diff --git a/fs/btrfs/props.c b/fs/btrfs/props.c
index ca2716917e37..a9e2e66152ee 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/props.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/props.c
@@ -332,6 +332,7 @@ static int inherit_props(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 	struct btrfs_fs_info *fs_info = root->fs_info;
 	int ret;
 	int i;
+	bool need_reserve = false;
 
 	if (!test_bit(BTRFS_INODE_HAS_PROPS,
 		      &BTRFS_I(parent)->runtime_flags))
@@ -357,11 +358,20 @@ static int inherit_props(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 		if (ret)
 			continue;
 
-		num_bytes = btrfs_calc_trans_metadata_size(fs_info, 1);
-		ret = btrfs_block_rsv_add(root, trans->block_rsv,
-					  num_bytes, BTRFS_RESERVE_NO_FLUSH);
-		if (ret)
-			return ret;
+		/*
+		 * Currently callers should be reserving 1 item for properties,
+		 * since we only have 1 property that we currently support.  If
+		 * we add more in the future we need to try and reserve more
+		 * space for them.  But we should also revisit how we do space
+		 * reservations if we do add more properties in the future.
+		 */
+		if (need_reserve) {
+			num_bytes = btrfs_calc_trans_metadata_size(fs_info, 1);
+			ret = btrfs_block_rsv_add(root, trans->block_rsv,
+					num_bytes, BTRFS_RESERVE_NO_FLUSH);
+			if (ret)
+				return ret;
+		}
 
 		ret = btrfs_setxattr(trans, inode, h->xattr_name, value,
 				     strlen(value), 0);
@@ -375,9 +385,13 @@ static int inherit_props(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 					&BTRFS_I(inode)->runtime_flags);
 		}
 
-		btrfs_block_rsv_release(fs_info, trans->block_rsv, num_bytes);
-		if (ret)
-			return ret;
+		if (need_reserve) {
+			btrfs_block_rsv_release(fs_info, trans->block_rsv,
+					num_bytes);
+			if (ret)
+				return ret;
+		}
+		need_reserve = true;
 	}
 
 	return 0;