Adams (OH) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords in Adams County, OH collectively own 1,640 SFR properties, representing 25.3% of the total 6,472 SFR properties available in the market. This substantial share indicates a significant investor presence within the local housing market.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the landlord landscape, owning 1,456 (88.8%) of all investor-owned SFR properties, compared to companies which hold only 197 properties (12.0%). This highlights the 'mom-and-pop' nature of the rental market in Adams County, OH.

The portfolio composition reveals a strong rental orientation, with 1,620 properties designated as rented, comprising 98.8% of all investor-owned SFRs. This signifies that almost all landlord-owned properties are actively utilized for income generation rather than other uses.

A notable 78.7% (1,290 properties) of the investor-owned portfolio was acquired through cash transactions, with 350 properties (21.3%) being financed. This suggests a strong preference among landlords for unencumbered assets or a market where cash buyers hold a significant advantage.

While individual landlords make up 92.2% of entities (1,770 out of 1,919 total landlords), they control an even larger proportion of properties (88.8%), indicating that the average individual landlord's portfolio size is slightly larger than their company counterparts, or that companies hold fewer properties per entity.

The near-complete rental status of landlord-owned properties (1,620 out of 1,640) underscores that these are overwhelmingly non-owner-occupied investments, aligning perfectly with the definition of landlord-investor focus on rental income.

A critical finding for Adams County, OH is the complete absence of recorded landlord acquisition activity across all of 2025 (Q1-Q4) and 2024, with '0 properties' purchased in all timeframes for which data is provided. This indicates a significant freeze or extreme slowdown in investor buying, making any listed average acquisition prices theoretical for these periods.

Despite the lack of actual transactions, the provided market averages suggest that in Q4 2025, landlords could have potentially acquired properties at $103,616, a substantial $92,687 (47.2%) discount compared to traditional homeowners who paid $196,303. This theoretical discount highlights the differing market positions or property types targeted by landlords versus homeowners.

The theoretical price gap between landlords and homeowners in Adams County, OH showed extreme volatility across 2025. While Q4 suggested a 47.2% discount for landlords, Q3 showed a similar 45.3% discount ($112,670 vs $205,959), but Q2 narrowed dramatically to only a 4.9% discount ($179,677 vs $188,890), demonstrating an inconsistent market advantage.

The implied average acquisition price for landlords during the pandemic-era (2020-2023) was $104,778. Comparing this to the theoretical 2025 average of $148,068 suggests a hypothetical price appreciation of 41.3% over a few years, although this is based on zero actual transactions in 2025.

The dramatic shift in the theoretical landlord-homeowner price gap, from a near 50% discount in Q4 and Q3 2025 to a mere 4.9% in Q2 2025, suggests highly segmented or rapidly changing market conditions, or that the '0 properties' data points are highly sensitive to any marginal transactions that would occur.

Without actual landlord acquisition counts for Q1-Q4 2025 and 2024, it is impossible to assess real acquisition trends or landlord purchasing velocity in Adams County, OH. The data primarily indicates a stagnant acquisition market for landlords during these periods.

Landlords in Adams County, OH constituted a significant portion of the market's activity in Q4 2025, making 19 purchases out of 71 total SFR properties sold, which represents a 26.8% share of all Q4 transactions. This shows a continued, albeit modest, investor presence despite the overall low acquisition numbers.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) overwhelmingly dominated Q4 purchases, accounting for 17 properties, or 89.5% of all landlord acquisitions. This underscores their crucial role in market activity and dispels any notion of large institutional buying power in Adams County, OH for this quarter.

Specifically, single-property landlords (Tier 01) were the most active, acquiring 12 properties which represents 63.2% of all landlord purchases in Q4. These 12 properties were bought by 15 distinct entities, suggesting that some new single-property landlords entered the market or added their first property to their portfolios.

The next most active tiers in Q4 were Two-property landlords (Tier 02) with 3 properties (15.8% of landlord purchases) and Small landlords (Tier 03-05) with 2 properties (10.5%). This further solidifies the market activity being driven by smaller-scale investors.

