Fillmore (NE) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords in Fillmore County, NE, own 429 Single Family Residential (SFR) properties, representing a substantial 20.3% of the total SFR market of 2,118 properties. This high penetration indicates a robust investor presence within the county's housing landscape.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the landlord-owned SFR market, holding 354 properties, which accounts for 82.5% of all investor-owned SFR. Companies, in contrast, own significantly fewer at 75 properties (17.5%), highlighting the strong prevalence of mom-and-pop landlords.

The ownership structure is further solidified by entity counts: 449 individual landlords comprise 90.7% of all landlord entities, compared to just 46 company landlords (9.3%). This reveals a market primarily shaped by small-scale, individual operators rather than corporate entities.

A striking 93.2% of investor-owned properties (400 out of 429) were acquired via cash, demonstrating a strong reliance on cash purchases within the landlord segment. This contrasts sharply with only 29 properties (6.8%) being financed, suggesting a low leverage environment for investors in the county.

Almost the entire landlord portfolio is dedicated to rental housing, with 418 of the 429 investor-owned properties (97.4%) classified as rented. This pattern strongly indicates that landlords in Fillmore County are focused almost exclusively on generating rental income from their holdings.

In a surprising reversal of typical market dynamics, landlords in Fillmore County paid an average of $249,000 for SFR properties in Q4 2025. This represents a significant $74,533 premium, or 42.7% more, than the $174,467 average paid by traditional homeowners.

This Q4 premium is a notable departure from earlier in the year; in Q1 2025, landlords paid an average of $73,000, securing a substantial $77,929 discount (51.6%) compared to the $150,929 paid by homeowners. This dramatic shift from a deep discount to a substantial premium within the same year highlights extreme market volatility or distinct purchasing strategies.

While the data for specific landlord purchases by timeframe shows '0 properties' for all measured periods, the price comparison clearly delineates the average prices for 'Landlord' versus 'Homeowner' for actual sales in those quarters. The Q4 2025 price reflects an unusual willingness by the limited landlord buyers to pay above market rates compared to homeowners.

The lack of consistent acquisition data across years (2020-2023, 2024, 2025) makes long-term trend analysis challenging, however, the stark quarterly contrast within 2025 (Q1 discount vs. Q4 premium) provides a clear picture of short-term market fluctuations unique to Fillmore County.

Landlords in Fillmore County made a limited number of acquisitions in Q4 2025, accounting for only 2 of the 25 total SFR purchases, representing an 8.0% share of the market. This indicates a relatively low level of landlord purchasing activity compared to other buyers in the quarter.

All of the landlord purchases in Q4 2025 were made by mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04), demonstrating that this segment was exclusively responsible for investor activity. This highlights the complete absence of mid-size or institutional investors in the quarter's purchasing landscape.

Specifically, two new single-property landlords (Tier 01) entered the market, each acquiring one property. This means that 100.0% of the quarter's landlord purchases were attributed to first-time or single-property investors, reinforcing the dominance of the smallest tier in new acquisitions.

With no activity from larger investor tiers, the Q4 purchase summary reinforces the characteristic of Fillmore County as a market driven by individual, small-scale real estate investors rather than corporate or institutional entities.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) exert near-total control over the investor-owned SFR market in Fillmore County, holding an overwhelming 99.5% of all investor properties. This substantial concentration underscores their foundational role in the local rental housing supply.

The largest segment within this mom-and-pop dominance is single-property landlords (Tier 01), who own 334 properties, accounting for 76.8% of the total investor-owned SFR. This highlights the significant contribution of first-time or one-property owners to the market.

Smaller multi-property landlords also contribute significantly, with Tier 03-05 (3-5 properties) holding 40 properties (9.2%) and Tier 04 (6-10 properties) holding 35 properties (8.0%). Even Tier 02 (two properties) contributes 24 properties (5.5%).

The absence of institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) is complete, with 0.0% of investor-owned properties held by this segment. This definitively shows Fillmore County is a market without large-scale corporate landlord presence.

Only a minimal 0.5% of properties (2 properties) fall into the mid-size Tier 05-08 (11-1000 properties), specifically in the 11-20 properties sub-tier, further emphasizing the small-scale nature of the landlord market.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the smallest portfolio tiers in Fillmore County. They account for 91.6% of single-property portfolios (306 properties) and maintain a significant majority in two-property portfolios (70.8% with 17 properties).

