Renville (ND) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

In Renville County, ND, landlords own a significant 67 Single-Family Residential (SFR) properties, which constitutes 21.5% of the county's total 311 SFRs.

The ownership structure is overwhelmingly dominated by individual investors, who own 65 of the 67 properties, a commanding 97.0% share. Company ownership is minimal, with just 3 properties (4.5%).

This individual dominance is also reflected in the landlord entity count, where 94 of the 97 total landlords (96.9%) are individuals, compared to only 3 company entities. This points to a market composed almost entirely of small-scale, local investors.

A majority of investor-owned properties were purchased with cash, with 39 properties (58.2%) being cash-owned versus 28 properties (41.8%) that are financed. This suggests a market with relatively low leverage among investors.

All 67 investor-owned properties are utilized as rentals (non-owner-occupied), underscoring a complete focus on generating rental income within the investor community in this county.

Analysis of acquisition pricing in Renville County is characterized by extreme volatility due to a very low number of transactions, making it difficult to establish reliable trends.

In Q3 2025, the data indicates a landlord paid an average of $60,000, a significant 78.2% discount compared to the traditional homeowner price of $274,900. This represented a raw difference of $214,900 on a likely single transaction.

Conversely, in Q2 2025, a landlord acquisition was recorded at $282,500, which was 180.6% higher than the average homeowner price of $100,667. This massive swing from a deep discount to a high premium in consecutive quarters highlights the unreliability of pricing trends in a thinly traded market.

There was no recorded landlord purchase activity in Q4 2025, preventing any price comparison for the most recent quarter.

Given the sporadic nature of sales, these quarterly price gaps should be interpreted as artifacts of individual transactions rather than a consistent investor pricing strategy or market-wide condition.

Q4 2025 was a period of complete inactivity for real estate investors in Renville County, with zero Single-Family Residential properties purchased by landlords.

This lack of activity meant that investors captured 0.0% of the total market share for the quarter, as there were no SFR sales recorded for any buyer type.

As a result, there was no purchasing activity to analyze across the different investor tiers. Both mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) and institutional investors (Tier 09) recorded zero acquisitions.

The absence of transactions indicates a stagnant market, where existing owners are likely holding onto their properties and new investors are not entering.

This inactivity contrasts with periods of high transaction velocity seen in larger markets, highlighting the unique, slow-paced nature of this rural real estate environment.

The investor landscape in Renville County is exclusively composed of small-scale operators, with mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties) controlling 100% of the investor-owned SFR market.

Market concentration is extremely high at the entry level, as single-property landlords (Tier 01) own 67 properties, representing a staggering 97.1% of all investor holdings. This indicates the market is defined by individuals with just one rental property.

Mid-size and institutional investors are entirely absent from this market. Tiers 05 through 08 (11-1000 properties) and Tier 09 (1000+ properties) both have 0.0% market share.

The remaining 2.9% of the market is held by investors in the two-property and small landlord (3-5 properties) tiers, each holding just one property.

This ownership structure reveals a hyper-local market, devoid of the influence of large-scale or institutional capital, relying instead on small, individual participants.

Individual investors are the definitive owners across all active tiers in Renville County, reinforcing the market's mom-and-pop character.

In the dominant single-property tier, individuals own 65 properties (95.6%), while companies own a mere 3 properties (4.4%).

There is no crossover point where companies become the majority owners. In fact, beyond the first tier, company ownership disappears entirely.

Investors in the two-property and small landlord (3-5 properties) tiers are 100% individuals, with zero company-owned properties in these brackets.

This distribution highlights a market that is not only small-scale but also personal, with investment activity driven by private citizens rather than corporate entities.

Investor ownership in Renville County is geographically concentrated in a few key zip codes, with Mohall (58761) and Glenburn (58740) serving as the primary hubs.

The zip code 58761 (Mohall) has the highest number of investor-owned homes at 25, which also represents the highest ownership rate in the county at 31.6%.

Close behind, the 58740 zip code (Glenburn) contains 24 investor-owned properties, accounting for a 21.4% investor ownership rate.

Together, these two zip codes hold 49 of the 67 investor properties in the county, representing a combined 73.1% of all landlord holdings and demonstrating significant geographic concentration.

Other areas with notable investor presence include 58782 (Sherwood), with 11 properties and a 23.9% rate, and 58734 (Donnybrook), with a 20.0% rate.

A comprehensive analysis of historical transaction trends for landlords in Renville County is not possible due to the absence of available data for the specified timeframes.

Consequently, key metrics such as the long-term buy/sell ratio cannot be calculated. It remains undetermined whether landlords have historically been net buyers or net sellers in this market.

Trends in landlord-to-landlord transactions are also unavailable, making it impossible to gauge the level of internal market liquidity or asset trading among existing investors.

Similarly, a comparison of historical average buy prices versus sell prices, which could indicate potential profit margins, cannot be performed.

The lack of data underscores the nature of a thinly traded market where transactions may be too infrequent to form a statistically significant historical record.

The fourth quarter of 2025 saw a complete halt in market transactions in Renville County, with zero recorded sales involving landlords.

As there were no transactions overall, the landlord share of the market was 0.0%. This indicates a period of market stasis for all participants, not just investors.

Analysis by tier shows uniform inactivity, with zero transactions recorded for single-property landlords, mid-size landlords, and institutional investors alike.

Consequently, there is no data on Q4 purchase prices by tier or the extent of inter-landlord trading during this period.

This lack of activity suggests a stable, buy-and-hold environment where properties are not actively changing hands, which is common in smaller, rural markets.