Hampton (SC) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords in Hampton County, SC, collectively own 1,361 Single Family Residential (SFR) properties, establishing a substantial market presence by controlling 30.4% of the total SFR inventory of 4,474 properties.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the landlord landscape, holding 1,178 properties, which accounts for 86.6% of all investor-owned SFR. Companies, by contrast, own a smaller share of 193 properties, representing 14.2%.

The ownership structure is further emphasized by entity counts, with 1,333 individual landlords compared to just 163 company landlords, demonstrating that 89.1% of all landlord entities are individuals.

A striking 1,166 of landlord-owned properties were acquired with cash, signifying an 85.7% cash-based acquisition strategy among investors and a low reliance on financing for 195 properties (14.3%).

Hampton County's investor-owned portfolio is heavily rental-focused, with 1,336 properties (98.2%) classified as rented, confirming that investors are primarily long-term rental providers rather than house flippers or secondary homeowners.

The high proportion of individual ownership and rental-focused properties challenges the narrative of corporate dominance, portraying a market driven by smaller, local investors.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Hampton County, SC, demonstrated a significant potential price advantage, with their average acquisition price of $86,333 being 50.5% lower than the traditional homeowner average of $174,359, equating to an $88,026 discount per property.

Despite this compelling price differential, landlords recorded 0 distinct SFR properties purchased in Q4 2025, as well as in Q3, Q2, Q1 2025, and throughout 2024 and 2020-2023, according to acquisition data. This suggests a notable pause in new distinct property additions to portfolios, contrasting with reported Q4 purchases in other sections.

The price gap between landlords and homeowners has been highly variable throughout 2025: Q1 saw a 62.5% discount ($117,879), Q2 a 30.3% discount ($58,515), Q3 a 52.1% discount ($82,284), and Q4 a 50.5% discount ($88,026). This erratic pattern highlights the volatility in acquisition pricing opportunities.

Across 2025, the average landlord acquisition price was $95,407, consistently lower than homeowner prices, signaling a persistent ability to find undervalued properties when transactions do occur.

The dramatic discounts secured by landlords, at over 50% in multiple quarters of 2025, indicate a robust strategy for identifying deeply discounted investment opportunities, even if the volume of distinct acquisitions in those periods was negligible.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Hampton County, SC, were significant market players, completing 10 SFR purchases which constituted 24.4% of the total 41 SFR properties sold in the quarter.

This quarter's landlord purchasing activity was exclusively dominated by mom-and-pop investors (Tiers 01-04), who accounted for all 10 (100.0%) of the landlord-acquired properties, reinforcing their foundational role in the local market.

Conversely, institutional investors (Tier 09), defined as owning 1000+ properties, made 0 purchases in Q4 2025, indicating a complete absence from new acquisitions during this period.

The single-property landlord tier (Tier 01) was the most active segment, with 10 entities acquiring 8 properties, representing 80.0% of all landlord purchases in Q4 2025, signaling strong new entrant or expansion activity from the smallest investors.

Small landlords in the 6-10 property tier (Tier 04) also contributed to Q4 activity, with 2 entities purchasing 2 properties, comprising 20.0% of landlord acquisitions.

The concentration of Q4 purchases entirely within the mom-and-pop segment highlights that investment growth in Hampton County is currently propelled by smaller, individual-led portfolios rather than large-scale corporate expansion.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04), owning between 1 and 10 properties, command an overwhelming 98.6% of the investor-owned SFR market in Hampton County, SC, holding 1,364 properties.

The backbone of this market is the single-property landlord (Tier 01), who collectively own 1,130 properties, representing 81.6% of all landlord-held SFR, signifying a strong foundation of first-time or small-scale investors.

In stark contrast to the mom-and-pop dominance, institutional investors (Tier 09), those with 1000+ properties, hold a negligible 0.2% share, accounting for only 3 properties across Hampton County, SC, indicating a very limited corporate footprint.

The distribution reveals a pronounced concentration at the smallest end of the spectrum, with Tiers 01-04 absorbing virtually all investor-owned properties, and only minor contributions from larger tiers (0.9% for Tier 05, 0.1% for Tier 06, 0.1% for Tier 07, 0.2% for Tier 08).

The almost non-existent presence of mid-size (Tiers 05-08) and institutional (Tier 09) investors suggests that economies of scale are not a primary driver of SFR ownership in this particular county, favoring smaller, localized operations.

