Cutting vacancy: how to lease a rental faster.

An empty rental has no slow months for its costs. The mortgage, the insurance, the association dues and the utilities keep running while the rent stops. The good news is that most of the delay is within the owner’s control, and Florida law gives you more room to plan ahead than many owners use. Every legal rule below is quoted from the statute or regulation itself and linked at the end.

We do not publish a South Florida “average days on market” figure. It varies by city, size, price point and season, and a single number would mislead more owners than it would help. What we can show is what a vacant week costs you, and how to shorten it.

1. What a vacant week actually costs

The short answer: every vacant month costs one full month’s rent, which is one-twelfth of the year’s income, before counting the bills you still pay while the unit is empty. On a $3,000-a-month rental, each empty week is roughly $692 that does not come back.

These are worked examples, not market rents: annual rent divided by 365 days or 52 weeks. Run the same arithmetic on your own rent. It is the number to hold up against every decision below, especially the asking price.

2. Start before the current tenant leaves

The short answer: Florida lets a fixed-term lease require the tenant to give notice of moving out between 30 and 60 days before the lease ends, under Fla. Stat. § 83.575(1). If your lease uses the full 60 days, you have up to two months to market the unit while it is still occupied.

The statute has conditions you need to meet for that clause to work:

1. It must be mutual. A clause requiring the tenant’s notice is valid only if it “also requires the landlord to notify the tenant” within the same period if the lease will not be renewed.
2. The window has limits. A lease “may not require less than 30 days’ notice or more than 60 days’ notice from either the tenant or the landlord.”
3. Penalties need a reminder. Liquidated damages for a tenant who leaves without the required notice apply only if you send written notice of the tenant’s obligations “within 15 days before the start of the notification period,” listing “all fees, penalties, and other charges” (§ 83.575(2)).
4. Month-to-month is shorter. A month-to-month tenancy ends on “not less than 30 days’ notice prior to the end of any monthly period” under § 83.57(3), so you get at most a month of runway.

The practical move is to ask about renewal well before the notice window opens, rather than waiting to find out at the deadline. A tenant who has not decided is often a tenant who would renew if asked. Our guide to breaking a lease in Florida covers what happens when a tenant leaves early instead.

3. Show the unit while it is still occupied

The short answer: under Fla. Stat. § 83.53(1), a tenant “shall not unreasonably withhold consent” for the landlord to enter and “exhibit the dwelling unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants.” Showing during the notice period is lawful, but it runs on the tenant’s consent, not a fixed notice rule.

Owners often assume the 24-hour rule covers showings. It does not. The statute defines “reasonable notice” as at least 24 hours, between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., only “for the purpose of repair.” For showings, § 83.53(2) allows entry with the tenant’s consent, in an emergency, when the tenant unreasonably withholds consent, or when the tenant has been absent for half a rental period. And § 83.53(3) adds that the landlord “shall not abuse the right of access nor use it to harass the tenant.”

In practice, a cooperative outgoing tenant is worth more than any clause. Agree on showing windows in writing, give the same 24 hours you would for a repair, group viewings together rather than scattering them across the week, and keep the tenant told of who is coming.

4. Price from what is leasing, not from what you hope

The short answer: the asking rent is the biggest single lever on vacancy. Price from comparable units that have actually leased nearby, not from the highest listings still sitting on the market, because a listing that has not rented is evidence of a price that did not work.

The arithmetic from section 1 makes the trade-off concrete. On a $3,000 rental, cutting the rent by $100 costs $1,200 over a 12-month lease. That is about the same as 12 vacant days. If an overpriced unit sits empty for three or four extra weeks, the owner who held out for the higher number ends the year behind.

If you want a number built from what is actually leasing near your property in Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale or elsewhere in Broward County, the rental analysis is free.

5. Be rent-ready the day the keys come back

The short answer: book the move-out inspection, cleaning, paint and repairs before the tenant leaves, so the work starts the day the keys come back. Every day spent finding a contractor after move-out is a day of rent that cannot be recovered.