Notably, there were no purchases by institutional investors (Tier 09) in Q4 2025 in Adams County, OH, reaffirming their negligible presence in recent acquisition activity. Even larger landlords (Tier 101-1000) only contributed 2 properties (10.5%), a small fraction of the total.

The average properties per entity for Tier 01 (12 properties / 15 entities = 0.8) indicates that more entities bought single properties, further highlighting the entry of new or very small-scale landlords. In contrast, Tier 101-1000 bought 2 properties with 2 entities, implying an average of one property per entity for these larger landlords.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) are the undisputed backbone of the investor-owned SFR market in Adams County, OH, controlling an overwhelming 98.9% of all investor-held properties. This total of 1,655 properties (sum of Tiers 01-04) significantly outpaces larger investors.

The concentration of ownership is most pronounced in the smallest tier, with single-property landlords (Tier 01) alone holding 1,367 properties, which accounts for 81.7% of the entire investor-owned SFR portfolio. This highlights the foundational role of first-time or minimal-scale investors.

In stark contrast to the mom-and-pop dominance, institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) have a near-nonexistent footprint, controlling only 2 properties, or a mere 0.1% of the total investor-owned SFR market in Adams County, OH. This directly challenges any narrative of institutional takeover.

Even mid-size landlords (Tiers 05-08) collectively account for a small fraction, representing only 0.9% of the market (16 properties across Tiers 11-20, 21-50, 51-100, and 101-1000). This further emphasizes the market's heavy skew towards smaller-scale individual investors.

The distribution shows a steep decline in property counts as portfolio size increases; for example, Tier 01 holds 1,367 properties, but by Tier 06-10, it drops to 50 properties, demonstrating an extremely top-heavy distribution at the lowest tier.

Unfortunately, specific acquisition price data by tier (All Time, Q4, 2024, 2020-2023) was not provided in the CSV for this section. Therefore, direct insights into how pricing strategies vary across investor tiers cannot be drawn from the available data.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate ownership across all provided tiers in Adams County, OH, starting with an impressive 92.1% share in the single-property (Tier 01) segment, accounting for 1,270 properties compared to 109 by companies. This reinforces the 'mom-and-pop' foundation of the local market.

While individuals maintain a majority, companies begin to hold a more significant, albeit still minority, share in larger mom-and-pop tiers. In the 6-10 property tier, companies own 19 properties (38.0%), and in the 21-50 property tier, they own 1 property (33.3%). This indicates a gradual increase in company presence as portfolio size grows.

There is no specific 'crossover point' identified in the provided data where companies become the majority owners, as individuals retain a dominant share even in the largest available tier (21-50 properties) where data is provided. This suggests that the Adams County, OH market primarily consists of individual investors regardless of portfolio size.

The two-property (Tier 02) segment sees individuals owning 99 properties (86.8%) compared to 15 by companies (13.2%), further illustrating the consistent individual investor preference for smaller portfolios. Similarly, the 3-5 property tier maintains a 69.4% individual share (86 properties).

Due to the limited data, specific insights into how individual versus company acquisition prices differ within each tier cannot be ascertained. The provided CSV did not include pricing information for this section.

With only a partial view of ownership across tiers and no comparative growth data (e.g., all-time vs Q4 splits by owner type per tier), it is not possible to definitively assess differing growth patterns by owner type across tiers.

Within Adams County, OH, the zip code 45693 stands out with the highest number of investor-owned properties, totaling 425 SFRs, representing a 20.6% investor ownership rate. This signifies a primary area of concentration for investor holdings.

Following closely in property count are 45660 with 367 properties (23.8% investor rate) and 45144 with 304 properties (29.9% investor rate). These three zip codes, alongside 45697 (205 properties), form the core hubs of investor activity by volume in Adams County, OH.

