If you are behind on a Florida mortgage and the thought of moving is the part that keeps you up at night, you have probably typed sale leaseback Florida into a search bar — selling the house and then renting it back from whoever buys it. It is a real transaction type, it is regulated in this state, and for a narrow set of households it may be a workable alternative to moving out. It is also the option most often oversold. This article explains the mechanics, the Florida-specific legal guardrails, and the situations where it is the wrong answer.
Caliber Trust has bought houses directly from Florida homeowners since 2016, and our sale-leaseback program is called HomeAgain. We will describe it below, but the honest framing matters more than the pitch: it is one option among several, and it is not the best one for most people who ask about it.
What a sale-leaseback actually is
Two separate agreements happen at roughly the same time.
First, you sell the property. Title transfers to the buyer at closing, the mortgage and any other liens get paid from the proceeds, and whatever is left over after payoffs and closing costs comes to you as the seller. You are no longer the owner.
Second, you sign a lease as a tenant with the new owner, and you stay in the house. You pay rent on a schedule, under a written lease, with all the ordinary rights and obligations Florida’s residential landlord-tenant law gives a tenant.
That is the whole structure. It is not a loan, it is not a refinance, and it is not a pause button on the mortgage. If a company describes it to you as any of those three, that is a signal to slow down and get your own counsel.
Where Florida law draws the lines
Florida regulates this transaction type specifically, because it has been abused elsewhere. The Florida Foreclosure Rescue Fraud Prevention Act, at Fla. Stat. § 501.1377, governs foreclosure-rescue transactions — including a sale where the homeowner keeps possession and may have a right to repurchase. The statute sets requirements for written disclosure and for the conduct of the buyer. Ask any company you are talking to how they comply with it, and read their answer carefully.
There is a second provision worth knowing about. Under Fla. Stat. § 697.01, a deed given as security for a debt is treated as a mortgage under Florida law, regardless of what the paperwork calls it. Courts have applied that logic to transactions dressed up as sales. What this means practically is that the paperwork has to match the substance: a sale-leaseback that is genuinely a sale is a sale, and one that is really a disguised loan is something else entirely. A Florida real estate attorney reviewing your specific documents is the right person to tell you which one is in front of you. We do not give legal advice, and we would rather you have your own lawyer read the contract than take our word for anything.
What HomeAgain is, and what it isn’t
Under HomeAgain, Caliber Trust buys the property for cash and as-is, the existing loan gets paid off at closing from the proceeds, and you may be able to remain in the home afterward as a tenant under a written lease. In some situations there may be a path back to ownership later. “May” is doing real work in both of those sentences — eligibility depends on the numbers on your particular property, the size of the payoff, the condition of the house, and whether the rent would be sustainable on your actual income.
Here is the part that disqualifies most callers: the arithmetic. A sale-leaseback only works if there is meaningful equity above what is owed, and if the rent afterward is something you can genuinely afford month after month. If the mortgage balance, arrears, attorney’s fees and liens eat most of the value, there is nothing to sell into. If the affordable rent number is lower than what the house would rent for on the open market, the structure does not hold up. We would rather tell you that on a first phone call than discover it in week four.
You can read more about how the program is structured on our HomeAgain page.
The honest downsides
You stop being the owner. No appreciation, no mortgage paydown, no control over a future sale. If Florida values rise over the next decade, that gain belongs to the buyer.
Your homestead treatment on that property ends. In Florida, the homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes assessment cap attach to a property you own and occupy as your permanent residence. Selling ends that on that home. Your county property appraiser or a Florida tax professional can explain what that means for your specific parcel.
A cash, as-is sale is usually a lower number than a patient retail listing. That is true of any direct purchase, ours included. A clean house with time on the calendar and a good listing agent will typically bring more. The trade is speed and certainty, and if you have the calendar to spare, take the listing.
A lease has an end date. Leases renew, but renewal is not automatic anywhere, and you should understand the term, the renewal terms, and the rent escalation before you sign anything.
The other options you should price against it
A sale-leaseback should be the fourth or fifth thing you consider, not the first.
Reinstatement or a workout with the servicer. Bringing the loan current, a repayment plan, forbearance, or a modification. Call the servicer’s loss mitigation department directly and put everything in writing.
A HUD-approved housing counselor. This is free, and the counselor works for you, not for a lender or a buyer. The national line is (800) 569-4287. If you do one thing after reading this, do that.
Listing the house with an agent. Florida remains a magnet for relocating buyers — Redfin’s second-quarter 2026 migration analysis put Florida among the country’s most popular destinations for house hunters moving between metros, and the national new-home market has been choppy rather than collapsing, with Mortgage News Daily reporting an August annualized pace of 684,000 new single-family sales, roughly 6.4% above the July figure. Demand exists. If your foreclosure timeline leaves room for a normal listing period, a retail sale usually produces more money than any direct purchase. A seller with a listing agent is not a conflict for us; we work alongside agents and attorneys routinely.
A direct cash sale and a planned move. Less money than retail, more certainty and speed, and sometimes the right call when the house needs work you cannot fund.
Understanding what happens if the sale goes forward. Florida foreclosures are judicial: a lis pendens gets recorded, a case is litigated, and a judgment leads to a clerk’s sale under Fla. Stat. § 45.031. If the property sells at auction for more than the judgment and costs, the excess is surplus funds, and Fla. Stat. § 45.032 governs who may claim it and how. Caliber Trust runs a surplus-funds recovery service for homeowners in that position. You can also pursue a claim yourself or through your own attorney.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What is the purchase price, and how was it calculated?
- What is the monthly rent, for how long, and what happens at renewal?
- Who pays taxes, insurance, and repairs during the lease?
- Is there a repurchase option, and if so, what are the exact terms and deadlines?
- What disclosures are being provided under Fla. Stat. § 501.1377?
- Who is my attorney in this transaction? (If the answer is “the buyer’s,” get your own.)
If a company will not answer those in writing, that tells you what you need to know. If you want to talk through where your property actually falls, reach out — and bring your payoff statement and your court paperwork to the conversation. Our FAQ covers the mechanics of how we evaluate a house.