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

Investors hold a substantial footprint in Slope County, owning 13 single-family properties, which constitutes 35.1% of the total 37 SFRs in the market.

Ownership is completely dominated by individuals, who own 100% (13) of the investor-held SFR properties. While there is one company landlord, they co-own 2 properties with individuals, reflecting a 15.4% overlap but no exclusive company ownership.

The investor base is composed of 16 distinct landlords, with 15 individuals and only 1 company, highlighting an almost exclusively non-corporate rental market.

A strong buy-and-hold strategy is evident, as all 13 investor-owned properties are utilized as rentals (non-owner-occupied).

Cash is the preferred method of ownership, with investors holding 10 properties outright, more than triple the 3 properties that are financed.

The investor acquisition market in Slope County was completely dormant in Q4 2025, with zero properties purchased by landlords. This lack of activity makes a direct price comparison to traditional homeowners impossible for the quarter.

The purchasing freeze extends to the entirety of 2024 and 2025, as no landlord acquisitions were recorded in either year to date.

Looking at historical data, the average acquisition price for the few properties purchased by investors between 2020 and 2023 was $121,750.

The absence of recent transactions signals a stable, buy-and-hold environment where existing landlords are not expanding their portfolios and new investors are not entering the market.

Investor purchasing activity in Slope County came to a complete standstill in Q4 2025, with landlords acquiring zero of the zero total SFRs purchased in the market.

This inactivity was universal across all investor sizes, as mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) and institutional investors (Tier 09) both recorded zero purchases.

The lack of Tier 01 (single-property) purchases indicates that no new landlords entered the Slope County rental market during the fourth quarter.

The data points to a market in a holding pattern, with no signs of investor expansion or new entries in the recent period.

The investor landscape in Slope County is exclusively controlled by small-scale operators, with mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties) owning 100.0% of the 15 investor properties.

The market is built on the smallest investors, as the single-property tier (Tier 01) alone holds 13 properties, accounting for 86.7% of the entire investor-owned portfolio.

Two-property landlords (Tier 02) hold the remaining 2 properties, making up 13.3% of the market, reinforcing the small-investor concentration.

There is zero presence from mid-size (Tiers 05-08) or institutional (Tier 09) investors, defining Slope County as a purely grassroots rental market.

Individual investors are the sole owners in the Slope County rental market, holding 100% of the properties in the single-property tier, which is the only active tier.

Company ownership is non-existent within any portfolio tier. The single company entity in the market co-owns properties with an individual, but there are no exclusively company-owned portfolios.

Given the 100% individual ownership across all tiers, a crossover point where companies become the majority does not exist in this market.

The data portrays a market exclusively shaped by personal investment, with no footprint from corporate or institutional capital.

Investor ownership in Slope County is not evenly distributed, but rather hyper-concentrated in a few key areas. The zip code 58643 is the epicenter of activity, with 5 investor-owned properties.

Certain zip codes exhibit extremely high investor penetration rates, far exceeding the county average. In 58623, investors own 75.0% of the SFRs, while in 58643 they own 71.4%, and in 58651 they own 66.7%.

The top region by property count, 58643, is also a leader in ownership percentage (71.4%), indicating that where investors are present, they are a dominant market force.

In contrast, areas like 58647 have a much lower investor ownership rate of 16.7%, highlighting the pocketed nature of rental property investment within the county.

The historical transaction log for Slope County is empty, revealing a market characterized by a profound lack of churn. Landlords appear to acquire properties and hold them long-term, with minimal selling activity.

Without transaction data, it is impossible to determine if landlords are net buyers or sellers, but the stable portfolio size suggests a state of equilibrium.

The concept of inter-landlord trading is not applicable, as no recorded sales from one landlord to another exist in the dataset.

Similarly, institutional investors (Tier 1000+) have no transactional history in the county, consistent with their complete absence from the market.

This lack of liquidity suggests that the investor market is illiquid and primarily serves as a source of long-term rental income rather than a vehicle for capital gains through frequent sales.

The transaction market in Slope County was completely frozen in Q4 2025, with landlords involved in zero of the zero total transactions.

This inactivity was consistent across all investor sizes, with mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) and institutional investors alike recording no buy or sell transactions.

As there were no purchases, the average purchase price for every tier was effectively $0, and no price spread between the highest and lowest tiers could be observed.

Inter-landlord trading was also non-existent, with 0% of transactions originating from other landlords, reflecting the overall lack of market liquidity.

The Q4 transaction data reinforces the image of a buy-and-hold market where assets are not actively traded among investors or with the broader market.