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

Landlords own 210 SFR properties in Pickaway County, representing a modest 1.3% of the total 15,721 SFR properties in the market. This indicates a relatively low penetration of investor-owned housing compared to many other regions.

A significant trend in Pickaway County is the dominance of company investors, who own 164 (78.1%) of all landlord-owned SFR properties, while individual landlords hold only 46 properties (21.9%). This contrasts sharply with typical national patterns where individuals often hold the majority.

Despite owning fewer properties, individual landlords constitute a larger number of entities, with 74 individual landlords compared to 60 company landlords. This highlights that individual investors tend to have much smaller portfolios, often just one property, while companies consolidate more properties per entity.

The majority of investor-owned properties, 154 properties (73.3%), are held outright with cash, suggesting a preference for unencumbered assets or strong financial positions among investors in this county. Only 56 properties (26.7%) are financed, indicating a lower reliance on debt for acquisitions.

A relatively small proportion, 33 properties (15.7%), are currently rented, which could indicate a significant portion of the landlord-owned properties might be vacant, undergoing renovation, or held for future rental purposes.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Pickaway County secured a significant pricing advantage, paying an average of $191,688 per property. This represents a substantial $124,964 discount, or 39.5% less, compared to traditional homeowners who paid $316,652.

The price gap between landlords and homeowners has shown considerable volatility throughout 2025. While Q4 saw a 39.5% discount, Q3 had a 32.7% discount ($112,480 difference), and Q1 a modest 10.1% discount ($32,532 difference).

The most pronounced disparity occurred in Q2 2025, where landlords acquired properties for $123,867, a staggering 62.5% or $206,429 less than homeowners' average price of $330,296, indicating exceptional deal-making opportunities in that quarter.

This fluctuating discount suggests that landlord acquisition strategies in Pickaway County are highly opportunistic, focusing on properties often undervalued by or less accessible to traditional homeowners, rather than following a consistent market trend.

Despite the quarter-to-quarter variability, the persistent discount highlights landlords' ability to identify and secure properties at a lower entry cost, a key driver for investment returns.

Comparing Q4 2025 landlord prices ($191,688) to the 2020-2023 average ($321,483 from section6-1 data) reveals a 40.3% decline in acquisition prices since the pandemic boom, indicating a softening market for investor purchases.

Landlords in Pickaway County accounted for a small fraction of the Q4 2025 SFR market, purchasing only 8 properties, which represents a mere 4.5% of the total 177 SFR purchases during the quarter. This indicates a limited investor presence in recent acquisition activity.

The most active tier in Q4 was the Small-medium (21-50 properties) segment, responsible for half of all landlord purchases, acquiring 4 properties by 4 distinct entities. This suggests that existing mid-sized landlords were the primary drivers of recent growth.

Institutional investors (1000+ properties) also showed some activity, purchasing 2 properties (25.0% of landlord acquisitions) through 2 entities. This level of activity, while modest, signals continued, albeit cautious, expansion by larger players.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04) collectively made a minor impact in Q4, with only 1 property (12.5% of landlord purchases) acquired by a Tier 6-10 landlord. Critically, no new single-property landlords (Tier 01) entered the market during this quarter, suggesting a pause in new investor formation.

A peculiar pattern emerged in Q4, where each purchasing entity across all active tiers (6-10, 21-50, 51-100, 1000+) acquired exactly one property. This points to highly targeted, individual property acquisitions rather than bulk purchases within this quarter.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) command nearly half of all investor-owned SFR properties in Pickaway County, holding 104 properties and representing a significant 49.3% of the total landlord portfolio. This indicates a highly concentrated market dominated by large-scale entities.

In contrast, mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04, 1-10 properties) collectively control only 28.4% of the investor-owned housing, totaling 60 properties. This is a substantial imbalance when compared to institutional holdings, challenging common perceptions of landlord demographics.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01), often seen as the entry point for new investors, hold 33 properties, accounting for 15.6% of the landlord-owned market. This highlights their foundational role, despite being overshadowed by larger entities.

The distribution demonstrates a 'barbell' effect, with a large institutional presence at one end and a significant number of single-property owners at the other, while mid-sized tiers hold smaller individual shares. For instance, the Small-medium (11-20) tier holds 16 properties (7.6%), the highest within the mid-size landlord categories.

The absence of price data by tier in this section prevents an analysis of whether larger investors secure better pricing compared to smaller landlords, a critical aspect of investment strategy and market dynamics.

