TAMPA BAY, Fla. — A growing number of homeowners across the Tampa Bay area are becoming “accidental landlords,” as a slower housing market and rising costs make it harder to sell.
A new report from Zillow shows about 3.7% of rental listings in the region were originally listed for sale before being converted into rentals — well above the national average of 2.3%. The trend puts Tampa Bay in line with Sunbelt metros like Houston and Austin, where the shift is becoming more common.
For Jim D’Amico, the change wasn’t part of the plan.
He bought his South Pasadena home in 2023, expecting to sell. But after multiple attempts to list the property over the past year, he says the market hasn’t been on his side.
“We’ve had it on the market two other times over the last 13 months, and due to the market, the prices and the amount of inventory, it’s been very difficult to sell,” D’Amico said. “So we rented it once for nine months, and now we’re in the process of furnishing it and we’re going to rent it again.”
D’Amico says storm recovery has also slowed the rebound in his neighborhood. While his home did not flood, many nearby properties were heavily impacted.
“Our house didn’t flood. We were one of the few houses in the neighborhood that didn’t flood, so we were able to move back in right away,” he said. “But a lot of our neighbors didn’t move back in for 12 to 18 months.”
Despite the home’s waterfront setting — where dolphins, stingrays and manatees are common — he says the financial reality is what’s driving his decision.
“I think it comes down to trying to maintain and get back the value you put into the house versus taking a loss,” D’Amico said.
But turning a home into a rental comes with added costs, especially when it comes to insurance.
“Originally, our insurance was somewhere around $5,000 a year, and after the hurricanes it went up,” he said. “When we decided to rent it, it went all the way up to about $11,000 a year, and that’s not including flood insurance.”
Insurance agent Ashley Burbank-Boyles with Brightway Insurance says she’s seeing more homeowners make the same transition.
“I always recommend reaching out to your insurance agent and having them go through your policy line by line so you know exactly what you’re covered for and what you’re not covered for,” she said.
She adds that rental properties can carry more risk, but there are ways to manage the cost.
“The risk profile for a rental property is higher because the homeowner doesn’t live there, which can lead to delayed maintenance or delayed detection of issues,” Burbank-Boyles said. “But there are carriers that specialize in these policies, and in some cases, you can offset those increases by working with the right company.”
For many homeowners, renting is now a temporary strategy — a way to hold on to their investment until the market improves.
“People have to decide whether to rent and weather the storm or sell at a huge loss,” D’Amico said. “I’m not willing to do that.”
As inventory remains high and affordability challenges persist, experts say the number of accidental landlords could continue to rise across the Tampa Bay area.