Should you sell it, or rent it out?
Most tools answer this with a monthly cash-flow figure. That number hides the one that decides it — what the equity locked in the house actually earns. In Florida there is a second answer nobody volunteers: renting ends homestead, the Save Our Homes cap resets to market value, and the tax bill moves. Both are below, free, with nothing to sign up for.
Your property
What renting it would also mean
- Homestead exemption and Save Our Homes cap are likely lost
Under s.196.061, F.S., renting all or substantially all of a homesteaded dwelling is abandonment of the homestead. Whole-house renting is what this comparison assumes, so the assessment resets to market value and the exemption stops applying, taking the annual tax bill from $3,200 to $5,700 — an increase of $2,500 a year, or $208 a month. That is already reflected in the cash flow above. The statute carries timing rules and exceptions — abandonment after January 1 does not affect that year unless the home is rented more than 30 days in each of two consecutive years, and armed-forces and certain federal postings are exempt — so confirm your own case with the county property appraiser.
- Depreciation accrues while it is rented, and is recaptured on sale
A rental property must be depreciated each year, and that depreciation is recaptured as income when the property is sold — at a rate above long-term capital gains and not covered by the principal-residence exclusion. It applies whether or not the deduction was actually claimed. Confirm the effect with a CPA before converting.
- Landlord insurance has not been re-quoted
This uses the current homeowner premium. A rented property needs a landlord policy, which is priced differently. Get a quote before relying on the cash flow figure.
The comparison runs entirely in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere — unless you ask for the PDF below, which saves it to your email address. These are informational estimates, not an appraisal, and nothing here is tax, legal or financial advice — the tax items in particular are for a CPA to confirm against your own return.
Want this written up as a document you can hand a client — with the comps, the deal score and a plain-English analysis behind it?
Save this comparison freeThe monthly number hides the real one
An owner deciding whether to keep a house and rent it out is really asking what their equity earns. A property clearing a small monthly surplus can be returning almost nothing on the capital trapped inside it, and the monthly figure conceals that completely.
Consider the figures loaded into the calculator above: a home worth $475,000 with $190,000 of equity in it. Suppose it cleared $100 a month after every real cost rather than losing money. That is $1,200 a year on $190,000 — about 0.6%. The same capital in a savings account would do better with no tenant, no roof and no hurricane deductible. Renting may still be the right call, for reasons that have nothing to do with return. But it should be a decision made with the number visible, not one the monthly figure quietly made for you.
What conversion costs a Florida owner
Homestead status requires the property to be your permanent residence. Rent out the whole house and you give it up — and the exemption is the smaller half of what you lose. The Save Our Homes cap has been holding your assessed value down by no more than 3% a year for as long as you have lived there. When homestead ends, the assessment resets to full market value.
For someone who bought fifteen years ago, that reset can double the tax bill on its own. It arrives the January after the change, not at the moment you sign a lease, which is why it so often lands as a surprise on a rental that was pencilling out fine. Enter your county's millage in the calculator above and it is priced into the cash flow rather than discovered later.
Two clocks start the day you rent
The first is the capital-gains exclusion. Section 121 shelters $250,000 of gain for a single filer and $500,000 for a couple filing jointly, but only if you lived in the home for two of the five years before selling. Roughly three years of renting uses that up. On a long-held Florida home with substantial appreciation, that exclusion can be worth more than several years of rent.
The second is depreciation. Once it is a rental you depreciate the structure over 27.5 years, and on sale that depreciation is recaptured and taxed at up to 25% — whether or not you claimed it. Neither clock is a reason not to rent. Both belong in the comparison while the decision is still open.
These are informational estimates, not an appraisal, and nothing on this page is tax, legal or financial advice. The tax treatment of converting a residence to a rental turns on facts specific to you — confirm the property-tax consequences with your county property appraiser and the federal ones with a CPA before you act.
Questions owners actually ask
Does renting out my Florida home end the homestead exemption?+
Generally yes. Homestead requires the property to be your permanent residence, and Florida law treats renting the entire dwelling as abandoning it — renting the whole home for more than 30 days in a calendar year, in two consecutive years, is the usual trigger. Once homestead is gone the Save Our Homes cap goes with it and the assessment resets to market value. Your county property appraiser is the authority on your specific situation.
How much will my property tax actually go up?+
It depends on how long you have been homesteaded. Save Our Homes limits annual assessment increases to 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, so an owner of fifteen years can be assessed far below market value. When the cap resets, the bill is recalculated on full market value without the exemption. Doubling is common for long-held homes. The calculator above defaults to 1.2% of market value and lets you replace it with your county's millage.
How long can I rent before losing the capital-gains exclusion?+
The Section 121 exclusion — $250,000 of gain if you file single, $500,000 if married filing jointly — requires that you owned and lived in the home for two of the five years before the sale. Renting it out for about three years exhausts that window. If you have a large gain and are near the edge, the timing of the decision is worth more than the rent.
What is depreciation recapture and why does it matter?+
Once the home is a rental you depreciate the building over 27.5 years, which lowers your taxable rental income each year. When you sell, that depreciation is recaptured and taxed — at up to 25% — whether or not you actually claimed it. It is not a reason to avoid renting, but it belongs in the comparison rather than surfacing years later.
My rental would cash flow positive. Isn't that reason enough to keep it?+
Not by itself. A home clearing $200 a month with $300,000 of equity in it is returning about 0.8% on that capital. The monthly figure is positive, so the decision feels easy, and it is the wrong way round — the question is what the trapped equity earns compared with what it would earn somewhere else. That is the number this calculator puts next to the monthly one.
Can I still move my Save Our Homes benefit to a new home?+
Florida portability lets you transfer accumulated Save Our Homes savings — up to $500,000 — to a new Florida homestead, provided you establish the new homestead within the statutory window after abandoning the old one. It applies when you buy another Florida residence, not when you convert this one to a rental and stay put. Confirm the current deadline with your property appraiser, because the window has changed before.
Other free tools
Put it in writing.
A free account saves every comparison to your dashboard and gives you two full AI property reports a month — comps, deal score, risks and a plain-English analysis you can hand to a client. Sell or Rent comparisons stay unlimited and never use a report.
Create your free account