The lead looks ordinary until you check the name on the deed. A Florida property owned by an LLC does not answer its phone, has no spouse who must co-sign, and does not care that your offer expires Friday. Across the four counties we cover, about one in four single-family homes and condominiums is titled to something other than a person — and that share climbs or collapses depending on which filing put the property in front of you.
We measured it across 1,162,605 parcels in Collier, Lee, Pinellas and Sarasota counties.
One in four Florida homes is not titled to a person
Of those parcels, 1,156,377 (99.5%) carry at least one owner of record on the county tax roll. Classifying every one of them gives the baseline below.
| County | Company-titled | Trust-titled | Any non-person on title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collier | 8.7% | 22.6% | 31.8% |
| Lee | 7.6% | 17.3% | 28.1% |
| Sarasota | 6.8% | 19.6% | 26.4% |
| Pinellas | 7.7% | 10.9% | 19.0% |
| All four counties | 7.7% | 16.7% | 25.7% |
The categories overlap, so the columns are not meant to sum. The Collier-to-Pinellas spread is worth sitting with: mail a thousand doors in Naples and about 318 answer to a company, a trust or an estate; in St. Petersburg, 190 do.
Distress changes who is on the deed
Now the same measurement against properties attached to court filings in those counties since 1 May 2026. Both sides are restricted to single-family homes and condominiums, so the comparison is like for like.
| Filing type | Company-titled | Trust-titled | Any non-person |
|---|---|---|---|
| All homes (baseline) | 7.7% | 16.7% | 25.7% |
| Evictions | 46.7% | 7.3% | 55.7% |
| Probates | 1.0% | 26.7% | 33.4% |
| Pre-foreclosures | 8.3% | 5.3% | 16.8% |
| Divorces | 0.3% | 4.7% | 5.4% |
Eviction filings are the outlier by a factor of six. Companies hold title to 7.7% of the single-family homes and condominiums in these counties, but 46.7% of the ones behind an eviction filing — and it is not a Pinellas quirk: 54.3% Pinellas, 46.2% Lee, 45.7% Sarasota, 21.0% Collier, every one far above its own county baseline.
Read that narrowly, because the scope is the point: houses and condos. Apartment buildings are not in it at all — not one filing here lands on a property coded as a ten-or-more-unit complex, though 1,572 sit in these counties. Apartment evictions are most of the real filing volume, and for a buyer they are noise. Nobody buys the building because unit 4B turned over.
That bruises the familiar “tired landlord” picture, and we should say so plainly because we have written that picture ourselves. The worn-out mom-and-pop landlord is real, but among these houses and condos only 44.3% have nothing but people on title. They are the minority. Most of the time the filer is a business, and a business does not get tired. It reprices, refills the unit, moves on. If you are buying rentals off eviction filings, more than half your list needs a different opening line.
Divorce filings are the mirror image — 5.4% against a 25.7% baseline. Article X, section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution provides that “The owner of homestead real estate, joined by the spouse if married, may alienate the homestead by mortgage, sale or gift.” The marital home is bound to two named human beings, and it stays in their names until a judge divides it.
Probate is the third case: almost no companies (1.0%), but trusts at 26.7% against 16.7%. The obvious objection is that we counted trust filings as trust properties — so we removed them, and the share is still 23.1%. A trust on title does not mean probate was avoided. Usually it means the trust was funded incompletely, and the house is what got left out.
Who can actually sign: three title forms, three answers
The three title forms give three different answers to the only question that closes a deal.
| Title held by | Who can convey | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| A company | Whoever its governing documents empower | F.S. 605.0302 |
| A trust | The trustee, generally without a court order | F.S. 736.0816(2), 736.1017 |
| An estate | The personal representative, often only after the court says so | F.S. 733.613(1) |
Company-titled. Florida's LLC act contemplates a recorded statement of authority, which section 605.0302 makes “conclusive in favor of a person who gives value in reliance on the grant without knowledge to the contrary.” Most small Florida LLCs have never recorded one, so the closing agent asks for articles, operating agreement and a signed resolution instead. Budget the extra week.
Trust-titled. The easiest of the three, which almost nobody expects. Section 736.0816 gives a trustee power to “Acquire or sell property, for cash or on credit, at public or private sale.” You will not get the trust document: section 736.1017 lets the trustee hand over a certification of trust “instead of furnishing a copy of the trust instrument.” Asking to read the whole trust marks you as new.
Estate-titled. The slowest, and the one that kills timelines. Under section 733.613(1), where the will confers no power of sale, “No title shall pass until the court authorizes or confirms the sale.” A signed contract with a personal representative is not yet a deal. If you work Florida probate leads, that sentence should set your inspection periods.
