FORT MYERS
A red-hot housing market is forcing people out of their homes as some landlords are selling their valuable rentals.
That is putting renters in a difficult spot and leaving them with nowhere to go.
While there are help wanted signs everywhere, it’s tough finding one that says for rent.
People on Facebook say looking for a place to live is like playing the lottery. It’s a bidding war with some people paying a year of rent in advance.
Because landlords are selling their rental properties there’s nothing left to rent.
“I keep looking at houses and basically as soon as they’re posted they’re gone,” said one woman who asked not to be named due to fear of jeopardizing her chances of finding a home.
Her landlord is trying to sell her home. She is fighting him to stay.
“They put the house on the market and then I think it was like the next day it was under contract,” the woman said. “I just signed a new lease in January for this new rental company and then a couple months later they decide to sell the house so if I would’ve known that I would’ve never signed the lease to begin with.”
The best advice is to know what is in your lease and hold your landlord to it.
“If there’s a silver lining at all, I work with a lot of developers that are buying homes or building homes that they plan to rent out so I foresee a lot of homes coming to market as rentals,” said Realtor Peter Davis.
In the meantime, it’s little help for people about to lose their homes right now.
This is just not a Southwest Florida problem.
According to Core Logic data, home prices are up more than 17% nationwide compared to a year ago. And that’s pushing more people to rent.
