‘Love Island USA’ Star TJ Palma Proudly Shows Off His Custom Florida Home

“Love Island USA” star TJ Palma finished his debut season on the hit reality TV dating show as a single man, but he has since made some serious commitments: He officially coupled up with co-star Iris Kendall and became a first-time homeowner of a promising rental property in Florida. 

Palma, 24, bought the 1971-built, “classic Florida” ranch-style abode in Tampa, FL, in March in the time between his appearances on Season 7 of the popular Peacock series and Season 2 of its spinoff, “Love Island: Beyond the Villa.”

The Islander, as fans call contestants on the show, has since been hard at work renovating the four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 2,000-square-foot residence, and he reveals to Realtor.com® in the latest Celebrity Sanctuary that the upgrades are such game changers, he believes it would make a great filming location one day.

“It might be a new ‘Love Island,’” teases Palma about the possibility of his newfound reality TV fame coming together with his longtime interest in real estate.

Indeed, investing in appealing properties is what the Pleasantville, NY, native loved doing long before entering the TV show’s famous villa.

While still attending the University of Tampa, the college baseball player started a successful short-term rental company that has now “been up and running for three years.”

“We’re managing other people’s homes, there’s rental arbitrage where we rent other people’s homes and then sublease them, and then there’s properties that I own with other people as well,” he explains.

However, his most recent purchase still marks a professional and personal milestone for the reality TV star.

“This one specifically—[it is the] first one that I bought completely 100% by myself, so it’s cool. It’s pretty special,” he says.

Though Palma acknowledges that entrepreneurship “runs in the family”—his father “had clubs and restaurants,” while his mother is currently “an esthetician [with] a ton of clients”—he strategically parlayed the fundamentals he developed on the baseball field into his growing business.

“I was playing sports all my life, so the showing up on days when you didn’t want to be there and just putting in that work every single day, consistently being disciplined—that’s what sports is all about, and that’s what translated into business for me,” he shares. 

“I was already doing the tough things in baseball and in sports, so doing the tough things in business, it felt very similar,” he adds.

Today, Palma manages a roster of nearly 20 properties in the greater Tampa area, and he’ll soon add his solo acquisition to the rotation once the remodel is complete.

In the meantime, the first-time homebuyer is living “about 15 minutes from the property” in another house that he shares with his two brothers so he can keep a close eye on all the renovations at his investment house.

“It’s about 98% done right now, so I’m over there all the time,” he reveals.

In this edition of Celebrity Sanctuary, Palma offers a preview of the custom amenities he’s adding to the soon-to-be income property, specifically the ones in the souped-up backyard space where he hopes renters will recreate and relax.

While still a work in progress, this house project in particular is helping him build the future of his dreams, Palma notes.

[My house] is in Tampa. I would say [it’s] like a classic Florida ranch, 2,000 square feet, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and there’s a massive garage. Eventually, I don’t think I’m going to do it right now, but I want to turn that into another two bedrooms or another bedroom.

This would be a short-term rental, and this is a property we’re putting a ton of thought into design, what we want to do, how many people we want to sleep.

It’s a very unique property in the sense that the rooms are very big. You could fit a lot in there, and the backyard just had so much potential.

When I’m looking to buy—especially a short-term rental—I want there to be an opportunity to put something in the backyard or add an amenity.

We put in a pickleball court, mini golf, a fire pit. We extended the patio, and now we have a hot tub and gazebo area with loungers. 

There was already a pool there … and then we built up a retaining wall around the pool. It was kind of just the pool and then there was grass going down the hill on both sides, so we did a retaining wall around the whole thing and then we replaced all the fences as well.

The backyard I love, I really do, and the primary room. The wall that we did on the primary room, it was an arch with this, like, concrete plaster, so it looks very texturized. There’s LED strips in there. 

The inside was newly renovated, so we didn’t do much work on the inside. It was just the backyard for the most part, besides the interior design and whatnot … minor stuff on the inside like changing a door and stuff like that. 

It just looks very homey, and that’s kind of the vibe we’re going with for the whole place.

The backyard, it’s very inviting. There’s a big cement wall that’s part of the fence and we have colorful palm trees and leaves [that] give it that Florida vibe and that inviting feel.

It’s a relaxing space, and that’s what we’re trying to portray. Especially with short-term rentals, we’re trying to make it seem like, yes, you’re leaving your home, but you still feel at home in someone else’s house.

We don’t want you to show up at this property and be like, “Oh, my God. I don’t know where I’m at,” and be very uncomfortable. So we’re trying to make it as inviting and warm and homey as possible.

I think [sanctuary], it’s a safe space where you can relax, have peace and quiet, and it’s the spot or that room where you can’t wait to go back and just, like, escape everything that’s been going on, have a mental break, and just stay calm and reset.

I think a standout piece at this place in particular is the pickleball court. I think it’s really cool, and especially the design we have on there is super unique. It’s one of one.

It’s all different, so on one side, it has the sun rising, and then on the other side, it’s a bunch of palm trees during a sunset and the Florida leaves and the palm trees and stuff like that. It was all hand-painted. It took a while and it’s pretty cool. 

I do most of the designing. I started learning it through a friend. My good buddy designs a lot of his Airbnbs and short-term rentals.

When I was starting out, he would give me tips, and he did help me a little bit with this one. But it’s all mostly been just getting input and putting it on a piece of paper and seeing what goes and what doesn’t.  

I feel like recently with some of my other homes, I’ve been doing the same kind of thing. So this one, we’ve definitely mixed [it] up a little bit. We put that cement-looking wall in the primary room with the LED strips and the archway, and the backyard is insanely different. Just trying to mix it up, but I did majority of it.

It’s really hard … with my life now doing the content and being in the space, it seems like it’s all combined because I’m recording everything. I’m in the public eye doing my short-term rental business, so it’s very hard to separate it. 

When I come home to Tampa and I could just shut my brain off for a little bit, that’s really the only way to separate it. I’ve been playing a lot of golf recently, so when I’m out there, I don’t even check my phone. [I’m] just trying to do those things that bring me back to before I had the business [and] all this work.

Like, what were those things that I enjoyed doing, just that I wanted to do in general? That helps me to separate—journal, read. I do that a ton.