While 45693 leads in raw count, other zip codes exhibit far higher investor ownership rates. OH-Adams-45684 has the highest investor ownership rate at 44.3%, despite its specific property count not being in the top 5 by volume. This indicates a deeply penetrated investor market in that area.

Similarly, OH-Adams-45650 shows a substantial 37.8% investor ownership rate, and OH-Adams-45616 has 33.9%, demonstrating that certain smaller regions within Adams County, OH have a higher proportion of their housing stock owned by investors.

The contrast between top regions by count and top regions by percentage highlights a nuanced geographic distribution: some areas have a large absolute number of investor properties, while others have a higher relative share of their total SFR market owned by investors, indicating varying levels of market saturation and development.

The data does not provide specific acquisition prices for these sub-geographies, so insights into price variations or correlations between prices and investor concentration cannot be drawn from the available information.

The absence of data for OH-Adams-45671 in terms of investor-owned properties or rate is a notable gap, making it impossible to assess its standing in either count or percentage metrics.

Landlords in Adams County, OH are currently strong net buyers, particularly in Q4 2025, where they purchased 23 properties while selling only 1, resulting in an impressive buy/sell ratio of 23.00x. This indicates a significant accumulation of assets during the quarter.

This net buyer trend is consistent throughout 2025, with landlords acquiring a total of 103 properties against 10 sells, for a yearly buy/sell ratio of 10.30x. This sustained buying activity highlights an ongoing investment interest in the Adams County, OH market.

The buy/sell ratio, while always positive, saw a notable increase in buying intensity in Q4 (23.00x) compared to Q3 (9.33x) and Q2 (7.25x), suggesting a potential surge in buying confidence or market opportunities towards the end of the year.

Institutional investors (Tier 1000+) also remained net buyers in 2024, purchasing 4 properties and selling 2, for a buy/sell ratio of 2.00x. This indicates a measured, albeit limited, accumulation strategy by the largest players in the preceding year.

There is no data provided for the percentage of buy or sell transactions that involve other landlords, or for average buy and sell prices in this section. Therefore, analysis of inter-landlord trading activity or implied profit margins from historical transactions is not possible.

Comparing Year 2025 activity (103 buys, 10 sells) to Year 2024 (131 buys, 20 sells) reveals a decrease in both buying and selling volume, indicating a general slowdown in transaction activity for landlords overall, though the net buyer status remains robust.

Landlords in Adams County, OH played a substantial role in the Q4 2025 market, participating in 23 out of 107 total SFR transactions, which represents a 21.5% share. This solidifies their position as active participants, albeit for a minority share of the overall transaction volume.

The vast majority of landlord transactions in Q4 2025 were driven by mom-and-pop investors (Tiers 01-04), who accounted for all 20 of the recorded tier-specific transactions. This means 100% of the Q4 landlord transaction activity, for which tier data is available, was concentrated among smaller-scale investors, reinforcing their market dominance.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were the most active, completing 15 transactions at an average purchase price of $90,673. This price is higher than the average for large landlords (Tier 101-1000) at $77,100, suggesting that smaller investors may be acquiring different types of properties or are willing to pay more per unit.

A critical finding is that for all tiers with recorded transactions, 0 properties were bought from other landlords, representing 0.0% inter-landlord trading. This indicates that Q4 landlord acquisitions primarily involved properties sourced from non-investor sellers, rather than existing investor portfolios.

The average purchase price varied significantly by tier: Tier 01 paid $90,673, Tier 02 paid $101,667, and Tier 03-05 paid $217,500, marking the highest average price among active tiers. In contrast, Tier 101-1000 secured properties at the lowest average price of $77,100, possibly reflecting different buying strategies or property types.

The absence of any transactions from institutional investors (Tier 09) in Q4 further underscores their minimal presence in Adams County, OH's transaction market, aligning with their limited overall ownership share.

Comparing transaction activity to ownership distribution, the concentration of Q4 transactions within mom-and-pop tiers (20 transactions) closely mirrors their overwhelming ownership share (98.9%), indicating consistent activity from the market's dominant player segment.