MIDDLEBURG, Fla. – A Jacksonville-area woman’s experience renting from one of the nation’s largest landlords is shedding light on a broader housing issue that’s now the subject of a federal investigation.
Rebecca Jove has been renting the same Middleburg home for a decade. But what started as a stable place to live turned into a financial trap, one she said made it nearly impossible to save for a home of her own.
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“You can’t cook, you can’t do laundry. The floors are sticky. It’s hotter in the house than it is outside,” Jove told News4JAX, explaining she went four weeks without air conditioning.
Jove also said mold and maintenance issues have piled up over the years, including an unpatched hole in the wall from a leak “three or four years ago.”
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Jove rents from Invitation Homes, a real estate investment trust that owns more than 80,000 single-family homes across the country, including hundreds in Northeast Florida. According to Jove, the rent has steadily climbed over the last ten years, increasing every year, and is now almost double the original rent.
“We started off at a fair price and ended up paying far too much,” she said. “It has impacted our ability to actually get out and buy a house.”
Now, the company she rents from is one of four corporate landlords under scrutiny by Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff.
Senate investigation underway
Ossoff launched an inquiry into four large companies: Invitation Homes, Main Street Renewal, Tricon Residential, and Progress Residential. He claims these firms are buying up homes in bulk, turning them into rentals, and in the process, pricing out families who want to buy.
“More and more Georgians who are renting instead of buying are facing mistreatment or abusive practices by corporate landlords,” Ossoff said during a recent press conference.
“Since 2009, public reports and research have identified an increase across the country in large national firms buying up single-family homes in bulk to convert them into rental properties.”
Ossoff says his staff has interviewed more than 160 witnesses — including renters, realtors, housing policy experts and local officials, who’ve all raised concerns about affordability and access to homeownership.
Jove’s story in Florida mirrors what Ossoff says is happening in Georgia and beyond. While she and her family are finally preparing to buy a home, she says the years spent renting and paying higher rent each year delayed that process.
“It’s been a very, very long road,” she said.
Policy solutions in the works
While the federal investigation plays out, new policies are being proposed at both the state and federal levels.
Earlier this year, Sen. Ossoff and former Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody introduced the HELPER Act of 2025, a bipartisan proposal to create a new home loan program through the Federal Housing Administration. The program would help teachers, first responders, and law enforcement officers buy homes in the communities they serve.
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Here in Florida, Rep. Berny Jacques (R–Pinellas County) filed legislation aimed at curbing large-scale home purchases by investment firms. The bill, introduced earlier this year, would have allowed local governments to zone land specifically for single-family housing to restrict bulk investor ownership. However, the measure stalled in the state Senate and didn’t move forward.
News4JAX reached out to Invitation Homes for comment on Jove’s experience and the Senate investigation. A spokesperson responded with the following statement:
“It is always our intent to provide high-quality homes and a professional leasing and property management experience for our residents. We remain in contact with Ms. Jove after installing a new HVAC system in her home earlier this month.”