Short answer: FastCashAnyHome pays cash for Tampa houses, condos and land, as-is. You won’t pay us fees or commissions, you don’t have to fix anything first, and it’s a cash sale, so there’s no bank loan or appraisal on your side. You get an initial cash offer, confirmed after a quick walkthrough, and closing is 30 days or less. Call or text 267-388-0347.
Get a no-obligation cash offer: enter the property address and your phone number below.
If your Tampa house is dry, sound and ready to show, put it on the market; a financed buyer will likely pay more. This page is for the other cases. A house that took water in 2024 and is waiting on a substantial damage decision. A code lien that showed up in the title search. An estate in Hillsborough probate, a tax certificate, or a foreclosure judgment with a sale date. Those are where Tampa’s own rules decide what a house is worth to a buyer.
After Helene and Milton: the 50% rule decides what a damaged house is worth
In December 2024, the City of Tampa began mailing Substantial Damage letters. After the hurricanes, the City said, it “conducted a visual assessment of structures within the flood hazard area” and flagged the ones that would need a substantial damage determination before any remodeling.
The City’s definition is short: “Substantially damaged means the cost to repair your house or business is more than half of its value. If it is substantially damaged, it cannot be repaired without meeting current floodplain and building code requirements.” In practice, the City added, that may mean you “need to elevate your home.”
That one sentence changes the math on a damaged Tampa house:
- Under the line, the house can be repaired more or less the way it was built.
- Over the line, the whole structure has to meet today’s floodplain rules. For an older slab house in a flood zone, that can mean elevating it, which costs far more than the drywall and flooring the owner was planning to replace.
Hillsborough County’s own guidance, written for properties outside city limits in FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas (zones A, AE, V, VE, AO, AH, AR and A99), adds two details. The 50% is measured against the building’s market value, using either the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser’s market value or an appraisal. And repair costs “include permits pulled within the prior 12 months,” so a homeowner can’t split one big repair into several small permits to stay under the line.
What this means if you’re selling:
- If you got a letter, fill out the determination form. The City called that the next step, and a buyer will ask what the determination says. If you already applied for a repair permit, the City says the form was completed then.
- A buyer is pricing the worst case until there’s a decision. A house that might need elevation is a different purchase from one that just needs drywall.
- You don’t have to rebuild to sell. We’ll make an offer on a storm-damaged Tampa house as it stands, whether or not the determination is back, and price in what the rules will require.
If the damage was mostly water inside the house, our guide to selling a house with water damage covers the repair-or-sell math.
The flood disclosure every Tampa seller now signs
Florida law now requires the seller of a home to give the buyer a flood disclosure at or before signing the contract. It’s a set form with three questions: did flooding damage the property while you owned it, did you file a flood insurance claim (the National Flood Insurance Program included), and did you get flood assistance, FEMA included.
For a lot of Tampa sellers after 2024, honest answers are “yes, yes and yes.” That’s not a reason to hide anything, and it doesn’t stop us from making an offer. It does narrow the pool of buyers who need a mortgage and flood insurance, which is part of why a cash, as-is sale gets considered here.
Foreclosure in Hillsborough County: every weekday, online, at 10 a.m.
Florida forecloses through the courts, so a Tampa foreclosure is a lawsuit that ends in a final judgment with a sale date. The sale is run by the Hillsborough County Clerk of Court, and the Clerk’s page is specific about how:
- When and where. “Sales are held every weekday, Monday through Friday at 10:00 a.m. online.”
- Bidders put money up front. Each bidder posts a deposit of 5 percent of the expected high bid, and the winner pays the balance by noon the next business day.
- The redemption deadline. “The right of redemption ends upon the issuance of the Certificate of Sale.” Until then, an owner can pay what the judgment says is owed and keep the house from being sold.
- The last ten days. A party can object within 10 calendar days after the Certificate of Sale is filed, and the Clerk issues the Certificate of Title once those 10 days pass without another pending action.
If the auction brings in more than the judgment, the final judgment itself tells a homestead owner they can claim that surplus without a lawyer. Read it before you sign anything with anyone offering to “recover” it for you.
Selling before the auction is the other route. A fast sale may help some homeowners avoid a completed foreclosure, but timing matters. If a sale date is already scheduled, contact your lender, an attorney or a HUD-approved housing counselor right away. Our guide to selling a house in foreclosure has the general picture.
Tax deed sales: Thursdays, run by the Clerk
Unpaid property taxes follow a different path. The Tax Collector first sells a tax certificate on the debt. If it’s still unpaid two years after April 1 of the year it was issued, the certificate holder can apply for a tax deed, and in Hillsborough County the Clerk runs the resulting auction.