The trend of individual dominance continues into slightly larger mom-and-pop portfolios of 3-5 properties, where they still hold 62.5% of the properties (25 properties), compared to companies at 37.5% (15 properties).

A clear crossover point occurs at the small landlord tier of 6-10 properties, where company ownership becomes the majority. Companies control 65.7% of properties (23 properties) in this tier, surpassing individual owners who hold 34.3% (12 properties).

This indicates that while individuals are the primary actors for single to small multi-property holdings, companies begin to concentrate their ownership in slightly larger, though still relatively small, portfolios within Fillmore County.

The data shows a distinct pattern where as portfolio size increases from 1 property to 10 properties, the proportional share of company ownership steadily rises, illustrating their strategic focus on building somewhat larger, albeit still mid-size, holdings in the county.

Within Fillmore County, Zip Code NE-Fillmore-68361 stands out with the highest concentration of investor-owned properties, totaling 150 SFR properties. This makes it the leading sub-geography by sheer volume of landlord holdings.

Following NE-Fillmore-68361, other notable zip codes by property count include NE-Fillmore-68351 with 66 investor-owned properties and NE-Fillmore-68354 with 59 properties, indicating pockets of significant landlord investment across the county.

When examining investor ownership rates, Zip Code NE-Fillmore-68416 demonstrates the highest landlord penetration, with 44.2% of its SFR properties owned by investors. This suggests a particularly attractive market for rental property investment within that specific area.

Other zip codes with high investor ownership rates include NE-Fillmore-68406 at 33.8% and NE-Fillmore-68335 at 33.3%. These regions show a higher proportion of homes dedicated to the rental market compared to the county average.

There's a clear distinction between regions with high property counts and those with high ownership rates: NE-Fillmore-68361, despite having the most investor-owned properties, has a moderate ownership rate of 15.7%, while NE-Fillmore-68416 has a top-tier rate of 44.2% from potentially fewer total properties, indicating different market dynamics at play.

Landlords in Fillmore County were significant net buyers in 2024, acquiring 42 properties while selling only 7, resulting in a robust buy/sell ratio of 6.0x. This demonstrates a strong period of portfolio expansion and accumulation by investors.

The net buying trend continued into 2025, albeit at a reduced pace. Landlords bought 4 properties and sold 3, maintaining a net buyer position with a buy/sell ratio of 1.33x. This indicates sustained, albeit slower, growth in their holdings.

Comparing 2024 and 2025 activity, there was a substantial drop in transaction volume for landlords, from 49 total transactions (42 buys + 7 sells) in 2024 to just 7 transactions (4 buys + 3 sells) in 2025. This suggests a cooling market or a shift in investor sentiment and activity.

A notable characteristic of the Fillmore County market is the complete absence of institutional investor (1000+ tier) transactions across both 2024 and 2025. This reinforces the finding that this market is exclusively driven by smaller, non-institutional landlords.

The consistent net buyer status, particularly the aggressive acquisition in 2024, signals a long-term investment strategy among landlords in the county, despite the reduced activity in the current year.

In Q4 2025, landlord transactions comprised a modest share of the overall market in Fillmore County, accounting for only 2 out of 40 total SFR transactions, which translates to a 5.0% market share. This indicates landlords were not a dominant force in the quarter's sales activity.

Mirroring the purchase summary, all Q4 landlord transactions were attributed to mom-and-pop investors (Tier 01-04), specifically single-property landlords (Tier 01). These 2 transactions signify that only the smallest investor segment was active in the Q4 market.

The average purchase price for these Tier 01 landlord transactions was $249,000. This price aligns with the premium observed in the acquisition pricing section, suggesting that the limited landlord activity involved purchases at higher-than-average market rates for that period.

Notably, there was no inter-landlord trading in Q4; 0.0% of properties bought by landlords were acquired from other landlords. This indicates that the Q4 landlord purchases were exclusively from non-investor sellers, rather than existing landlords divesting their properties.

The low transaction volume and specific tier activity reinforce the observation that Fillmore County's real estate market in Q4 2025 saw minimal and highly specialized engagement from its landlord segment.