Bertie (NC) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Investor ownership in Bertie County is exceptionally high, with landlords holding 3,437 of the 7,259 Single-Family Residential properties, a market penetration of 47.3%.

The market is defined by small, individual investors rather than large corporations. Individual landlords own 3,270 properties, constituting 95.1% of the investor portfolio, while companies own just 191 properties (5.6%).

This individual dominance is also reflected in the entity count, where there are 3,754 individual landlords compared to only 142 company landlords, a ratio of more than 26 to 1.

A significant financial characteristic of this market is the preference for cash acquisitions. Of the total investor portfolio, 3,079 properties are owned outright (cash), while only 358 are financed, indicating that most landlords are not leveraged.

The portfolio is heavily focused on generating rental income, with 3,370 properties classified as rented, which accounts for 98.1% of all investor-owned homes in the county.

In Q4 2025, landlords demonstrated a remarkable ability to acquire properties at a deep discount, paying an average of $100,084. This was 61.3% less than the $258,538 average paid by traditional homeowners, resulting in a savings of $158,454 per property.

However, this discount is not a consistent trend and instead reflects significant market volatility. In Q3 2025, the landlord discount was a more modest 22.1% ($33,760).

Earlier in the year, the pricing dynamic was completely reversed. In Q2 2025, landlords paid a massive 71.3% premium ($148,886 more than homeowners), and in Q1 they paid a 36.9% premium ($58,098 more).

This dramatic quarterly fluctuation suggests that landlords and homeowners may be competing for different types of properties or that low transaction volumes are causing significant swings in average prices.

Comparing recent activity to the pandemic-era boom (2020-2023), the Q4 2025 landlord price of $100,084 is 21.1% lower than the $126,898 average from that period, indicating a potential market cooling or a shift toward lower-cost acquisitions.

Investor activity surged in Q4 2025, with landlords acquiring 20 of the 33 total SFR properties sold, capturing a majority 60.6% share of the market's purchase volume.

The acquisition activity was exclusively driven by smaller investors. Mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties) accounted for 20 properties, or 95.2% of all landlord purchases, demonstrating their control over market demand.

First-time or single-property investors were the most active segment, with 22 new entities purchasing 15 properties, which represents 71.4% of all homes bought by landlords in Q4.

Mid-size landlords (11-1000 properties) had minimal impact, with only one property purchased in the 11-20 tier. This highlights a market devoid of significant scaling activity from larger players.

Institutional investors with portfolios over 1,000 properties were entirely absent from the market, making zero purchases in Q4. This reinforces the narrative that Bertie County is a market for local, small-scale investors, not large corporations.

The investor landscape in Bertie County is overwhelmingly dominated by small-scale operators. Mom-and-pop landlords, defined as those owning 1-10 properties, control a staggering 98.9% of all investor-owned SFRs.

Single-property landlords are the bedrock of the rental market, owning 2,477 properties. This single tier accounts for 69.3% of all investor holdings, indicating a broad base of entry-level investment.

The ownership share sharply declines as portfolio sizes increase. Landlords with 2-5 properties own a combined 27.0% of the market (966 properties), while those with 6-10 properties hold just 2.5% (89 properties).

In stark contrast to national headlines, institutional investors (1000+ properties) have a virtually nonexistent footprint in this market. Their portfolio of 3 properties represents a mere 0.1% of investor-owned homes.

This distribution reveals a highly fragmented market structure where the collective power of thousands of small investors, rather than a few large firms, shapes the local rental landscape.

Individual investors form the foundation of the Bertie County rental market, dominating the smaller portfolio tiers. They own 96.3% of all single-property investments (2,406 homes) and 95.1% of properties in the 2-5 unit tier (919 homes).

The transition to corporate ownership occurs definitively at the 11-20 property tier. In this segment, companies own 15 properties, capturing a 62.5% majority share, while individuals own the remaining 9 properties (37.5%).

Even as portfolios grow, individual ownership remains significant. In the 6-10 property tier, individuals still own a commanding 74.2% majority (66 properties), showing that incorporation is not the default path for many growing landlords.

The data illustrates a clear pattern: the path of a typical investor in this county begins and often remains as an individual, with incorporation becoming the dominant strategy only for the small fraction of investors who scale beyond 10 properties.

Company ownership is highly concentrated in the few larger portfolios that exist, while the vast number of smaller portfolios remain under individual names, reinforcing the mom-and-pop character of the market.

Investor activity in Bertie County is highly concentrated, with the 27983 zip code being the epicenter of ownership. It contains 1,357 investor-owned properties, where landlords own 42.2% of the housing stock.

While 27983 leads in raw numbers, other areas exhibit even more intense investor saturation. The 27967 zip code has the highest ownership rate at 85.7%, indicating it is almost entirely an investor market.

Five zip codes in the county have investor ownership rates exceeding 58%, signaling specific neighborhoods have largely transitioned from owner-occupied to rental communities. These include 27849 (62.1%), 27872 (60.7%), and 27805 (60.6%).

The areas with the highest counts of investor properties are not always the ones with the highest percentage rates, but there is significant overlap. Four of the top five areas by count also appear in the top ten by ownership rate, showing that large-scale investment is happening in already investor-heavy areas.

This geographic clustering reveals a targeted strategy where investors focus their capital in specific sub-markets, profoundly shaping the character and housing availability within those communities.

Landlords in Bertie County are in a strong accumulation phase, consistently buying far more properties than they sell. In Q4 2025, they purchased 29 properties while only selling 2, establishing a powerful 14.5-to-1 buy/sell ratio.

This aggressive buying behavior is a sustained trend, not a quarterly anomaly. For the entirety of 2025, landlords acquired 125 properties and sold only 12, a net gain of 113 properties and a buy/sell ratio of 10.4x.

The pattern was similar in 2024, when landlords were net buyers by 98 properties (114 buys vs. 16 sells), demonstrating at least two years of consistent portfolio expansion across the county.

Institutional investor activity provides a stark contrast. In all of 2025, the 1000+ tier logged only one purchase and one sale, resulting in zero net new properties. This indicates they are not a factor in the market's growth and are either holding steady or divesting on a small scale.

The transactional data confirms that the growth in investor ownership is being fueled almost exclusively by small to mid-sized landlords, who continue to absorb available housing stock.

In Q4 2025, landlords were the primary movers in the Bertie County real estate market, participating in 29 of the 52 total transactions for a 55.8% market share.

Activity was concentrated at the smallest end of the investor spectrum. The single-property (Tier 01) landlords alone conducted 22 transactions, accounting for 75.9% of all investor-related deals.

Mom-and-pop investors (Tiers 01-04) collectively made 28 transactions, while institutional investors made zero, reinforcing that market liquidity is driven by small operators.

Pricing strategies appear to vary by tier, though based on low volume. New single-property landlords paid the highest average price at $129,000, while small landlords in the 3-5 property tier acquired homes for an average of just $18,005, likely representing distressed or non-traditional properties.

There is minimal inter-landlord trading among new investors. Only 1 of the 22 properties (4.5%) purchased by single-property landlords was acquired from another investor, indicating that new entrants are primarily buying from the traditional homeowner market.