Manistee (MI) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

In Manistee County, landlords collectively own 3,623 SFR properties, representing a significant 26.5% of the total 13,653 SFR properties in the market. This substantial portion indicates a robust investor presence within the local housing landscape.

Individual investors overwhelmingly drive the Manistee County rental market, owning 2,713 SFR properties, which accounts for 74.9% of all investor-owned SFR. Companies hold the remaining 937 properties (25.9%), highlighting the individual-centric nature of local landlord activity.

An astonishing 99.97% of investor-owned properties, totaling 3,622, were acquired with cash, with only 1 property (0.03%) being financed. This suggests a strong preference for unencumbered asset ownership or a market where financing for investment properties is less prevalent.

The vast majority of landlord-owned properties, 3,587 properties or 99.0%, are non-owner-occupied and actively rented. This underscores the core focus of investors in Manistee County on generating rental income rather than owner-occupancy or other uses.

The county has 4,591 distinct landlord entities, yet these entities collectively own 3,623 SFR properties. This unique ratio (more landlords than properties) indicates that many landlord entities may co-own properties or have portfolios smaller than one distinct property, particularly for individual landlords who average 0.73 properties per entity, contrasting with companies averaging 1.10 properties.

Individual landlords account for 3,739 of the 4,591 total landlord entities, representing 81.4% of all landlords. This reinforces their numerical dominance in the market's operational structure, far outweighing the 852 (18.6%) company landlords.

Both individual and company portfolios show a consistent composition: nearly all properties are rented and cash-acquired. This suggests a unified, low-leverage, rental-focused strategy across both owner types in Manistee County.

In the most recent period with available data (2025-Q1), landlords in Manistee County acquired properties for an average of $226,960, securing a substantial 25.3% discount compared to traditional homeowners who paid $303,697. This represents a $76,737 price advantage for investor buyers.

There were no recorded landlord property acquisitions in Q4 2025, making a direct current quarter price comparison or trend analysis impossible for this period. This indicates a complete pause in documented landlord buying activity at the end of 2025.

Based on the limited historical data where prices are listed (despite 0 properties for most timeframes), the average landlord acquisition price for Year 2025 was $226,960 (derived from Q1 data), slightly higher than the $210,512 average for 2020-2023. However, the '0 properties' for these periods makes firm trend conclusions challenging.

With only 2025-Q1 providing landlord versus homeowner price comparison data, it is not possible to establish quarter-over-quarter trends for the price gap. The lack of acquisition records for Q4 2025 and 2024 further restricts this analysis.

The provided data does not differentiate acquisition prices between individual and company landlords. Therefore, insights into whether one owner type pays more or less for properties are currently unavailable.

Due to the '0 properties' reported for 2020-2023 and 2024, assessing the price appreciation from the pandemic-era (2020-2023) to Q4 2025 is not possible for landlord acquisitions.

For both Year 2024 and Year 2025, the dataset indicates zero properties acquired by landlords, with the only exception being the 2025-Q1 price data despite a '0 properties' count. This anomaly, if interpreted as truly zero acquisitions, signals a complete halt in new landlord entry or portfolio expansion in Manistee County for these periods.

In Q4 2025, Manistee County recorded 0 total SFR purchases, meaning landlords also made 0 purchases. This unprecedented lack of activity suggests a complete halt in documented buying and selling within the SFR market for the quarter.

Consequently, landlords held a 0.0% share of Q4 2025 SFR purchases, as no transactions were reported for any buyer type. This makes analysis of landlord market dominance for this quarter moot.

Since there were no landlord purchases in Q4 2025, neither mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04) nor institutional investors (Tier 09) registered any buying activity. This uniform inactivity across all tiers points to a broader market standstill rather than tier-specific trends.

With zero purchases in Q4 2025, no new landlords (single-property, Tier 01) entered the market during this period. This contrasts with dynamic markets where new investors frequently emerge.

The data provides no information on how many entities were active in purchasing within each tier for Q4 2025, as all purchase counts are zero. This prevents any analysis of buying intensity or average properties per entity for the quarter.

As all Q4 2025 purchase metrics are zero, there is no tier that shows a higher concentration of activity. The market experienced across-the-board inactivity.

The total absence of SFR purchases, not just by landlords but by all buyers, signals a period of extreme market stagnation or reporting gaps within Manistee County for Q4 2025.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04) collectively control an overwhelming 98.8% of all investor-owned SFR properties in Manistee County. This signifies that small, local investors are the foundational pillars of the county's rental market, vastly overshadowing larger players.

The largest segment of this mom-and-pop majority is formed by single-property landlords (Tier 01), who alone own 3,101 properties, accounting for a substantial 83.0% of the total investor-owned SFR. This highlights the market's reliance on first-time or small-scale investors.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) have a minimal footprint in Manistee County, controlling only 2 properties, which represents a mere 0.1% of the total investor-owned SFR. This low share strongly contrasts with narratives of institutional dominance in other markets.

The ownership distribution shows a sharp drop-off in property counts as portfolio size increases; for example, Tier 05-08 investors (11-1000 properties) combined account for only 1.2% of investor-owned SFR, demonstrating extreme concentration at the smaller end.

The data provided does not include acquisition prices by tier for any timeframe (All Time, Q4, 2024, 2020-2023). This absence prevents any analysis of whether larger investors pay more or less per property than smaller landlords.

While specific entity counts for all tiers are not fully provided in this section, the property distribution underscores that the market is comprised of numerous small entities rather than a few large ones, echoing the high landlord entity count from Section 5.

