A Texas mortgage broker who shops the whole market — and tells you the truth

Three things make a Texas loan different, and none of them show up on a rate sheet

Whether you are buying, refinancing, investing or building, the job is the same: compare the lenders, show you the tradeoffs, and make sure the Texas-specific costs are in the numbers before you decide.

The rate is the part everyone shops. In Texas it is often not the part that decides what the loan costs you.

• Home-equity borrowing is constitutional law here. Section 50(a)(6) of the Texas Constitution governs cash-out on a homestead — how often you can do it, how much of the value you can reach, and what happens to the loan if the lender gets a detail wrong.
• Property taxes run well above the national average. Texas has no state income tax and funds itself through property tax instead. That lands in your escrow account, not in your rate.
• Title insurance premiums are set by the state, not by the company. The policy premium is promulgated, so it is the same wherever you close — though settlement and service fees still vary, and there is a credit on a refinance worth asking for by name.

Read what I think before you call me

I have written the Texas rules out in detail. This is deliberate: if I have any of it wrong, you will be able to tell, and you should judge me on it.

Texas cash-out refinance rules — Section 50(a)(6)

The once-a-year limit, the 80% aggregate ceiling, and the point that decides whether a cash-out is possible at all: balances discharged by the new A6 loan are excluded from that 80% calculation, per Bank of New York Mellon v. Daryapayama.

MUD and PID taxes — the assessment on top of your tax bill

A Municipal Utility District or Public Improvement District assessment sits on top of your normal property tax bill, and it can move a monthly payment by hundreds of dollars. New construction in the suburbs is where this bites hardest, and it is often absent from an early payment estimate.

The R-8 reissue credit on a refinance

Refinancing in Texas within a set window earns a discount on the new title policy — but the credit is calculated off the payoff balance or the original amount of the existing loan, whichever is less, and it only gets applied if someone asks you for your prior loan policy. Worth knowing which question to ask at the closing table.

Texas property taxes and how they hit escrow

What the effective rate actually is, why the first year after a purchase so often produces an escrow shortage, and how the homestead exemption changes the number once you file for it.

What I am not going to tell you

I am licensed in Texas and I close loans in Texas. I am not going to claim I have spent twenty years in Houston, because I have not, and you can check. What I bring to a Texas file is a wholesale lender network that competes for your loan, and rules I study before they become a problem.

What you get instead is someone who will price the loan honestly, explain the state’s quirks before they cost you money, and tell you when the answer is to wait.

The loans I write in Texas

The full menu, priced through wholesale lenders rather than one institution’s rate sheet.

• Conventional loans — the 2026 conforming limit is $832,750 in most Texas counties.
• FHA loans and VA loans — Texas has one of the largest veteran populations in the country, and VA is frequently the strongest product on the board.
• Jumbo loans for anything above the conforming limit.
• Self-employed and bank-statement loans — income documented properly rather than forced into a W-2 box.
• DSCR investor loans, qualified on the property’s rent rather than your tax returns.
• Construction and renovation financing — and if a builder is offering an incentive to use their lender, here is how to check whether it is actually worth taking.

Forest Hills Mortgage is an independent wholesale brokerage licensed in Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania. NMLS #563819. I am the only loan officer here — you deal with me from the first conversation through closing. More about how I work.