1. Walk the unit with the tenant’s consent during the notice period and list what will need work.
2. Get contractor dates confirmed before move-out, not after.
3. Photograph the unit on the day it is returned. It protects the deposit claim and gives you listing photos once the work is done.
4. Calendar the deposit deadline. Florida gives the landlord 30 days to send a claim on the deposit; our security deposit guide covers the exact rules.

6. Write a listing that is legal and complete

The short answer: describe the property and the terms, never the person you hope will rent it. Fla. Stat. § 760.23(3) makes it unlawful to publish any advertisement that “indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination” based on a protected characteristic, and that applies to the listing, the sign and the phone call.

Beyond staying lawful, a complete listing saves days. Put the rent, deposit, lease length, pet policy, application criteria and move-in date in the listing itself, so the inquiries you get are from people who already fit. In Broward County, lawful source of income, including Section 8 vouchers, is a protected classification under the county ordinance, so criteria must not screen voucher holders out. Our fair housing guide covers the wording rules in detail.

7. Decide on applications quickly and consistently

The short answer: written criteria, set before the listing goes live and applied in the order applications arrive, let you approve a qualified applicant the same week instead of comparing everyone at the end. Speed matters, because a good applicant is usually applying elsewhere too.

Income, credit and rental-history standards are lawful when they are written down and applied identically to everyone. If you decline someone because of a credit report, federal law requires an adverse action notice. Our tenant screening guide walks through both.

8. Consider a fee in lieu of a security deposit

The short answer: since July 2023, Fla. Stat. § 83.491 lets a landlord offer tenants a fee instead of an upfront security deposit, which lowers the cash a tenant needs to move in. It is optional, but once offered it comes with strict disclosure rules and must be offered to every new tenant on the premises.

Whether it is worth offering depends on the property and on how the fee program is run. We do not publish a figure for how much it speeds up leasing, because we have no sourced number for it.

9. Have the lease paperwork ready to sign

The short answer: a lease can be delayed by missing disclosures. In Florida that means at least the radon notice, the landlord’s notice address, and for older homes the federal lead-based paint disclosure. Prepare them with the listing, not after the applicant is approved.

The last row is often the slowest. If the unit is in a condominium that approves tenants, submit the application to the association as soon as you approve the applicant. Our guide to renting out a Florida condo covers what an association may charge and require.

Did any of this change in 2026? No. We checked the history line of each Florida section cited here on flsenate.gov. The most recent amendments are from 2025 (§§ 83.575, 83.50 and 83.49), 2024 (§ 83.491), 2023 (§ 83.57) and 2022 (§ 83.53).

10. The cheapest vacancy is the one that never happens

The short answer: a renewal has no vacant days, no turnover work and no leasing effort. Responding to maintenance requests quickly, raising rent in line with the market rather than ahead of it, and asking about renewal early are what keep a good tenant from looking elsewhere.

The checklist

1. Use a mutual 30-to-60-day end-of-lease notice clause that meets § 83.575, and send the 15-day reminder if you want liquidated damages to apply.
2. Ask about renewal before the notice window opens.
3. Agree on showing times with the outgoing tenant and start marketing as soon as notice arrives.
4. Price from comparable units that actually leased, and compare any price cut to the cost of a vacant week.
5. Book cleaning, paint and repairs before move-out.
6. Put rent, deposit, terms, pet policy and criteria in the listing, and describe the property, never the tenant.
7. Write screening criteria in advance and decide applications in the order they arrive.
8. Have the radon notice, notice address, and lead disclosure if built before 1978 ready before the applicant is approved.
9. Submit association applications the same day you approve a tenant.

CIMCO handles tenant sourcing, screening, leasing and renewals across Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and the rest of Broward County as part of full-service management at a flat 8% fee. For what that fee does and does not include across the market, see what property management costs in South Florida.

This is general information, not legal advice. Florida landlord–tenant law is detailed and fact-specific, and statutes change. Verify anything you intend to act on against the current Florida Statutes Chapter 83, Part II, and consult a Florida attorney before serving notices or filing an eviction.