How to Find Short-Term Rental Owners With Multiple Properties
Owner names on permit records show who holds one rental and who holds dozens. How to count properties per owner, where multi-property operators cluster, and the limits of the method.
On this page
To find short-term rental owners with several properties, group permit records by the owner or licensee name and count how many different property addresses each name holds. In the PermitPulse city files outside Texas, Appleton, WI has the highest share of records under names with two or more properties (39%), and Florida's largest single licensee name appears on 86 addresses, as of 2026-10-08.
Multi-property owners are a different customer from a homeowner with one rental. They are management companies, investors and families with a handful of homes. Property managers usually want to skip them, because they are already managed. Software companies, lenders and maintenance contractors usually want them first. Either way you need to know who they are.
The method
- Pick a register that publishes names. Florida's license file, Nashville's permit register, Wisconsin's license file and San Diego's STRO register name the holder on nearly every record. The Texas tax roll names the business on the permit. Some city registers publish no names at all, and the method does not work there.
- Group within one state. Common names repeat across the country, so a name only counts as one owner inside a single state's file.
- Count addresses, not records. Registers like Nashville's keep every renewal and every expired permit, so one property can appear many times under the same name. Counting distinct property addresses collapses those repeats.
- Set thresholds. We report two: names on two or more addresses, and names on ten or more. Two or more catches small investors; ten or more is mostly management companies and larger investors.
Why counting addresses matters
Madison, Tennessee shows the trap. It sits inside Metro Nashville's register, which keeps old permits alongside current ones. Counting raw records, most names there repeat. Counting distinct addresses, only 31 of the 475 Madison records sit under a name with two or more properties. The difference is renewals of the same home, not extra homes.
Where multi-property owners cluster
City files with the highest share of records under names that hold two or more properties in their state:
| City | Records | Name on 2+ properties | Name on 10+ properties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appleton, WI | 149 | 39% | 13 |
| Wisconsin Dells, WI | 328 | 36% | 57 |
| Aspen, CO | 747 | 25% | 0 |
| Cable, WI | 115 | 25% | 0 |
| Key West, FL | 375 | 24% | 22 |
| Treasure Island, FL | 124 | 20% | 12 |
| Destin, FL | 900 | 19% | 60 |
| Miramar Beach, FL | 781 | 19% | 45 |
| Seminole, FL | 317 | 19% | 24 |
| Anna Maria, FL | 165 | 19% | 12 |
| Green Bay, WI | 673 | 19% | 25 |
| Hallandale Beach, FL | 144 | 18% | 0 |
| Aventura, FL | 151 | 17% | 2 |
| Davenport, FL | 2,397 | 16% | 108 |
| Miami, FL | 1,792 | 16% | 36 |
Texas is left out of this table. Its hotel-tax roll includes hotels and motels, so the biggest names there are hotel groups as well as rental managers; the Texas guide shows how to split them by NAICS code first.
Florida in detail
Florida's license file names every licensee, which makes it the best state for this. Of the 52,029 Florida records, 5,747 (11%) sit under a name with two or more Florida addresses and 996 under names with ten or more. The towns with the most records under large names:
| Town | Licenses | Under names with 10+ | Under names with 2+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Davenport | 2,397 | 108 | 383 |
| Destin | 900 | 60 | 169 |
| Santa Rosa Beach | 1,132 | 49 | 157 |
| Miramar Beach | 781 | 45 | 146 |
| Naples | 1,067 | 42 | 104 |
| Miami | 1,792 | 36 | 284 |
| Indian Rocks Beach | 683 | 36 | 102 |
| Inlet Beach | 521 | 28 | 72 |
| Seminole | 317 | 24 | 59 |
| Kissimmee | 2,788 | 23 | 413 |
The limits
- Spelling. Names are grouped as the register prints them. "Smith Rentals LLC" and "Smith Rentals, LLC" count as two names unless someone merges them, so the counts are a floor.
- LLCs. One investor can hold properties through several companies, each with its own name. The register cannot connect them; a state business-entity search sometimes can.
- Licensee is not always owner. In Florida, a management company can hold the license for a home it manages. A big name on many licenses may be a manager, not an owner.
- Address formats. Two records for the same unit written differently ("Apt 4" and "#4") count as two addresses. That nudges counts up slightly.
Who uses the list, and how
- Property managers filter the big names out and pitch the single-property owners.
- PMS and revenue-management vendors start with names on ten or more properties.
- Lenders look for names on two to nine properties: investors still building portfolios.
- Maintenance contractors pitch one service agreement for many addresses.
Every city page on this site shows its own counts for names on two and on ten or more properties, next to the state figure. Exports carry the name on every record, so you can run the grouping yourself on the towns you cover.