Franklin (AL) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

In Franklin County, investors own 614 Single-Family Residential (SFR) properties, which constitutes 12.2% of the total 5,043 SFRs in the market.

Individual investors are the definitive force in the local market, owning 542 properties, or 88.3% of the entire investor-owned portfolio. Company investors hold a much smaller stake with 76 properties, representing just 12.4% of the total.

The investor landscape is composed of 766 distinct landlords, with 696 being individuals and 70 registered as companies. This 10-to-1 ratio of individual to company entities underscores the local, small-scale nature of real estate investment in the area.

Cash is the preferred method of ownership, with 539 properties owned outright compared to only 75 that are financed. This indicates a market with low leverage and high equity among property investors.

The portfolio is heavily focused on rentals, with 594 properties identified as rented, confirming the primary business model for these holdings.

In Q4 2025, landlords demonstrated a significant pricing advantage, acquiring properties for an average of $125,453 while traditional homeowners paid $162,404. This represents a substantial 22.8% discount, saving investors an average of $36,951 per home.

The price gap between landlords and homeowners has been extremely volatile, highlighting the low transaction volume in the market. In Q3 2025, the landlord discount was an even more dramatic 50.5% ($107,705). However, this trend reversed sharply in prior quarters, with landlords paying a staggering 127.9% premium in Q2 and a 43.0% premium in Q1.

This quarter-to-quarter fluctuation signals a market where single high- or low-value transactions can dramatically skew the average, rather than a stable, predictable pricing environment.

Comparing recent prices to the pandemic era (2020-2023 average of $106,434), the Q4 2025 average price of $125,453 reflects notable price appreciation in the local market.

Investor activity accounted for a significant portion of the market in Q4 2025, with landlords purchasing 12 of the 50 total SFRs sold, capturing a 24.0% market share.

The entirety of this purchasing activity came from 'mom-and-pop' landlords (Tiers 01-04), with 100% of acquisitions made by investors with portfolios of 10 or fewer properties. Institutional investors (Tier 09) made zero purchases.

New investors were the primary driver of Q4 activity. The single-property tier alone saw 15 new entities enter the market, acquiring 10 homes, which represents 83.3% of all landlord purchases for the quarter.

The remaining activity was minimal, with one two-property landlord and one small landlord (3-5 properties) each acquiring a single property.

This data illustrates a market dominated not just by small investors, but specifically by new entrants testing the rental market for the first time.

The investor landscape in Franklin County is completely dominated by small-scale 'mom-and-pop' landlords (1-10 properties), who collectively own 99.2% of all investor-held SFRs.

First-time or single-property landlords form the largest segment by a wide margin. This tier alone controls 518 properties, accounting for 81.8% of the total investor portfolio.

The ownership concentration rapidly diminishes in larger tiers. Landlords with two properties hold a 4.6% share, while those with 3-10 properties collectively hold 12.8%.

Mid-size investors are exceedingly rare, with the 11-20 property tier representing just 0.8% of the market (5 properties).

There is no presence from large-scale institutional investors (1,000+ properties) in Franklin County, reinforcing the market's character as locally driven and small-scale.

Individual investors are the primary owners across nearly all portfolio sizes in Franklin County. They own 89.4% of single-property investments (466 properties) and 96.6% of two-property portfolios (28 properties).

Company ownership, while minimal overall, starts to gain a foothold in the 3-5 property tier, holding a 23.6% share (13 properties) compared to individuals' 76.4% (42 properties).

The only point where companies become the majority owner is in the small-medium tier of 11-20 properties. Here, companies own 4 of the 5 properties, an 80.0% share. This crossover point, however, represents a negligible portion of the overall market.

For portfolios of 6-10 properties, individual ownership remains dominant at 88.5% (23 properties).

This pattern indicates that while some investors may incorporate as they grow, the vast majority of rental housing stock remains under individual ownership.

Investor ownership in Franklin County is highly concentrated geographically. The zip code 35653 is the clear hub, containing 292 investor-owned properties, which represents a 12.3% ownership rate for that area.

The areas with the highest *rate* of investor ownership are different from the volume leader. The 35585 zip code has the highest penetration at 16.8%, followed by 35564 (15.4%) and 35571 (15.1%), indicating smaller markets with a higher density of rental properties.

Just five zip codes (35653, 35582, 35654, 35581, and 35585) account for 572 properties, or 93.2% of all investor-owned SFRs in the county, demonstrating significant geographic clustering of investment activity.

The top regions by count include 35582 with 89 properties (12.8% rate) and 35654 with 85 properties (8.7% rate), showing a mix of both high volume and high concentration in the leading sub-markets.

Landlords in Franklin County are actively expanding their portfolios, operating as strong net buyers. In Q4 2025, they acquired 17 properties while divesting only one, resulting in a net gain of 16 properties.

This aggressive acquisition strategy is a consistent trend. For the full year of 2025, landlords purchased 56 properties and sold only 10, a buy-to-sell ratio of 5.6-to-1 and a net portfolio growth of 46 properties.

The trend was similar in 2024, when investors bought 65 properties and sold 16, showing sustained confidence and accumulation in the local market over the past two years.

There were no recorded transactions by institutional (1,000+ tier) investors, indicating this market accumulation is driven entirely by smaller, local landlords.

In Q4 2025, landlord activity comprised 21.0% of all market transactions, with investors involved in 17 of the 81 total SFR transactions.

Activity was concentrated entirely at the small end of the market, with 100% of these transactions conducted by 'mom-and-pop' investors (Tiers 01-04). Institutional investors were absent from the market.

New single-property investors drove the bulk of the volume, accounting for 15 of the 17 transactions. Their average purchase price was $130,023.

Investors in this market primarily buy from traditional homeowners or other sources, not from each other. Only 6.7% of purchases made by single-property landlords (1 of 15) came from another landlord, signaling low levels of inter-investor trading.

The price paid by smaller investors varied, with a two-property landlord paying $131,500 and a small landlord (3-5 properties) acquiring a property for just $60,000, indicating a diverse range of asset purchases.