With no specific data on acquisition price variations by tier provided, it is not possible to determine if larger investors pay more or less than smaller landlords, or how prices have evolved within each tier over time.

Individual investors are the predominant force in smaller portfolios, owning 88.8% of single-property (Tier 01) holdings and 85.4% of two-property (Tier 02) holdings, showcasing their foundational role in the early stages of portfolio growth.

The market experiences a notable crossover point at the small landlord 6-10 property tier (Tier 04), where companies become the majority owners, holding 66.7% (18 properties) compared to 33.3% (9 properties) owned by individuals.

Interestingly, after the company dominance in Tier 04, individual investors regain a significant majority in the small-medium 11-20 property tier (Tier 05), controlling 91.7% of properties (11 properties vs 1 for companies), suggesting a unique market dynamic in this mid-size segment.

While institutional investors (Tier 09) collectively own 3 properties, these are typically attributed to companies, reinforcing the idea that larger-scale operations are primarily corporate in nature, albeit minimal in Hampton County, SC.

The absence of specific pricing data by owner type within each tier prevents a direct comparison of individual versus company acquisition prices, thus limiting insights into their distinct buying strategies.

The varying individual-to-company ratios across tiers, with individual investors consistently strong in the smallest portfolios, highlights differing investment strategies and operational scales based on portfolio size.

Investor-owned properties are highly concentrated within specific zip codes in Hampton County, SC, with 29918 leading with 408 properties, followed by 29944 with 315 properties, and 29924 with 277 properties, highlighting key areas of investment activity.

Several zip codes also demonstrate notably high investor ownership rates: 29923 at 42.5%, 29918 at 42.4%, and 29932 at 40.8%. These figures indicate that nearly half of the SFR housing in these areas is investor-owned.

A strong correlation exists between the zip codes with the highest counts of investor-owned properties and those with the highest investor ownership percentages, suggesting that active investment is creating dense pockets of rental housing.

The top five zip codes by property count (29918, 29944, 29924, 29911, 29945) collectively account for 1,240 investor-owned properties, comprising over 91% of the total 1,361 investor-owned SFR in Hampton County, SC, demonstrating extreme geographic concentration.

The average acquisition prices in these top regions are not provided in the data, preventing an analysis of whether high-concentration areas command higher or lower prices for investors.

The geographic insights reveal that investor activity in Hampton County, SC, is not broadly distributed but rather focused on a few key areas, potentially driven by local market dynamics, affordability, or rental demand.

Across 2025, landlords in Hampton County, SC, demonstrated an aggressive accumulation strategy, registering 92 buy transactions against only 12 sell transactions, resulting in a robust net buyer position with a 7.67x buy/sell ratio.

This strong net buying trend extends to Q4 2025, where landlords acquired 13 properties while selling 5, maintaining a net buyer status for the quarter.

The transaction volume for all landlords significantly increased from 2024 to 2025, with buys rising from 61 to 92 and sells decreasing from 20 to 12, indicating a heightened period of portfolio expansion.

In contrast to the overall landlord activity, institutional investors (1000+ properties) maintained a net neutral position in 2025, executing 1 buy and 1 sell transaction, suggesting a stable, rather than expansive or contractive, strategy for this segment.

The consistent net buying behavior throughout 2025 underscores a period of confidence and growth among the majority of landlords in Hampton County, SC.

The absence of average buy and sell prices in the historical transactions data prevents an analysis of implied profit margins or pricing strategies over time for either all landlords or institutional investors.

Landlords played a substantial role in Q4 2025 transactions in Hampton County, SC, participating in 13 of the total 57 SFR transactions, representing a significant 22.8% share of the market activity.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) were the primary drivers of this activity, completing 12 transactions in Q4, while institutional investors (Tier 09) showed no transaction volume.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) led the way, executing 10 transactions at an average purchase price of $99,571, indicating continued entry or expansion from the smallest investor segment.

Notably, there was no reported inter-landlord trading in Q4 2025, with 0% of transactions across all active tiers being bought from other landlords, suggesting that landlords are primarily acquiring properties from non-investor sellers.

The average purchase price varied among active tiers: single-property landlords (Tier 01) paid $99,571, while small landlords (Tier 04: 6-10 properties) acquired properties at a lower average of $40,000, and large landlords (Tier 08: 101-1000 properties) at $159,900.

The lack of institutional transaction activity in Q4 2025 further highlights the market's reliance on smaller, individual-driven investments, consistent with the overall ownership distribution.