Dodge (MN) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

The landlord-owned SFR portfolio in Dodge County, MN, comprises 314 properties, representing 4.6% of the total SFR market. This indicates a relatively small but active investor presence within the county's housing landscape.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the market, holding 225 SFR properties, which accounts for 71.7% of all investor-owned housing. In contrast, company investors own 100 properties, representing a 31.8% share, showcasing a clear preference for individual ownership models in this county.

The strong focus on rental income is evident as 93.3% (293 properties) of landlord-owned SFR properties are non-owner-occupied and rented out. This highlights that the vast majority of investor activity is aimed at generating rental revenue.

A significant portion of landlord holdings, 68.8% (216 properties), were acquired with cash, while 31.2% (98 properties) are financed. This high percentage of cash purchases suggests a preference for unburdened assets or the ability to leverage substantial capital within the investor community in Dodge County.

When considering entity counts, individual landlords (295 entities) outnumber company landlords (65 entities) by a ratio of 4.54 to 1. This emphasizes the prevalence of smaller, individual operations over larger, corporate entities in the county.

Landlord acquisition pricing in Dodge County, MN, presented an anomaly in Q4 2025, with a single landlord purchase recorded at an average price of $950,000. This represented an extraordinary 187.1% premium, or $619,151 more, compared to the average homeowner purchase price of $330,849 in the same quarter.

Analysis of landlord acquisition trends across earlier quarters in 2025 is limited due to zero recorded purchases for landlords in Q1, Q2, and Q3. This lack of consistent acquisition data makes it challenging to establish reliable quarter-over-quarter price gap trends for landlords.

Conversely, traditional homeowner acquisition prices have shown fluctuations throughout 2025, starting at $326,485 in Q1, peaking at $390,040 in Q2, and then settling at $330,849 by Q4. This indicates a dynamic market for traditional buyers despite the lack of consistent landlord activity.

Without consistent acquisition activity from landlords, especially across individual and company owner types, it is not possible to determine if different investor types pay different prices in Dodge County. The single Q4 landlord purchase at an exceptionally high price could be an outlier or reflect a very specific market condition for that property.

The absence of landlord acquisition data for years 2020-2023 also prevents any assessment of price appreciation or decline for investors from the pandemic era to the current Q4. This data gap limits a comprehensive understanding of long-term investor pricing strategies and market evolution in the county.

In Q4 2025, landlord activity in Dodge County, MN, was exceptionally low, with only 1 SFR property purchased. This accounted for a mere 1.7% of the total 58 SFR purchases made in the quarter, indicating that the vast majority of transactions were driven by non-landlord buyers.

The single landlord acquisition in Q4 was by a mom-and-pop landlord from Tier 01 (single-property owners). This means that 100.0% of all landlord purchases were attributed to mom-and-pop investors, underscoring their continued, albeit minimal, participation in the market.

New landlords entering the market, specifically those acquiring their first property (Tier 01), represented the entire landlord purchase activity with 1 entity making 1 purchase. This points to very limited new investor entry in Q4, or the single purchase being an outlier.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) showed no purchasing activity in Q4, reinforcing the pattern of market entry and activity being concentrated among smaller-scale landlords in Dodge County. Their absence suggests a strategic withdrawal or lack of suitable opportunities for large-scale acquisitions.

The average properties per entity for Q4 purchases stands at 1.0 for Tier 01, given that 1 entity acquired 1 property. This indicates that the entities active in this quarter were focused on single property acquisitions.

Mom-and-pop landlords, encompassing Tiers 01 through 04 (1-10 properties), collectively dominate the investor-owned SFR market in Dodge County, MN, controlling a substantial 92.8% of all such properties. This concentration highlights the foundational role of small-scale investors.

Within the mom-and-pop segment, single-property landlords (Tier 01) are the most significant group, owning 216 properties, which represents 67.3% of all properties categorized by tier. This solidifies their position as the backbone of the SFR rental market in the county.

In stark contrast to mom-and-pop prevalence, institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) hold a very minor share, owning only 5 properties, which accounts for 1.6% of all investor-owned SFR. This suggests a limited appetite or opportunity for large-scale corporate investment in Dodge County.

The distribution shows a steep drop-off after the mom-and-pop tiers, with mid-size landlords (Tiers 05-08) collectively holding only 7.2% of the properties (23 properties). For example, Tiers 05-06 (11-50 properties) account for only 2.2% of properties (7 properties).

Unfortunately, data regarding acquisition prices by tier for Dodge County, MN, is not available. This prevents an analysis of whether larger or smaller investors typically pay more or less for properties, and thus limits insights into tier-specific pricing strategies or market efficiencies.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the smaller investor tiers in Dodge County, MN, holding 85.1% of properties in the Single-property (Tier 01) category and 54.5% in the Two-property (Tier 02) category. This reinforces the prominence of individual, often first-time, landlords.

