Two questions owners never ask

How we work

Why we put them first

Managing or leasing real property for another person for compensation is regulated activity in Florida under Chapter 475 of the Florida Statutes. It requires a broker's license, or a sales associate acting under a broker. Managing property you own yourself requires nothing at all, and a salaried employee managing their employer's property falls within an exception — which is part of why the requirement is so widely misunderstood. A third party collecting a management fee is squarely inside it.

The second question is narrower and even more concrete. Florida Statute 83.49 requires security deposits and advance rent to be held in a separate account for the tenant's benefit or secured by a surety bond, prohibits commingling those funds with the landlord's or manager's own money, and requires the tenant to be given written notice within thirty days setting out how the deposit is held, where, and at what rate of interest. The notice is skipped constantly. So is the separate account.

There is a sting in the tail that catches owners who did nothing wrong. When a tenant leaves, a claim against the deposit has to be made following the statutory procedure and within its notice periods. A claim made outside that procedure is forfeited, however genuine the damage was. An owner who let their manager handle move-out loosely can end up paying for repairs they were entitled to recover. Both of these are cheap to do correctly and expensive to discover late, which is the whole argument for asking at the start.