Carroll (MO) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords hold 670 Single Family Residential (SFR) properties in Carroll County, Missouri, accounting for a significant 33.6% of the total 1,997 SFR properties in the market, highlighting a substantial investor presence.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the market, owning 515 properties which represents 76.9% of all landlord-owned SFR, significantly outpacing company ownership at 163 properties (24.3%). This trend is further pronounced in entity counts, with 650 individual landlords compared to just 114 company landlords.

The investor portfolio in Carroll County is heavily rental-focused, with 662 properties (98.8% of landlord-owned SFR) currently rented. All 670 investor-owned properties are classified as non-owner-occupied, reinforcing the region's strong rental market for investors.

Cash acquisitions are the predominant financing method for landlords, with 574 properties (85.7%) purchased outright, compared to only 96 properties (14.3%) that are financed. This suggests a preference for debt-free investment strategies or a market favoring cash buyers.

Company portfolios show a 100% rental rate for their 163 properties, with 87.7% (143 properties) being cash acquisitions. Individual portfolios closely follow with 98.4% (507 properties) rented and 83.7% (431 properties) cash-funded, indicating similar, highly cash-centric and rental-focused strategies across both owner types in this county.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Carroll County acquired properties at an average price of $66,736, securing a substantial $82,999 discount, or 55.4% less, than traditional homeowners who paid an average of $149,735. This indicates a significant pricing advantage for investors during the quarter.

The pricing dynamic between landlords and homeowners in Carroll County exhibited extreme volatility throughout 2025. While Q4 saw a deep landlord discount, Q3 presented a stark contrast where landlords paid an average of $279,056, an $126,882 premium (83.4% more) than homeowners who paid $152,174, suggesting unique, high-value transactions or market anomalies during that period.

Looking at the earlier part of 2025, landlords consistently secured significant discounts: 15.8% ($26,237) less than homeowners in Q2 ($139,374 vs $165,611), and a remarkable 63.5% ($129,550) less than homeowners in Q1 ($74,344 vs $203,894).

The lack of distinct landlord property purchases recorded in `section6-1.csv` for any timeframe (Q1-Q4 2025, Year 2024, or Years 2020-2023) prevents drawing conclusions on average acquisition price trends or year-over-year appreciation for landlords, or how prices compare between individual and company landlords over time.

Despite this data gap for distinct purchases, the comparison of 'Landlord' prices against 'Homeowner' prices in `section6-2.csv` for specific quarters suggests landlords are highly opportunistic buyers, capable of securing properties far below market average for traditional purchasers in Carroll County.

Landlords significantly influenced the Q4 2025 housing market in Carroll County, purchasing 14 SFR properties, which constitutes 46.7% of all 30 SFR purchases made during the quarter, indicating a robust investor presence.

Mom-and-pop landlords, encompassing portfolios from 1 to 10 properties (Tiers 01-04), were the sole drivers of landlord purchasing activity in Q4, acquiring 14 properties and representing 100.0% of all landlord purchases. This highlights the foundational role of smaller investors in the local market.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were particularly active, purchasing 10 properties, which accounts for 71.4% of all landlord acquisitions this quarter. A total of 15 new entities entered the market as single-property landlords, showing continued entry-level investment.

Mid-size mom-and-pop landlords also contributed to the Q4 activity: two-property landlords (Tier 02) acquired 2 properties (14.3%), and small landlords (Tier 03-05) acquired another 2 properties (14.3%).

The complete absence of purchases by institutional investors (Tier 09), which recorded 0 properties (0.0% of landlord purchases), underscores the hyper-local, small-scale nature of investor activity in Carroll County.

The significant participation of mom-and-pop entities, particularly single-property landlords, suggests that individual investors see Carroll County as an accessible and attractive market for entry or expansion, driving nearly half of all SFR purchases.

Mom-and-pop landlords, defined as owning between 1 and 10 properties (Tiers 01-04), exert overwhelming control over the investor-owned SFR market in Carroll County, commanding 94.2% of all such properties.

The largest segment within this mom-and-pop group is single-property landlords (Tier 01), who own 482 properties, accounting for a substantial 69.0% of the total investor-owned portfolio, making them the primary force in the market structure.

Further reinforcing the dominance of smaller investors, two-property landlords (Tier 02) hold 86 properties (12.3%), small landlords (Tier 03-05) own 71 properties (10.2%), and those with 6-10 properties (Tier 06-10) collectively own 19 properties (2.7%).

Mid-size landlords (Tier 11-20) represent a smaller, but notable segment, owning 40 properties, which is 5.7% of the total investor portfolio. Larger landlords (Tier 101-1000) have a minimal presence with just 1 property (0.1%).

There is no institutional investor presence (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) in Carroll County, as they own 0.0% of all investor-held SFR properties, directly contrasting national trends that often highlight institutional involvement.