The tax roll checks the name for you
Owner names are messy, so we tested the classification against something unrelated: the homestead exemption. Section 196.031(1)(a) grants it to a person who “in good faith makes the property his or her permanent residence.” A company cannot. So company-titled homes should almost never carry homestead.
| Title held by | Parcels | Carrying homestead | Median estimated value |
|---|---|---|---|
| A company | 88,634 | 4.8% | $330,208 |
| A trust (no company) | 192,312 | 53.9% | $496,837 |
| People only | 859,630 | 64.5% | $380,952 |
It holds: 4.8% against 64.5% — a tax field we never touched moving exactly as the statute says it should. Trusts land between at 53.9%, also correct, because section 196.041(2) extends the exemption to someone whose “possessory right… is based upon an instrument granting to him or her a beneficial interest for life.” The beneficiary still lives there.
The value column is the part worth stealing. Trust-titled homes run a median estimated value of $496,837 — about 30% above people-only homes and half again the company-titled median. Trusts are where the equity sits. For a wholesaler, that is a targeting instruction.
What this data does not tell you
- It measures how title is recorded, not who is in charge. A person can own through their own single-member LLC and sleep there every night. The tax roll shows the LLC.
- Estate labeling is a county convention. Estate suffixes appear on 3.1% of Lee parcels but effectively none in Sarasota — a difference in how tax rolls are written, not in how often people die. Estates are kept out of the county table for that reason.
- Homestead exemption is a tax status, not a court ruling on protected homestead.
- Houses and condominiums, not apartment buildings. Purpose-built rental complexes are outside this data by design, which is why the eviction share is not a claim about eviction filings generally.
- Four counties, not Florida. Nothing here is a statewide figure.
- A filing is a signal, not an intention to sell. An eviction says a landlord had a bad quarter, not that they want out.
How PocketLeads fits
PocketLeads is the only fully automated same-day courthouse platform for Florida. New filings from Collier, Lee, Pinellas and Sarasota — with more counties coming — reach your dashboard the same day, matched to the property, the owners of record, the open mortgages and the equity picture. The entity question is answered before you dial, not after you have written the offer.
Every subscription includes skip-traced phones and emails, valuations and equity estimates, open mortgage data, FEMA flood zone analysis, direct mail and campaign automation. Each lead type is its own subscription, priced per county from $39/month, 25% off at three or more types. Two honest limits: skip-tracing does not hit on every record, and no filing proves somebody wants to sell. What it does do is stop you opening a call to a property management company the way you would open a call to a widow.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out who really owns a Florida property held by an LLC?
The tax roll gives you the LLC's name. Ownership and management come from its Florida Division of Corporations filing; signing authority from the operating agreement or a recorded statement of authority under F.S. 605.0302. Your closing agent verifies it before funding.
Can a trustee sell a Florida house without going to court?
Generally yes. F.S. 736.0816(2) gives a trustee power to “Acquire or sell property, for cash or on credit, at public or private sale,” subject to limits in the trust instrument and the Florida Trust Code — the main practical difference from estate-titled property.
Why are so many Florida eviction filings on company-owned houses and condos?
Across our four counties, 46.7% of the single-family homes and condominiums behind an eviction filing are company-titled, against 7.7% of that housing stock generally. Holding rentals through an entity is standard above a couple of units. Note the scope: apartment complexes are not counted here at all, so this is not a figure about eviction filings as a whole.
Does a trust on the deed mean the property avoids probate?
Not reliably. In our data 26.7% of probate-linked properties are trust-titled — 23.1% even after removing every trust-sourced filing. Trusts are often funded incompletely, and real property is a common omission.
Which Florida counties have the most entity-owned homes?
Of the four we cover, Collier leads at 31.8%, then Lee 28.1%, Sarasota 26.4% and Pinellas 19.0%. Trust ownership drives most of the spread.
Check the deed before you write the offer
Every number above came from public records anyone can look up one parcel at a time. The work is doing it across a county before your competition does it across a street. PocketLeads delivers Florida court filings the same day, matched to the property and the people behind it — including the ones that turn out not to be people. Get my free leads — no card to start — or see how it works for wholesaling and fix-and-flip.
Related: Florida Absentee Owners reads the same parcels by where the owner's mail goes rather than whose name is on the deed. Florida Homestead and Probate covers what the homestead exemption does and does not settle.
Sources. Fla. Const. art. X, § 4(c); §§ 196.031(1)(a), 196.041(2), 605.0302, 733.613(1), 736.0816, 736.1017, Fla. Stat. Property figures are PocketLeads measurements of county tax-roll records for Collier, Lee, Pinellas and Sarasota, taken 20 August 2026.