John Geisler, 69, is a full-time rental property owner in the greater Tampa Bay region.
He owns and manages more than 40 rental homes that are concentrated in Brandon, Lakeland and Plant City.
“Nobody is going to take care of my properties better than me,” he said.
He sits in the foyer of the fourth home he bought.
It’s a charming two-bedroom house in the heart of Plant City, just over a mile from where the Strawberry Festival happens every year.
He said it’s been a long-term rental as long as he’s owned it, until recently.
At the beginning of the year, he listed the home as a short-term rental on Airbnb.
With rising housing and insurance costs lately, Geisler said he’s had to experiment with new business models.
The squeeze on midsize investors
Data shows that holdings by midsize investors, like Geisler, aren’t growing at the same rate as other investor groups in the greater Tampa Bay region.
The biggest growth in ownership is driven by the smallest and the largest investor groups, according to Renz Torres, a researcher with the University of Florida’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies.
Smallest and largest investor groups saw growth in holdings, since 2019
This chart breaks down all corporate holdings in single-family homes, by investor size, for the greater Tampa Bay region from 2019 to 2023.
Chart by: Renz Torres at the UF Shimberg Center for Housing Studies.
While investor ownership: individuals, small companies or large corporations that buy property to sell or rent – is on the rise, the majority of homes in the greater Tampa Bay region are still owner-occupied.
In Hillsborough County, around 70 percent of properties are homesteaded, an exemption granted to Florida homeowners in their primary residence, according to the county property appraiser’s office.
In their research, Torres found that the percentage of investor-owned homes ranges from 0% to 18% in ZIP codes across the region, including Hillsborough, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties.
They also looked into where investors, grouped by size, have bought single family homes in recent years.
Corporate ownership of single family homes, by investor size
This map shows investor ownership of single-family homes, by ZIP code and number of total holdings. Click through the layers in the top left to view the location of homes owned, by investor size.
Chart by: Renz Torres
Data notes: The analysis was completed using property appraiser records, business registry filings and tax parcel data from the Florida Department of Revenue. Corporate investors in this dataset are defined as limited liability companies (LLCs), corporations (Inc.), limited partnerships (LPs), joint ventures, realty firms, and other similar business entities. It does not include second homes, vacation homes, or investment properties owned outright by individuals.
The map shows that extra-small to medium-sized investors, or people who own fewer than 100 properties, tend to own more single family homes in south St. Petersburg, New Port Richey and Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood.
That's compared to the activity by large to mega-size investors, typically companies or large corporations that own more than 1,000 properties, which is concentrated in Brandon, Riverview and parts of Pasco County.
The role they play in the rental housing market
As a medium-sized investor, Geisler concentrates his investments in Brandon, Lakeland and Plant City.
He said home prices are less expensive outside of Tampa, which means he can charge cheaper rent.
“Any two paycheck household could rent the houses I buy,” he said. “The idea is that no matter what…someone can rent this house.”
Geisler said he’s proud to offer fair market rent to working people.
"We had this typology emerge of folks who often came from humble backgrounds themselves, had perhaps had a professional life and didn’t find it fulfilling…it was very important to them to provide low-cost, high quality housing.”Jane Rongerude, associate professor at Iowa State University
He bought his first rental property more than 30 years ago, while working at a grocery store.
He's 69 now, and he manages more than 40 rental properties.
He offers a lot of flexibility to his renters, too. Unlike large corporate owners, Geisler said he doesn’t require a credit check or proof of citizenship in his applications.
And filing for an eviction against his tenants is never his first course of action.
He said he believes most conflicts can be handled with a simple conversation.
Experts say that small-scale rental property owners, often nicknamed "mom and pop landlords," can play an important role in housing stability and naturally-occurring affordable housing in rental housing markets.
Mom and pop landlords
Urban planning researcher Jane Rongerude studies the characteristics of rental property owners across the U.S.
In Tampa, the data found that rental property owners are majority white, male and middle-aged, according to the latest survey data.
The majority of respondents also live in the city where their rentals are. More than half of Tampa owners also manage their own properties, according to the survey data.
Their motivations varied, with the top reasons for investing as: diversifying their portfolio, creating a retirement option and managing a small rental business.
Despite the wide variety of characteristics, Rongerude said the motivations of a particular group of rental property owners in Tampa came into focus.
“We had this typology emerge of folks who often came from humble backgrounds themselves, had perhaps had a professional life and didn’t find it fulfilling…it was very important to them to provide low-cost, high-quality housing,” Rongerude said.
Much like Geisler, she said the business models of these property owners depend on long-term tenants and low vacancy rates.
The anonymity of rental property owners
With recent surges in housing and property insurance costs in Florida, Rongerude said small-scale rental property owners could be struggling — but it’s hard to know for sure.
“You need a license to do someone’s nails, but not to rent a house to someone,” she said.
Without rental registries, like those in Minneapolis, Rongerude said it’s hard to know who owns rental properties in cities like Tampa.
It’s also more difficult to distribute aid when needed, like during the COVID pandemic; and to craft meaningful public policy for property owners; and monitor the rising tide of investor ownership in the single-family rental market.
Rongerude said the anonymity of rental property owners can also enable bad-acting landlords and exploitative business models.
In a time where investor ownership of single family homes is growing, she said it’s more important than ever to understand who owns the rental housing in cities across the U.S.
The next wave of midsize investors
Geisler said he still enjoys his work renting properties in his community.
“I’m not ready to sell at this point. It’s not a burden,” he said. “You get to change neighborhoods.”
When he is ready, he said he plans to sell his homes one by one to individuals, rather than to large corporate investors.
Midsize investors, like Geisler, usually start small, with one or two investment properties.
In Tampa, there's still a strong interest among young professionals to get into the investment space.
At a recent bilingual networking event for real estate professionals, Aleyda Musibay and Gerardo Rodgriquez said they are eager to make the jump into investing.
First, they hope to build the right network of real estate professionals in town. That includes contractors, builders and title agents.
“The main barrier here is not even the money, it’s just the knowledge,” Rodriguez said.
Competition from large corporations and institutional investors isn’t a deterrant for the new investors.
If interested investors, like Musibay and Rodriguez, eventually become rental property owners, they could help keep single-family homes in the Tampa area out of the hands of corporations.
Gabriella Paul covers the stories of people living paycheck to paycheck in the greater Tampa Bay region for WUSF. She's also a Report for America corps member. Here’s how you can share your story with her.