Two things from the Clerk’s page stand out. First, a tax deed sale “does not involve a court order and a case is not filed in court,” so there’s no judge or court date to watch. Second, the sales are “held on Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. online,” and a property marked “redeemed” is pulled from the list. Under Florida law, the owner can redeem any time before the tax deed is issued.
If you’d rather sell than redeem, the back taxes and the certificate holder’s interest come out of the sale price at closing. Get the payoff from the Tax Collector so the number on your closing statement is exact.
This page is for general information only and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Anyone dealing with foreclosure, probate, code liens, flood damage determinations, back taxes, or a legal deadline should consider speaking with a qualified attorney, tax professional, or housing counselor before making a decision.
City of Tampa code liens: a $25 search and a written settlement schedule
Inside city limits, an old code case can follow a house to closing. The City is direct about who’s on the hook: “The owner of record has the responsibility of resolving any active code action, failure to resolve the violations may result in a lien against the property after conveyance.”
Finding out what’s owed. The City runs its code-lien and utility-balance search through a service called Conduits. It costs $25 (non-refundable), results come within 7 business days, and the payoff settlement letter is good for 45 days.
What a lien can settle for. The Mayor’s Executive Order 2022-16 publishes the settlement guidelines. Once the violation is fixed and an inspector signs an affidavit of compliance, the City’s Legal Department may settle the daily fines on a sliding scale based on how late the fix came:
- A homestead: $250 if the violation was corrected within a year of the compliance deadline, $500 between one and two years, $1,000 after two years.
- Any other property (a rental, a vacant house, an inherited house nobody lives in): $500 within a year, $1,000 between one and two years, $3,000 between two and three, $4,000 between three and four, and $5,000 after four years.
Two limits apply. The City’s “hard costs,” meaning money it spent to fix the violation itself (mowing, boarding, demolition), aren’t negotiable and get paid in full. And the Legal Department can depart from the schedule for medical, physical or financial hardship.
When the house is being sold. The order has a “New Owner Program”: when a property with an uncorrected violation “is being or has been transferred to a bona-fide third party in an arm’s length transaction,” the City may offer the buyer a settlement on the condition that the buyer fixes the violation by a set date.
Why this matters to you: a code lien on a Tampa house usually isn’t the number on the original fine. We’ll make an offer on a house with an open code case. We’ll want the case number and the lien search, and we’ll factor in the fix and the settlement path rather than asking you to pay the full fine before closing.
Inherited a Tampa house? Hillsborough probate, with a lawyer
The Hillsborough County Clerk’s probate page puts it plainly: “Probate is necessary whenever a deceased person leaves titled assets in their name alone,” and “Most probate cases … in the State of Florida require an attorney.” The Clerk keeps the files and makes them available at its Tampa Edgecomb courthouse and Plant City locations.
A few things that shape the timeline:
- Summary administration, the shorter route, is open under Florida law when the estate subject to administration (less exempt property) is $150,000 or less, or the person died more than two years ago.
- A minor heir can add a step. The Clerk notes that a guardianship is filed when a child inherits money or property worth more than $15,000 from a relative. If a grandchild is one of the heirs to a house, that can mean a guardian of the property signs for them.
- Homestead rules can give a surviving spouse a life estate and the children the remainder. Our Florida page explains who signs and why property taxes reset after a sale.
We’ll make an offer on an inherited Tampa house as-is, contents and all, and close once the personal representative has authority to sell or the court has entered its order.
Tampa housing, by the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey (ACS 2024 1-year, Tampa city):
- Exactly half of occupied homes in the City of Tampa (50.0%) are owner-occupied. Across Hillsborough County it’s 61.4%.
- The median value of an owner-occupied home in the city is $494,400; in the county, $420,000 (table B25077).
- Tampa’s housing has an old core. The median home was built in 1987, but 24.6% of the city’s units predate 1960 and 9.5% predate 1940 (tables B25035 and B25034).
- At the other end, 16.5% of the city’s units are in buildings of 50 or more units, and 21.7% were built in 2010 or later.
So two different Tampas sell side by side: older bungalows and block homes where wiring, roofs and cast-iron drains come up at inspection, and newer condos where the association’s paperwork and any special assessment matter more than the walls.
Tampa Bay is more than one county
Across the bay and up the coast, the rules change with the county line, and so does the housing.
St. Petersburg and Clearwater are in Pinellas County, so their foreclosures, tax deeds and probate run through Pinellas’s clerk, not Hillsborough’s. Of the four bay-area counties we pulled, Pinellas has the oldest housing, with a median build year of 1976. St. Petersburg’s median is 1970, and 36.3% of its homes predate 1960. Clearwater leans toward larger buildings: 31.4% of its units are in buildings with 20 or more units.
