The St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. "Last year, New Tampa real estate agent Sabrina Westenbarger sensed that home buyers were disappearing. She branched into managing rental properties. Real estate investor Rob Duncan sensed the same trend. And in Pasco County, Betsy Morgan has seen accounts double in the past two years in her office in Trinity."

"All are profiting in the hangover following the homebuilding boom. All are signing up clients who need to rent their houses, townhouses and condos because they cannot sell them in an overbuilt housing market."

"'Now there are more than just intentional investors,' says Morgan, who has worked in residential property management for 23 years. 'They're what I call the accidental landlords. They're not always the happiest or most knowledgeable of landlords.'"

"Yet, they collectively own a flood of homes for rent."

"Over the past three years as the number of owner-occupied dwellings around Tampa Bay increased 5 percent, the dwellings with tenants, or needing them, rose 32 percent. In Hillsborough County, that included an increase of nearly 30, 000 properties whose owners live elsewhere."

"'You can get a $260,000 house for $1,200 a month,' said Westenbarger."

"'Rents are trending down,' said Lincoln Crone, president of St. Petersburg's Alliance Property Management. 'I think that's more of a temporary situation. There's a lot of competition for tenants now.'"

"As of last week, Westenbarger and her daughters were managing 15 homes with tenants, and were trying to find tenants for an additional 30 clients. Her clients fall into either of two groups: people who bought houses they can no longer afford, or investors who bought houses to sell, but can't find buyers."

"Many are like Kevin Schmook, of Land O'Lakes, who seized on a popular investment tactic: make a $10,000 down payment on a house, then sell it for a $30,000 to $50,000 profit a couple of years later."

"Schmook and his wife both in the sales and marketing fields, profited hugely in 2004, when they sold their home and bought a larger one. So the next year, they invested $200,000 in a townhouse in Wesley Chapel. Early last year, they added a $320,000 house."

"Now, the Schmooks are losing money on both and seeking a tenant for the townhouse."

"'A lot of owners, by the time they've waited six months and made the decision to rent, are already in financial distress,' said Jeanne Gavish, former president of the Hernando County Association of Realtors, who tried renting and soon returned to sales."

"'You're trying to rent it just to stop the bleeding,' said Gary Schraut, owner of a real estate brokerage in Brooksville, who discouraged investors during the boom and avoids handling rentals now."

"'They want to cover their costs, but you have to tell them, 'The market's going to determine your rent,' said New Tampa's Duncan. 'They'll rent at a loss of $600 to $700 a month and try to figure out what to do.'"

"Meanwhile, their insurance costs and taxes are spurting up, unimpeded by any caps. The double-whammy of rising costs and sinking rents, said St. Petersburg's Crone, 'is starting to approach what I see as a crisis on the horizon.'"

The News Journal. "Local furniture store owner Bill Campbell's business is tied directly to how well the real estate market is performing. And housing sales are in a prolonged slump."

"For Campbell and many other business owners, large and small, it's no secret Pensacola is slogging through a post-Hurricane Ivan economic slump."

"The Escambia-Santa Rosa market is bedeviled by a record number of homes for sale, stubbornly high asking prices and property tax and insurance issues."

"Homes are selling, especially homes priced at market, said Doug Gooch, president of the Pensacola Association of Realtors. 'Houses priced at market are moving,' Gooch said. 'If the pricing is right, that's the key.'"

"Gooch said the Pensacola area was in a housing boom before Ivan struck, and the storm damage actually accelerated the end of that boom."

"In April 2005, when the housing market was at or near its peak, Gooch said 675 homes sold. 439 homes sold in the two-county area in March. But the current inventory of homes for sale, about 7,100, remains stubbornly high and actually has been climbing for the past several months."

"Veteran Pensacola Realtor Alexis Bolin said the huge inventory 'is responsible for the declining prices as we have an over supply and less demand. The only way this market is going to change is for the inventory to be depleted, which isn't happening any time soon.'"

"Bolin said that the Pensacola area prices appear to be falling about 1 percent per month. 'Unless the sellers get their homes priced right for this market, we are going to continue to have a depressed market,' she said."

"Danny Speranzo, president of Classic Home Builders, said he and his business partner are weathering the economic storm by being smart and selective about the properties they buy and develop."

"'We've been in business for 24 years, and it's a roller coaster business with its ups and downs,' Speranzo said, 'but (the housing market) is as slow as I've ever seen it.'"

The News Press. "When the housing industry was hot, builders coaxed people with no money to borrow huge amounts to buy investment houses. Now prices are down and the people are trying to get out of their contracts while their lenders and builders are threatening to come after them legally."

"The courts will sort out who's legally right, but who has the moral high ground? 'This is a classic business ethics situation,' said Cape Coral-based ethics consultant Dawn Marie Driscoll."

"A lot of people involved on both sides of the debate have strong opinions. 'It's your signature' when an investor signs a construction loan to build a house, said Karen Quanstrom, a loan officer specializing in construction loans for SunTrust Bank's Fort Myers branch. 'These are things that people did to themselves because they didn't think through the process.'"

"Besides, she said, some buyers are engaging in arguably unethical behavior themselves. For example, they instruct banks to hold off giving a builder his last payment in order to stall the completion of a house the buyer doesn't really want to purchase."

"As a result, Quanstrom said, 'Now there are builders who are going to be either destroyed or financially harmed as a result of that.'"

"Lenders and real estate agents should honestly inform buyers of the risks involved, she said. 'A few people said to me, 'What is the worst-case scenario?' Quanstrom said. 'I said to them, 'You have to be prepared for six months' payments and no income.' I feel obligated morally to tell them that, and I did.'"

"Some investors decided to back out because of her advice, she said, but many forged ahead despite of it."

"Real estate agent Brett Ellis in Fort Myers said there were deals he refused to put investors in during the boom and he stopped putting people into investment home purchases when the market became too overheated in 2005."

"What's legally allowable isn't always what's in a client's best interests, he said. 'I can sleep at night.'"