Search for the best realtor for investment properties in Bayou Crest, Dickinson, TX and you get a list of names. Names are not the answer. Bayou Crest is a small, unusual pocket, roughly 130 single-family homes on oversized lots off FM 517, with some parcels holding actual Dickinson Bayou frontage, a boathouse, and a pier, and others holding only a view of it. The gap between those two is most of your return. An agent who underwrites this street off a county average will cost you more than any commission line ever will. Here is how the numbers really read.
Four different Bayou Crest deals, four different underwriting models
| The play | What you are actually buying | What decides the return |
|---|---|---|
| Long-term single-family rental | 1970s to 1990s stock, around 2,359 sq ft on a 12,500 sq ft lot | Rent against the full carrying cost, including a non-homestead tax bill |
| Value-add resale | An original-condition home below the $320,020 subdivision median | Whether the work is cosmetic or structural, plus the elevation certificate |
| Bayou-frontage hold | True water frontage with a boathouse, lift, or pier | Bulkhead condition and whether the water improvements were permitted |
| Short-term rental | A rental of 30 days or less inside Dickinson city limits | A specific use permit, which is not optional here |
Those four are not interchangeable, and the mistake we see most often is an investor running long-term rental math on a bayou-frontage listing, or short-term rental math on a house that will never get the permit. Pick the play first, then shop the inventory that fits it. With only 2 active listings against 26 recent sales in the subdivision, you will not get many swings, so the swing has to be the right one.
The Bayou Crest numbers you have to underwrite
| Metric | Bayou Crest | Source and vintage |
|---|---|---|
| Single-family homes | 130 | HAR subdivision data, Aug 2026 |
| Median size and lot | 2,359 sq ft on 12,500 sq ft | HAR, Aug 2026 |
| Median year built | 1982 | HAR, Aug 2026 |
| Median market value | $320,020 | HAR, Aug 2026 |
| Median sold price per sq ft | $144.31 | HAR, Aug 2026 |
| Value range | $152,000 to $424,000 | HAR, Aug 2026 |
| Active vs recently sold | 2 active, 26 sold | HAR, Aug 2026 |
| Combined tax rate | Roughly 2.36% to 2.42%, varies by parcel | HAR subdivision tax breakdown and a live listing, 2026 |
| Dickinson median sale price | $310,766 | HAR city price trends, June 2026 |
| Dickinson median days on market | 17 days | HAR city price trends, June 2026 |
| Dickinson median MLS lease | $1,738 per month | HAR city price trends, June 2026 |
| Galveston County median days on market | 72 days | FRED, July 2026 |
Read the last two rows together, because they explain the whole market. Dickinson single-family homes that actually sell are going in 17 days, while the county-wide median days on market for listings sitting on the market is 72. That is not a contradiction. It is a market that rewards correctly priced product and punishes everything else, which is exactly the market an investor wants to be buying into and a seller needs to respect. If an agent quotes you the 72 and calls Dickinson slow, or quotes the 17 and calls it hot, they have only read one number.
The costs investors miss in Bayou Crest
| Line item | Why it bites here | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Non-homestead taxes | Texas raised the school homestead exemption to $140,000, and none of it applies to a rental you do not occupy | Underwrite the full unexempted bill, not the seller's current tax line |
| Dickinson WCID No. 1 | This is a water control and improvement district at 0.2500%, plus Drainage District 01 | Do not call it a MUD and do not assume its rate matches a neighboring subdivision |
| Short-term rental permitting | Dickinson's zoning code treats a rental of 30 days or less as a vacation rental and requires a specific use permit | Confirm the permit path before you buy, not after |
| Bulkhead and water improvements | A boathouse, lift, or pier is a maintained asset with a replacement cost | Inspect it separately and price the remaining life |
| Windstorm and flood | Galveston County sits entirely inside the TWIA designated catastrophe area | Get a real carrier quote during the option period, not an online estimate |
| Elevation | 55 inches of Harvey rain put roughly 80% of Dickinson underwater and hit about 7,000 structures | Pull the elevation certificate before you fall for the lot |
The permit point is the one that costs people real money. In February 2026 a Texas appellate court in Houston upheld the City of Dickinson's vacation-rental ordinance against a constitutional challenge brought by an owner who had been advertising a property for up to 32 guests without the required permit. Bayou Crest sits inside city limits, confirmed by the city levy on its tax roll, so "nobody enforces it out here" is not a strategy. If your model needs nightly rates, get the permit question answered in writing before the option period expires.
Rent, and the honest version of the math
Dickinson's rental picture is a genuine one, not a hopeful one. Renters occupy about 28.2% of Dickinson households, median household income runs $91,779, and market rents as of August 2026 sit near $1,550 overall, with three-bedroom units around $1,992 and four-bedroom around $2,655. HAR's MLS-based median lease for the city was $1,738 in June 2026. That is the band a Bayou Crest single-family rental competes in, and a 2,359 sq ft house on a quarter-acre-plus lot should be at the top of it, not the middle.
| Option | Upside | Trade-Off |
|---|---|---|
| Long-term rental | Steady demand, low turnover, no permit exposure, and a tenant profile supported by Dickinson's $91,779 median household income. | Your return is capped by the rent band, and taxes near 2.4% without a homestead exemption eat a real slice of it. |
| Value-add flip or hold | A 1982 median build year means genuine cosmetic upside, and the subdivision's $144.31 per sq ft sold figure gives you a clear resale ceiling to work back from. | Older stock hides slab, sewer, and electrical surprises, and 17-day market speed only helps if you finish on schedule. |
| Bayou-frontage hold | Frontage with a permitted boathouse and pier is the scarcest thing in the subdivision, and scarcity is what protects a price in a soft year. | Insurance, bulkhead upkeep, and a much thinner buyer pool at exit. |
| Short-term rental | Water access, bayou launches at Paul Hopkins Park on FM 517 and the SH 3 and SH 146 ramps, and nightly rates that beat the long-term band. | A specific use permit, an ordinance that has now survived appellate review, and revenue that disappears entirely if the permit does not come through. |
Why the Mandie McMillan Team, and why "Client for Life" beats "best agent"
An investment property is not a one-time transaction, it is a position you hold, refinance, expand, and eventually exit. That is why we built the team around being a lifelong advisor, in the same tier as a trusted CPA or attorney, rather than an agent who disappears at funding.
Mandie McMillan has been licensed since 2000, 26 years in this business, and she was born and raised in La Marque in 1976, which makes her a 50-year resident of the exact county your rental sits in. She is a RE/MAX International Hall of Fame inductee and a repeat RE/MAX Chairman's Club and Platinum Club honoree, with SRS and CLHS designations behind her.
In 2025 the team closed 75 sides and $22,127,458 in production volume, with Mandie personally closing 30 sides and $11,676,748. Across just 6 producing agents, that is roughly 12.5 closed sides and about $3.7 million per agent. Depth, not headcount. You get an experienced agent who knows your file, not a number in a forty-agent funnel.
If you are underwriting anything in Bayou Crest or anywhere along Dickinson Bayou, contact The Mandie McMillan Team at RE/MAX Coastal. Bring us the address and we will run the real numbers with you: rent comps, the unexempted tax bill, the insurance quote, and a straight answer on the permit.