A significant crossover point occurs within the 'Small landlord' categories: individual ownership still holds a slight majority in the 3-5 property tier (51.9%), but companies take a decisive majority in the 6-10 property tier, owning 72.7% of properties compared to individuals' 27.3%.

Companies exhibit increasing concentration as portfolio size grows; while only 14.9% of Tier 01 properties are company-owned, this percentage rises to 48.1% in the 3-5 property tier and spikes to 72.7% in the 6-10 property tier.

Due to the absence of specific pricing data by owner type and tier, it is not possible to analyze how individual and company acquisition prices differ within each portfolio size or compare their growth patterns over time.

While Tier 09 (1000+ properties) holds 5 properties overall, the breakdown by individual versus company ownership for this institutional tier is not provided in the data. However, given the low overall institutional presence, it's clear neither type of institutional owner has a significant footprint in Dodge County.

Within Dodge County, MN, zip code 55944 stands out with the highest number of investor-owned properties, totaling 97 SFRs. This concentration makes it a key area for landlord activity by volume.

Following 55944, other significant zip codes by property count include 55927 with 64 properties, 55924 with 30 properties, and 55940 with 29 properties. These four zip codes collectively account for 220 investor-owned properties, highlighting specific areas of geographic concentration within the county.

When examining investor ownership rates, zip code 55946 leads with 16.7% of its SFR properties owned by investors, indicating a high penetration of landlord activity relative to its total housing stock. Zip code 55920 follows with 14.3% investor ownership.

The zip code 55924 demonstrates a correlation between high investor count and high ownership rate, appearing among the top regions for both metrics with 30 investor-owned properties and a 9.3% ownership rate. This suggests a particularly active and dense investor market in this area.

Conversely, while specific data for the lowest investor ownership rates is not provided, the varying percentages across zip codes, from 3.7% to 16.7%, imply a diverse landscape of investor presence, with some areas having significantly lower landlord penetration.

All landlords in Dodge County, MN, collectively transitioned to being net sellers in Q4 2025, executing 1 buy transaction against 4 sell transactions. This results in a buy/sell ratio of 0.25x, indicating a strategic shift towards divesting properties at the end of the year.

This Q4 selling trend marks a significant change from earlier in 2025, where landlords were net buyers. In Q3, they purchased 11 properties against 3 sells (3.67x ratio), and in Q2, they acquired 6 properties while selling only 1 (6.0x ratio), demonstrating strong acquisition momentum in the middle of the year.

Despite the Q4 net selling, the overall trend for Year 2025 shows landlords as net buyers, with 25 purchases versus 13 sales, yielding a buy/sell ratio of 1.92x. This indicates a general growth in landlord portfolios over the year, even with the recent slowdown in buying activity.

Comparing 2025 to 2024, landlord activity shows a consistent net buyer position. In Year 2024, landlords bought 23 properties and sold 13, for a 1.77x buy/sell ratio, slightly less active than 2025 but still indicative of portfolio expansion.

Unfortunately, transaction data for institutional investors (1000+ tier) is not provided for Dodge County, preventing any analysis of whether larger entities are accumulating or divesting and how their patterns compare to the overall landlord market.

Furthermore, information on the percentage of buy or sell transactions that occur between landlords (inter-landlord trading) is not available in this section, limiting insights into the internal liquidity and dynamics of the investor market.

Landlord involvement in the Dodge County, MN, real estate market during Q4 2025 was exceptionally low, accounting for only 1 transaction out of a total of 94 SFR transactions. This represents a mere 1.1% share, indicating that non-landlord activity dominated the quarter.

The single landlord transaction recorded in Q4 was attributed to a mom-and-pop investor from Tier 01 (single-property owner). This highlights that the limited investor activity in the quarter came from the smallest segment of the landlord community.

The average purchase price for this Tier 01 transaction was $950,000, which is significantly higher than typical homeowner prices in the quarter. This outlier price for a single purchase suggests it might have been a unique, high-value property or a specialized transaction.

No institutional investors (Tier 09) engaged in transactions during Q4, reinforcing the pattern of minimal large-scale investor activity in Dodge County. Consequently, no comparisons of average purchase prices between institutional and mom-and-pop tiers can be made for this quarter.

Notably, the Tier 01 landlord who made the Q4 purchase did not acquire the property from another landlord, indicating a 0.0% inter-landlord transaction rate for this specific purchase. This suggests that the limited landlord buying activity was directed towards non-landlord sellers.

The overall volume of transactions by tier in Q4 was heavily skewed, with only 1 mom-and-pop transaction and no institutional transactions. This contrasts with the broader ownership distribution, where mom-and-pops hold a significant share but showed very little transaction activity in the most recent quarter.