Without historical tier distribution data for various timeframes (e.g., Q4 2025 or 2024 vs. All Time), it is impossible to assess how the tier distribution has evolved or whether mom-and-pop dominance is increasing or decreasing over time in Manistee County.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the smaller portfolio tiers in Manistee County, owning 76.0% of single-property portfolios (Tier 01), 74.4% of two-property portfolios (Tier 02), and 74.3% of small landlord (3-5 properties) portfolios.

The ownership dynamic shifts significantly at the small-medium (11-20 properties) tier, where companies become the majority owners, holding 24 properties (64.9%) compared to individuals' 13 properties (35.1%). This is the clear crossover point where corporate ownership takes precedence.

Despite the general perception of companies holding larger portfolios, company investors own 751 (24.0%) of the single-property (Tier 01) portfolios. This indicates that a notable portion of company activity is also focused on acquiring individual rental units.

The provided data lacks acquisition pricing split by individual and company owner types within tiers, making it impossible to determine if one type consistently pays more or less than the other for properties in Manistee County.

While Section 8 indicates 2 institutional properties (Tier 09), Section 9 does not provide an individual vs. company breakdown for this or other larger tiers (21+ properties). This restricts a full understanding of corporate ownership concentration at the highest levels.

Without historical data showing property acquisitions by individual vs. company owners within each tier over time (e.g., Q4 vs All Time), it's impossible to analyze differing growth patterns or identify which owner type is expanding its portfolio more rapidly.

While companies hold fewer properties overall (25.9% of investor-owned SFR from Section 5), their highest percentage concentration in specific tiers is 64.9% in the 11-20 property tier. This reveals where corporate strategies become most effective or preferred.

Within Manistee County, the zip code MI-Manistee-49660 exhibits the highest concentration of investor-owned properties, with 1,089 SFR properties. This indicates it is the most active sub-geography in terms of sheer volume for landlords.

MI-Manistee-49689 stands out with the highest investor ownership rate at 42.1% of its SFR properties being landlord-owned. This high percentage signifies a market with significant landlord penetration, almost reaching half of its housing stock.

Beyond 49689, two other zip codes, MI-Manistee-49644 (40.6%) and MI-Manistee-49675 (40.2%), also show more than 40% of their SFR properties are investor-owned. This highlights several areas within Manistee County where landlords hold a substantial market share.

While MI-Manistee-49660 leads in total investor-owned properties, its ownership rate is 19.2%, significantly lower than 49689's 42.1%. This reveals that high volume doesn't always equate to the highest market penetration, suggesting different market dynamics at play.

The provided data does not include acquisition prices for specific sub-geographic regions. This prevents analysis of how investor buying costs or strategies might vary across different zip codes within Manistee County.

The data does not detail how many landlord entities operate within each top region. This limits insights into landlord density or average portfolio sizes at the sub-geographic level within Manistee County.

The top regions, whether ranked by count or percentage, consistently show a strong investor presence. This broad and deep landlord engagement across multiple zip codes suggests that Manistee County is generally attractive for SFR investment, albeit with localized concentrations.

In Manistee County, landlords exhibited robust net buying activity in recent years, purchasing 31 properties against 2 sells in 2025, resulting in an impressive 15.5x buy/sell ratio. This trend continued from 2024, where they were also strong net buyers with 114 purchases and 17 sells, a 6.7x ratio.

The buy-to-sell ratio for landlords sharply increased from 6.7x in 2024 to an impressive 15.5x in 2025. This indicates a heightened appetite for property acquisition relative to divestment, despite a lower overall volume of transactions compared to 2024.

While landlords remained net buyers, the total number of buy transactions decreased significantly from 114 in 2024 to 31 in 2025. This suggests a slowdown in market liquidity, yet with a stronger net-buying stance from active landlords.

The provided data does not specify the percentage of buy or sell transactions that occur between landlords. Therefore, insights into inter-landlord market churn or liquidity within the investor segment are unavailable.

There is no transaction data available for institutional investors (1000+ tier) in Manistee County. This implies either a complete absence of institutional transactions or that their activity is not captured in this dataset for the county.

Without average buy prices compared to average sell prices across timeframes, it's impossible to calculate implied profit margins for landlord transactions. This restricts an understanding of investor returns on recent sales.

Despite a reduced transaction volume in 2025 compared to 2024, the consistently high buy/sell ratios (6.7x in 2024 and 15.5x in 2025) confirm a sustained trend of landlords expanding their portfolios rather than divesting in Manistee County.

Manistee County recorded 0 total SFR transactions in Q4 2025, meaning landlord transactions also stood at 0. This indicates a complete freeze in documented market activity for the quarter, leaving no landlord share to report.

Since no transactions occurred in Q4 2025, there was zero transaction volume across all investor tiers, including mom-and-pop (Tier 01-04) and institutional (Tier 09). This points to an overall market stagnation.

With no Q4 2025 purchases, average purchase prices by tier cannot be determined. This prevents analysis of pricing strategies or which investor sizes pay the most or least for properties in the current quarter.

The absence of Q4 2025 transactions means there was no inter-landlord trading activity to report, nor a percentage of properties bought from other landlords. Insights into market liquidity within the investor segment are thus unavailable for the quarter.

Without any purchase activity, it is impossible to calculate the price spread between the highest and lowest paying tiers in Q4 2025.

As there were no transactions from other landlords, no tier can be identified as having the highest inter-landlord purchase percentage for Q4 2025.

The stark absence of Q4 2025 transaction activity stands in sharp contrast to the existing ownership distribution, which shows a vibrant, mom-and-pop dominated market in terms of holdings. This suggests a temporary halt rather than a fundamental shift in market structure.