Pasco County, to the north, is the most owner-occupied of the four counties we pulled (74.9%), and mobile homes make up 16.7% of its housing units. A mobile home on its own land sells differently from a house, and we buy both.
Back inside Hillsborough, Plant City to the east is mostly single-family detached (67.6%) and two-thirds owner-occupied, while in Temple Terrace 21.8% of homes were built in the 1970s, so systems from that era may be on an inspector’s list.
We buy houses, condos and land throughout the bay area. Census sources for each: ACS 2024 1-year for the counties, St. Petersburg and Clearwater; ACS 2020-2024 5-year for Plant City and Temple Terrace.
What selling to us looks like
- Start with a call, a text or the form. 267-388-0347. Give us the address and whatever paperwork you have: a substantial damage letter, a code case number, a tax notice, a foreclosure judgment.
- We come back with an initial cash offer. It reflects nearby sales, the condition, and the rules attached to the house, from the 50% rule to a lien settlement. A quick walkthrough confirms it, and if the number moves, a person tells you why.
- A neutral title company closes. It runs the title search, orders the payoffs (mortgage, liens, back taxes) and holds the funds. Closing is 30 days or less, with flexible closing dates if you need time to move out.
- The money is yours at closing. No fees or commissions to you, and we work out closing costs as part of each deal.
We buy houses with tenants in place, on the leases as written; see selling a rental with tenants. For storm damage beyond water, such as a fire after a power surge, see selling a fire-damaged house.
Listing still wins for many houses. If yours needs little work and nothing official is attached to it, compare both routes in our as-is selling guide before you decide.
Tampa FAQ
My house got a Substantial Damage letter from the City. Can I still sell it?
The letter doesn’t stop a sale. It means the City wants a determination before repairs. Fill out the form the City sent, keep a copy, and share the result with any buyer. We’ll make an offer either way and price in what the determination requires.
What is the 50% rule in Tampa?
If repairs cost more than half the building’s value, the whole structure has to meet current floodplain and building code rules, which can mean elevating it. In unincorporated Hillsborough County, permits from the prior 12 months count toward the total.
When are Hillsborough County foreclosure auctions?
Every weekday at 10:00 a.m., online, run by the Clerk of Court. The owner’s right to redeem ends when the Certificate of Sale is issued.
How do I find out if there’s a City of Tampa code lien on my house?
Order a lien search through the City’s Conduits service: $25, results within 7 business days, and the payoff letter is valid for 45 days. Under Executive Order 2022-16, fines on a corrected violation may settle on a published scale.
Who handles probate for a Tampa house?
The Hillsborough County Clerk’s probate department keeps the case files, and the Clerk notes that most Florida probate cases require an attorney. Estates at $150,000 or less, or deaths more than two years ago, may qualify for summary administration.
The house flooded and still has tenants. Will you make an offer?
That doesn’t stop us from making an offer. We buy with tenants in place on their current leases, and the flood history goes on Florida’s disclosure form either way.
Are there fees or commissions?
No fees or commissions to you. A mortgage, liens or back taxes come out of the sale proceeds at closing, as in any sale.
More of Florida
The statewide rules on the deed tax, homestead and the January 1 property-tax reset are on Sell My House Fast in Florida. Our Orlando page covers Orange County, where tax deed sales run through the Comptroller and the City’s Code Enforcement Board has its own fine-reduction rules. Our Jacksonville page covers Duval County, most of which is the consolidated City of Jacksonville, where the Clerk runs foreclosure sales online every weekday. Every area with a page is listed on Where We Buy.
Sources
- City of Tampa, Substantial Damage Assessment Letters (posted 12/09/2024), read 2026-10-12
- Hillsborough County, Rebuilding and Repair after the hurricanes (50% Rule), read 2026-10-12
- Florida Statutes 689.302, flood disclosure, read 2026-10-12
- Hillsborough County Clerk, Foreclosure Sales and Tax Deed Sales, read 2026-10-12
- Florida Statutes 197.502 and 197.472, read 2026-10-12
- City of Tampa, Lien Search and Executive Order 2022-16, read 2026-10-12
- Hillsborough County Clerk, Probate, Guardianship and Trust, read 2026-10-12
- Florida Statutes 735.201, summary administration, read 2026-10-12
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year, Tampa city, and ACS 2020-2024 5-year for Plant City and Temple Terrace, read 2026-10-12
FastCashAnyHome · 267-388-0347 · We buy houses in Tampa and across Florida · General information, not legal or tax advice. No obligation.