Ownership patterns in Pickaway County show a distinct shift: individual investors predominantly own smaller portfolios, controlling 97.0% of single-property (Tier 01) holdings and 66.7% in the 3-5 property tier. This underscores their role as the primary owners of entry-level investment properties.

A clear crossover point occurs between the 3-5 and 6-10 property tiers, where companies assume majority ownership. In the 6-10 property tier, companies hold 83.3% of properties, signaling their stronger presence in larger-scale investing.

This company dominance intensifies in higher tiers, with companies owning 93.8% of properties in the Small-medium (11-20) tier and 92.9% in the Small-medium (21-50) tier, illustrating their strategy of portfolio building and aggregation.

The overall trend reinforces that while individual landlords are numerous, they mainly operate at the entry level, whereas companies are responsible for aggregating more significant property counts as portfolio size increases.

The missing data for tiers above 21-50, especially the institutional (1000+) tier, limits a complete understanding of the individual vs. company split at the very highest end of the market, though it's highly probable companies maintain their majority there.

Within Pickaway County, investor-owned SFR properties show a concentrated distribution, with OH-Pickaway-43103 leading in property count with 75 investor-owned properties. This represents a 2.2% investor ownership rate within that zip code, indicating a notable investor presence.

Following in terms of property count, OH-Pickaway-43113 holds 37 investor-owned properties, though its investor ownership rate is considerably lower at 0.5%, suggesting a larger total SFR market in that specific area with lower investor penetration.

OH-Pickaway-43116 exhibits the highest investor ownership rate at 2.6%, suggesting a higher proportion of its housing stock is landlord-owned, although the exact number of investor-owned properties for this zip code is not available in the provided data.

The significant presence of "nan" (Not a Number) values for several zip codes in both property count and ownership percentage metrics severely limits a comprehensive geographic analysis of investor activity across all of Pickaway County.

Based on available data, the zip code 43103 appears to be the most active hub for investor-owned properties by volume, while 43116 shows the highest saturation of investor ownership, demonstrating distinct regional investment patterns within the county.

Overall landlords in Pickaway County have shifted from being net buyers in 2024, with 59 buys against 39 sells, to becoming net sellers in 2025, recording 30 buys versus 37 sells. This represents a buy/sell ratio of 0.81 for the year 2025, signaling a period of portfolio adjustment or divestment.

This trend of divestment continued into Q4 2025, where landlords sold 11 properties while only purchasing 10, resulting in a net reduction of one property from their collective portfolio during the quarter.

In stark contrast to the general landlord market, institutional investors (1000+ tier) demonstrated an opposing pattern: they were net sellers in 2024 (6 buys vs 8 sells) but became net buyers in 2025 with 4 acquisitions against 3 sales, indicating strategic accumulation during the year.

However, institutional activity in Q4 2025 was neutral, with 2 properties bought and 2 sold, suggesting a pause in their overall buying trend at the end of the year.

The divergent transaction patterns between overall landlords and institutional investors highlight differing market strategies, with smaller investors potentially reacting to market conditions by selling, while larger entities are selectively acquiring.

The absence of data on "Landlord-to-Landlord %" and "Avg prices" within this specific dataset prevents a deeper analysis of transaction origins and implied profit margins for historical transactions.

Landlords participated in a modest 10 transactions in Q4 2025, representing only 3.6% of the total 276 SFR transactions in Pickaway County, indicating a marginal impact on the overall market's liquidity.

Notably, there was zero inter-landlord trading activity across all investor tiers this quarter, with 0.0% of properties bought from other landlords. This means all 10 landlord acquisitions originated from non-landlord sellers, suggesting limited internal market churning.

Average purchase prices varied significantly by tier: institutional investors (1000+ properties) paid the highest average price at $327,500, while Medium-large landlords (51-100 properties) secured properties at the lowest average of $92,500.

The Small-medium (21-50 properties) tier was the most active in Q4 with 4 transactions, despite institutional investors owning nearly half of all landlord-held properties, suggesting that smaller, more agile entities are driving recent purchase volume.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04, specifically 6-10 properties) accounted for 2 transactions at an average price of $205,000, aligning in transaction volume with institutional investors (1000+ tier) who also completed 2 transactions.

The considerable price spread of $235,000 between the highest ($327,500) and lowest ($92,500) average acquisition prices across tiers in Q4 suggests diverse investment strategies and property types being targeted by different investor sizes.