Fix and Flip in Tampa

Yes, on the right buy, and be skeptical of anyone quoting you a Tampa flip statistic. ATTOM does not publish a current flip rate or ROI for the Tampa metro, and Tampa appears nowhere in the Q1 2026 top-10 list for flip share, so treat "Tampa is a top-10 flip market" as marketing rather than data. What is published: Florida statewide ran a 6.6% flip rate in the first quarter of 2026, 34th among states, on 5,529 flips, with a $75,000 median gross profit and a 28.3% gross ROI, both above the national $66,000 and 25.4%. Florida flips less often than the country and earns more per flip when it does. Underwrite the individual deal, not the metro reputation, and run it through the fix and flip calculator before you sign the contract.

To the submarket, not the metro. Mid-tier home values as of June 2026 cluster between about $340,000 and $405,000 across the named submarkets, and the spread inside that band matters: Wesley Chapel $402,222, Tampa $380,283, Riverview $366,239, Brandon $358,445, St. Petersburg $355,759, Clearwater $344,142, Plant City $343,765, Largo $339,252. Every one of those is down year over year, from -1.3% in Brandon to -3.9% in St. Petersburg. Metro-wide, prices are off 2.7% year over year on the Zillow index for June 2026 and 1.6% on Case-Shiller for May 2026. The listing side agrees: the metro median list price was $397,450 in July 2026, down 4.2% year over year and 10.7% off the July 2022 peak, with 72 median days on market and roughly 43% of active listings already carrying a price cut. Hold your after repair value to subdivision comps, and price a reduction into the exit rather than assuming the first list price holds.

Enough to decide the deal, and it depends on which side of the bay you buy. Florida's insurance regulator reports average homeowners premiums including wind, as of March 2026, of $4,063 in Pinellas, $3,525 in Hillsborough, and $2,756 in Pasco. That is about $1,300 a year between Pinellas and Pasco on an otherwise comparable house, before flood, which is a separate policy and which a lender will require in the Special Flood Hazard Areas that cover much of coastal Pinellas. The direction is finally in your favor: the average premium including wind fell in 51 of 67 Florida counties between the January and July 2026 reports, 21 new carriers have been approved since the 2022-23 reforms, and Citizens is down to 293,465 policies in force as of June 2026, its lowest in 25 years. Get a real binder quote on the specific address before you go hard, and build it into the 6-month carry.

No, and assuming it will is the most common Florida underwriting mistake. Investment property gets the 10% annual assessment cap, not the 3% homestead cap, and the cap resets on change of ownership. Your first full tax year after purchase is typically assessed at market value with no carryover of the seller's capped basis, so the prior year's bill systematically understates what you will pay. Underwrite to a market-value assessment, pull an address-level estimate from the county property appraiser rather than a metro-wide millage rate, and talk to your CPA about your own situation.

70 cents per $100 on the deed and 35 cents per $100 on the note, on each closing. Deed consideration expressly includes the amount of any mortgage or other encumbrance, whether or not the underlying debt is assumed, so the taxable number is not always the cash price. The statute places the deed tax on the purchaser, but in most Florida counties the seller pays it by contract, which means your purchase agreement, not the statute, decides who writes the check. Two consequences for flippers: you pay stamps going in and the buyer's side pays them going out, and an A-to-B-to-C double close owes deed stamps on both deeds plus note and mortgage stamps on each financed leg. Have your closing attorney or title agent price the stamps for your structure before you commit to it.

Florida statute gives you a clock, and it has teeth. Under Florida Statutes section 553.792, a local government has 30 business days to approve, approve with conditions, or deny a complete application for a single-family residential dwelling under 7,500 square feet, and 60 business days for larger single-family, multifamily up to 50 units, commercial under 25,000 square feet, and site plans. The jurisdiction must tell you in writing what is missing within 5 business days of receiving the application, and blowing the deadline cuts the permit fee by 10% for each business day of delay, 20% per day after a resubmitted revision. Those are statutory backstops, not the observed average in Hillsborough, Pinellas, or Pasco, and we do not have verified local review times to quote you. Budget the scope and the correction cycles inside your 6-month term. Our guide on estimating a rehab budget covers how we size the number, and you can apply now ahead of the permit rather than after it.

About 10% of the purchase, plus closing costs and carry. We fund up to 90% of the purchase price and up to 100% of the rehab budget, capped to ARV, on a 6-month interest-only term. On a $350,000 Tampa purchase that is up to $315,000 from us and $35,000 from you (350,000 x 90% = 315,000), with rehab drawn against the schedule rather than paid up front. Then add Florida documentary stamps and the insurance line, which runs about $1,300 a year higher in Pinellas than in Pasco, so carry a real contingency on top of the down payment. Subject to underwriting.

$100,000, and the program runs up to $5M. That range covers most of what actually trades in Tampa Bay, from a small Largo or Plant City rehab up to a large coastal project. If the purchase price alone falls under the floor, send the purchase and the rehab budget together, because we fund up to 100% of the rehab as well and the loan is sized to the whole scope. Florida documentary stamps hit on the way in and again when your buyer closes, so a very small deal has to clear those fixed costs before it clears anything else. Subject to underwriting.

The exit. First-time flippers are welcome. We run credit, but on an asset-based fix and flip loan it carries far less weight than at a bank, and there is no minimum score on this program. Weaker credit is usually answered with lower leverage rather than a decline, and there is no hard credit pull to start. No W-2s or tax returns either: the loan qualifies off the property and your equity. What we look hardest at on a first Tampa deal is the exit, so hold your after repair value to subdivision comps rather than to the metro reputation, and price a reduction into it. Subject to underwriting.