the family can wait, list it. If it needs work, is full, or the family needs it done, get an as-is offer and compare the net against what a listing would leave you after repairs, commission and months of carrying costs.
Whatever you pick, write it down and have every heir sign it. The houses that go wrong are the ones where nobody decided.
What we do
We’re Integrity Equity Solutions, a Plano marketing company that works with real estate investors. We serve Collin County, Dallas County and the wider DFW area. You can read about our company and how we buy houses.
One thing we’d rather say here than have you find out at closing: the offer comes from us. The buyer named on the contract may be us, a company we own, a partner, or another investor we assign the contract to; it depends on the house. We put that in writing before you sign. Ask every buyer who will be named on the contract, including us.
If you’re weighing the three options and want a real number for the “sell as-is” column, ask us for a cash offer. There’s no obligation, and if we think listing or keeping it is the better call for your family, we’ll say so. Or contact us and tell us where things stand.
A reminder of who we are: Integrity Equity Solutions is a marketing company that works with real estate investors. We are not attorneys, tax professionals, licensed real estate agents or brokers, financial advisors or estate planners, and nothing on this page is legal, tax, financial or investment advice. We don’t claim to be an authority on any of it. Each market figure names its source and date; the legal and tax points link to the agency or statute behind them. Numbers and rules change. Before you rely on anything here, check it with the appraisal district, the tax office, a Texas attorney or a CPA. If you talk to us about the house, that’s a business conversation, not advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is it better to rent or sell an inherited house?
It depends on whether the rent clears the taxes, insurance, mortgage and repairs with room to spare, and whether someone in the family is willing to be a landlord. Rentals get no homestead exemption, so the tax bill is the full rate: about 1.71% of value for a Plano address in Plano ISD, about 2.23% for a Dallas address in Dallas ISD (2025 rates, before exemptions). If the cash flow is thin or nobody wants the job, selling is usually simpler.
Do I lose the homestead exemption if I rent out an inherited house?
The exemption is for property the owner uses as their principal residence, per the Texas Comptroller. A rental doesn’t qualify. If an heir lives in the house instead, they can apply for the heir-property homestead exemption.
Will I owe capital gains tax if I sell an inherited house?
Your basis is generally the home’s value on the date of death, per the IRS. Sell near that value and there’s usually little or no gain. Hold it and sell later, and the increase since the date of death is gain. Texas has no inheritance tax. Ask a CPA.
What are houses selling for in Collin County and Dallas County?
August 2026 medians for single-family homes were $470,000 in Collin County and $369,000 in Dallas County, both about flat from a year earlier (NTREIS Monthly MLS Summary Report). Days on market were 58 and 48. Those are county-wide figures; get a local opinion of value for the house itself.
What does a 3-bedroom rent for in Plano?
HUD’s 2027 fair market rent for a 3-bedroom in Plano ZIP codes runs from $2,390 (75075) to $3,030 (75024). HUD’s figure covers all rental types, apartments included, and includes utilities, so a house may rent for more or less. Ask a property manager for a rent opinion.
Can I keep the mortgage if I inherit the house?
Usually, yes. Federal law stops the lender from calling the loan because the home passed to a relative on the borrower’s death, and the CFPB’s rules let the confirmed heir keep paying without refinancing. Send the servicer the paperwork it asks for.
What if the heirs can’t agree?
Put the three options and the real numbers on one page, and get a written valuation everyone can look at. If that doesn’t settle it, it’s a court matter and a Texas attorney’s job to explain. Most families settle it at the kitchen table first, and it’s cheaper.