Texas Landlords Don't Have To Use Their Home Address

By Bobbye Joe McMillan

Bobbye Joe McMillan is the driving force behind Cornerstone Property Management, bringing over 30 years of expertise in real estate to help clients achieve their property goals.

Did you know that if you manage your own rental property in Texas, you don’t have to put your home address on the lease?

A lot of landlords don’t realize they have a choice. They buy a rental, start signing leases themselves, and their personal address ends up on every document out of habit. It works fine until the day it doesn’t, and by then, your home address is already on years of paperwork.

Texas law lets you keep your personal address private while still giving tenants a reliable place to reach you.

Use a business address instead of your home address. The simplest way to keep your home address off your leases is to use a business address instead. Rather than listing your personal residence, many landlords use their property management company’s business address on the lease. That gives tenants a reliable place to send notices and reach you when they need to, while your home address stays private.

For landlords who work with a property management company, this is already handled. Our business address goes on the lease, not yours. You stay reachable through us without your home address ever appearing in the paperwork. It’s one of those small details that makes a real difference in how protected you feel as an owner.

Why this matters more than most landlords think. Most landlords never give their address a second thought. It feels like a minor detail on the lease. But over time, every tenant who has ever rented from you has your personal address on file. That’s fine when everything is going smoothly. When a tenant situation gets difficult, or when someone you’ve had to evict has your home address from the lease they signed two years ago, it stops feeling minor.

This isn’t about being secretive. It’s about being smart. You can be fully accessible to your tenants and fully within your rights under Texas law without your home address being the point of contact.

Set it up before your next lease. If you already have leases with your home address on them, those are in the past. What you can control is what goes on the next one. Putting a business address on your next lease instead of your home address takes five minutes, and it protects you going forward.

If you own rentals in Texas and you’d rather not have your home address circulating on every lease, I’d be glad to help you set it up the right way. Call or text me at 210-440-1223, email me at bmcmillan@cornerstonepmtx.com, or visit blog.cornerstonepmtx.com. It’s a quick conversation, and it’s one of the simplest things you can do to protect yourself as a landlord.