Investor boosts rental profits by slashing mortgage, tax and insurance costs

Brannon Potts, a 54-year-old investor based in the Fort Worth area, observes that rental rates in North Texas have dipped slightly over the past three years due to a surge of new apartments. Nevertheless, his overall profitability has increased because he trimmed expenses from more than 30% of rental revenue to about 26% as of mid-2026. He achieved this by refinancing several loans when rates fell, moving from 7.5% to rates between 5.3% and 5.9%, which also accelerated principal repayment.

Potts also began challenging property-tax appraisals, cutting the tax share of revenue from 16.6% in 2022 to 11.7% now. Finally, he raised insurance deductibles from 1% to 5% and used a broker to compare policies, lowering insurance costs from 6.2% to 5.2% of revenue. He tracks these metrics with a common-size analysis to spot outliers across his portfolio, which currently includes 14 units and plans to expand to roughly 20.