The complete absence of pricing data by tier in `section8-2.csv` prevents any analysis regarding how acquisition prices vary across different investor tiers, making it impossible to determine if larger or smaller investors pay more or less for properties in Carroll County.

While individual investors significantly outweigh companies in terms of total entities (650 vs 114) and overall properties (515 vs 163), company ownership rapidly gains parity at the higher end of smaller portfolios.

The crossover point where company ownership becomes equal to individual ownership occurs in the small-medium tier (11-20 properties), where both individual and company investors own 20 properties each, representing a 50.0% split for this tier.

Individual investors strongly dominate the smallest tiers, owning 403 properties (82.9%) in the single-property tier (Tier 01) and 71 properties (80.7%) in the two-property tier (Tier 02), underscoring the mom-and-pop foundation of the market.

Conversely, company ownership, though starting smaller, shows increasing concentration in larger tiers: companies own 17 properties (19.3%) in Tier 02, 23 properties (31.5%) in Tier 03-05, and reach 50.0% parity in Tier 11-20.

The provided data does not include pricing by tier or owner type, making it impossible to analyze how individual and company acquisition prices differ within each tier or to compare their growth patterns over time.

The zip code MO-Carroll-64633 represents the most significant concentration of investor-owned properties within Carroll County, with 484 SFR properties under landlord ownership, accounting for 33.9% of its total SFR market.

Following MO-Carroll-64633, other zip codes exhibit notable investor activity by count: MO-Carroll-64668 has 91 properties (31.4% ownership rate), MO-Carroll-64623 has 31 properties (44.9% rate), and MO-Carroll-64622 has 21 properties (35.6% rate).

When examining investor ownership rates, MO-Carroll-64624 presents an outlier with a remarkable 100.0% of its properties being investor-owned, indicating a complete investor market, followed by MO-Carroll-64639 at 50.0%.

MO-Carroll-64623 and MO-Carroll-64622 also show high investor penetration rates at 44.9% and 35.6% respectively, placing them among the top five by percentage and highlighting their appeal to landlords despite having lower absolute property counts.

The distribution reveals a distinct pattern where the zip code with the highest volume of investor properties (64633) does not necessarily have the highest investor ownership rate, suggesting diverse market attractiveness and saturation levels across Carroll County's sub-geographies.

The absence of acquisition price data by geographic region prevents an analysis of how pricing strategies or market values differ across these investor hotbeds in Carroll County.

Landlords in Carroll County are decisively net buyers year-to-date in 2025, with 63 buy transactions against 14 sell transactions, resulting in a strong 4.5x buy-to-sell ratio and a net accumulation of 49 properties.

This buying trend is consistent throughout the year, with Q3 2025 recording 17 buy transactions versus 4 sells (4.25x ratio) and Q2 2025 showing 13 buys against 3 sells (4.33x ratio), indicating a continuous strategy of expansion.

Compared to the previous year, landlord buying activity in 2025 (63 buys) is slightly reduced from 2024 (80 buys), but they remain net accumulators, having a 3.64x buy/sell ratio in 2024 (80 buys vs 22 sells), accumulating 58 properties.

Institutional investors (1000+ tier) registered no buy or sell transactions across all recorded timeframes (Q3, Q2 2025, Year 2025, Year 2024), indicating a complete absence of large-scale corporate investment activity in Carroll County.

The provided data lacks information on the percentage of buy or sell transactions involving other landlords, preventing an analysis of inter-landlord trading. Additionally, average buy prices versus average sell prices are not provided, limiting insights into implied profit margins or market liquidity trends for landlords.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Carroll County were highly active, participating in 19 transactions, which represents 43.2% of the total 44 SFR transactions in the market, underscoring their significant influence on the quarter's sales volume.

All landlord transaction activity in Q4 was driven by mom-and-pop investors (Tiers 01-04), who accounted for all 19 transactions. The complete absence of transactions by institutional investors (Tier 09, 0 transactions) reinforces the small-scale, local nature of the investor market.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were the most active segment, executing 15 transactions at an average purchase price of $65,667, demonstrating their continued entry and expansion within the market.

Other mom-and-pop tiers also contributed, with two-property landlords (Tier 02) completing 2 transactions and small landlords (Tier 03-05) also completing 2 transactions, albeit with no average price data available for Tier 02. The average purchase price of $73,150 for Tier 03-05 shows a slightly higher price point than Tier 01.

A notable pattern in Q4 is the complete lack of inter-landlord trading, as 0.0% of all landlord transactions across Tiers 01, 02, and 03-05 were reported as bought from other landlords. This indicates that landlords are primarily acquiring properties from non-investor sellers rather than within the existing investor pool.

Comparing Q4 transaction activity to overall ownership distribution (Section 8), the high level of activity from Tier 01 (71.4% of Q4 landlord purchases) aligns with their dominant share of overall holdings (69.0%), indicating consistent market participation by the smallest landlords.