Should You Rent the House on PCS Orders

Stucco ranch with pines behind the lawn

 Test the idea before you promise a tenant

Write the rent you think you can get on a scratch sheet, then do not fall in love with it. Subtract the mortgage, taxes, insurance on a landlord policy, a manager, repairs, HOA, and any CDD. Then subtract a vacant month. If the line still works, you have a reason to keep talking. If it only works on a perfect year, you do not.

I will not fill that sheet with a metro rent or a management percent. Ask two managers who already lease in your ZIP. Bring their fee schedules to the call at (904) 309-0609. We will compare them to a sale net sheet if you want both columns honest.

 A property manager who already works this map

Hire someone who has driven your streets. A desk that has never been down Blanding Boulevard or out Mayport Road will learn your house on your dime. Interview two. Ask who holds the security deposit, how they screen, what they can approve for a repair without calling you, and what the fee schedule actually says.

You are still the owner. Florida's residential landlord-tenant statute is Chapter 83. Notices and deposit handling are specific. The manager should already work inside those rules. We are a brokerage, not your lawyer, and we will not pretend a listing agreement replaces a lease. If you will be in another time zone, say so. The person who answers at 2 a.m. needs authority you are willing to live with.

 Insurance when homestead comes off

Call the carrier before the first lease is signed. An owner-occupied policy is the wrong contract once a tenant has keys. Ask for the landlord form, and ask what they require during the vacant stretch between your move-out and the tenant's move-in. Vacant houses have their own rules. I will not invent the number of days.

Flood insurance is a separate policy. Wind may sit inside one of the quotes depending on the carrier. Get the numbers on this address. This page will not publish a premium. Homestead is a different phone call, to the property appraiser. One permanent residence. If you rent the house out, the exemption should come off. A wrongful claim can become a lien with a 50 percent penalty and 15 percent interest under section 196.161. In Duval, Joyce Morgan's office is homestead.coj.net, (904) 255-5900, 231 E. Forsyth Street, Suite 260.

If you buy another Florida house and you will own and occupy it on January 1, portability is Form DR-501T filed with the new county. The old county certifies the Save Our Homes difference. I will not invent that dollar. If the next duty station is outside Florida, there is no new Florida homestead to port onto. As of fall 2026, the 2026 homestead window is closed. The next occupancy date for a new Florida homestead is January 1, 2027, file by March 1, 2027.

 CDD lines and HOA rental caps

A community development district is Florida Statutes Chapter 190. The bonds often show up as a non-ad valorem line on the tax bill. That line is not the HOA dues. eTown has a CDD. Read the tax bill and the estoppel. Do not invent the annual amount, and do not let a tenant "just pay the CDD" unless the lease is written that way. In a normal setup you pay the tax bill, so the rent math has to include it.

The HOA or the condo is the other binder. Many communities cap the share of homes that can be rented, run a waitlist, or require a minimum lease length and a board application. If the cap is already full, you cannot rent, even when the cash flow looked fine. A six-month plan may violate a twelve-month minimum. Read the covenants before you advertise. Call (904) 309-0609 if you want a second set of eyes on the estoppel before you tell the command the house is available.

 Pets, deposits, and the lease you can sign

Follow the covenant on pets, not a feeling. Some associations ban them, limit the number, or limit weight. Your insurance carrier may restrict certain animals even when the HOA allows them. Ask both before you write a pet addendum. Military families often have pets. A no-pet rule shrinks the applicant pool. Allowing pets without a damage plan shrinks your repairs budget. There is no pet-rent figure on this page because it would be fiction.

The security deposit does not go in your personal checking account. Florida has rules for how it is held and how notices go out. Let the manager's trust account do that work. A tenant who later receives orders may have a federal right to end the lease. Budget for a turnover that is legal. The manager should know the notice practice. I will not quote a day count here and get it wrong on your tenant's orders.

 The Beaches, the river, and a storm

Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and Jacksonville Beach are three city halls inside Duval schools, and they are an evacuation and flood conversation. Arlington, east of the St. Johns, belongs in the same insurance pass. A beach house that cannot get a landlord policy and a flood policy is not a rental plan, no matter how the photos look.

Evacuation zones run A through F. Zone A goes first and includes the coast and, in many orders, mobile homes and RVs. Do not assign your street from memory. Use JaxReady, Know Your Zone. A FEMA flood zone, AE or X, is not an evacuation zone. If you will be gone during hurricane season, the manager needs written authority to prep the house, and you need a rule for when they must call you. The river does not care which duty station you reported to.

 Tell the servicer what you are doing

If the loan is VA, read the occupancy certification you signed when you bought. A buyer generally certifies an intent to occupy within 60 days, and active-duty timing has its own rules. I will not invent a 12-month waiver. Converting a house you already lived in is a different question from buying a rental with a VA loan on day one. Talk to the servicer before you assume the note allows a tenant. Entitlement tied to that open VA loan stays in use. The decision page is where the second-purchase math belongs.

Then tell the property appraiser the truth about homestead, and tell the carrier the truth about occupancy. Those three calls, servicer, appraiser, and insurance, are the rent column. Skip one and the cash flow sheet is a story. When you want the sheet built against a sale as well, call (904) 309-0609.

 Keep going

• Sell, rent, or hold

Call (904) 309-0609.