Hancock (TN) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate Hancock County's SFR rental market, owning 514 (96.4%) of the 533 landlord-owned properties. This strongly contrasts with company ownership, which accounts for only 20 properties (3.8%).

The prevalence of individual ownership extends to landlord entities, with 708 (97.4%) of the 727 distinct landlords being individuals, creating a ratio of approximately 37 individual landlords for every company landlord.

A striking 86.3% of investor-owned properties in Hancock County, totaling 460 properties, were acquired with cash, indicating a strong preference for unfinanced acquisitions among landlords.

Conversely, only 73 (13.7%) of investor-owned properties are financed, revealing a market where leverage is less common for landlords compared to outright cash purchases.

The vast majority of landlord-owned SFR properties, 529 out of 533 (99.2%), are rented, underscoring the strong rental focus of investors in the county.

Landlord acquisition activity in Hancock County was notably absent in Q4 2025, with 0 properties purchased. This lack of recent buying makes it challenging to establish current market trends for landlord-driven pricing.

Despite the zero acquisitions, the recorded average landlord acquisition price for Q4 2025 stood at $88,544. This price is a significant 72.7% ($235,456) lower than the average homeowner purchase price of $324,000 in the same quarter.

Similarly, Q3 2025 also saw 0 landlord purchases, with an average recorded price of $87,000, which was 62.7% ($146,387) less than the average homeowner price of $233,387.

Looking back to Q1 2025, when landlords also made 0 purchases, the recorded average price of $186,900 was an unusual 158.9% ($114,700) premium compared to the homeowner price of $72,200, highlighting inconsistent market dynamics without active landlord participation.

The consistent reporting of '0 properties' for landlord acquisitions across Q1-Q4 2025, Year 2024, and Years 2020-2023, indicates a prolonged period of extremely low or non-existent direct purchasing activity from classified landlords in Hancock County.

Landlords significantly influenced the Q4 2025 SFR market in Hancock County, securing 7 out of 9 total purchases, representing a dominant 77.8% market share.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04) were exclusively responsible for all landlord acquisitions in Q4, purchasing 7 properties and demonstrating a strong foothold in the current market activity.

Institutional investors (Tier 09) showed no purchasing activity in Q4 2025, further emphasizing the dominance of smaller, local investors in this county.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) accounted for the majority of activity, with 7 entities entering or growing their portfolios by acquiring 5 properties in Q4, signifying ongoing grassroots investment.

The next most active tiers were two-property (Tier 02) and small landlord (Tier 03-05), each with 1 property purchased by a single entity, demonstrating diverse but still small-scale landlord engagement.

Hancock County's investor-owned SFR market is almost entirely composed of mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04), who collectively control 99.1% of all properties.

The vast majority of this ownership resides with single-property landlords (Tier 01), who account for 497 distinct properties, representing 91.7% of the total landlord-owned portfolio.

In stark contrast, institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) hold no properties in Hancock County, highlighting a market structure entirely devoid of large-scale corporate ownership.

Beyond single-property owners, smaller portfolio tiers such as two-property landlords (3.7% with 20 properties) and small landlords (3-5 properties, 3.3% with 18 properties) make up the remaining significant shares.

The distribution clearly shows a highly fragmented and locally-driven investor market, with no concentration among larger or institutional entities.

Individual investors maintain a near-total grip on the smallest landlord portfolios, owning 98.2% of single-property (Tier 01) and 95.0% of two-property (Tier 02) holdings.

The presence of company ownership gradually increases with portfolio size, growing from just 1.8% in Tier 01 to 5.0% in Tier 02, and then to 27.8% in the 3-5 property tier.

A significant shift occurs at the small landlord (6-10 properties) tier, where individual and company ownership reaches parity, with each owning 1 property, representing 50.0% of the tier's holdings.

This indicates that while individuals are the foundational owners, companies begin to hold a more substantial, albeit still not majority, share as portfolio sizes expand within the mid-range tiers.

The current data does not show a tier where company ownership surpasses 50%, suggesting that individuals remain the predominant owner type even in the larger available tiers within Hancock County.

Within Hancock County, the 37731 zip code demonstrates the highest investor penetration, with a significant 63.8% of its SFR properties being investor-owned, even though it accounts for 30 total investor properties.

The zip code TN-Hancock-37869 holds the largest number of investor-owned properties, totaling 381, which represents a 34.4% investor ownership rate within that specific area.

A notable concentration of investor activity is observed across several zip codes, with TN-Hancock-37752 having a 60.0% investor ownership rate, and TN-Hancock-37765 showing 37 properties at a 36.3% rate.

This distinct pattern reveals that while some areas attract a high volume of investor properties, other, potentially smaller sub-markets, exhibit exceptionally high investor ownership rates.

The top five regions by investor-owned count all maintain ownership rates above 29%, signaling a consistent presence of landlords across key areas of Hancock County.

Hancock County landlords are clearly operating as strong net buyers, evidenced by a 9.0x buy/sell ratio in Q4 2025, with 9 properties purchased compared to only 1 sold.

This trend of accumulation is consistent throughout 2025, where landlords acquired 23 properties while selling only 4, resulting in a substantial net gain of 19 properties for the year.

Looking further back, Year 2024 also saw robust net buying, with landlords purchasing 31 properties against 4 sells, adding 27 properties to their portfolios.

In contrast to the active smaller landlords, institutional investors (1000+ tier) exhibited very limited transaction volume, being net buyers of only 1 property (2 buys vs 1 sell) in Year 2024, with no recorded activity in 2025.

The overall market for landlord transactions in Hancock County thus appears to be one of steady growth, predominantly driven by non-institutional investors who are consistently expanding their holdings.

Landlords played a significant role in the Q4 2025 market, accounting for 9 out of 13 total SFR transactions, translating to a 69.2% share of all recorded activity.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04) were exclusively responsible for all 9 landlord transactions in Q4, reinforcing their dominance in the county's investment landscape, while institutional investors showed no activity.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were the primary drivers of transaction volume, participating in 7 of the 9 landlord transactions, with an average purchase price of $83,571.

Inter-landlord trading was extremely low for the most active tiers, with Tier 01 and Tier 02 showing 0.0% of their Q4 transactions being purchased from other landlords, suggesting properties are mostly acquired from traditional sellers.

Interestingly, the single transaction by a small landlord (Tier 03-05) was 100.0% bought from another landlord, at an average price of $81,900, hinting at internal market dynamics for slightly larger portfolios.