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

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate Scott County's SFR rental market, owning 1,738 properties, which accounts for 96.1% of all landlord-owned SFR. This significantly contrasts with companies, which hold only 95 properties or 5.3% of the total investor-owned portfolio.

Scott County's investor market comprises 1,808 SFR properties, representing a substantial 35.2% of the county's total 5,138 SFR properties, indicating a robust and active rental sector.

The landlord portfolio in Scott County is heavily oriented towards rentals and cash acquisitions; 1,788 properties are rented, signifying a strong focus on generating rental income. A remarkable 1,471 properties were acquired using cash, showcasing a preference for cash transactions over financing, with only 337 properties being financed.

Despite the dominance in property counts, individual landlords also represent the vast majority of entities, with 2,255 individual landlords compared to just 90 company landlords. This highlights a market largely composed of individual entrepreneurs rather than institutional entities.

The high percentage of rented properties (1,788 out of 1,808) confirms that almost all investor-owned properties are utilized as rentals, underscoring the vital role landlords play in providing housing options in Scott County.

The ratio of individual to company entities is 25:1 (2,255 vs 90), further emphasizing that the vast majority of investment activity is driven by individual landlords, far from the narrative of corporate dominance.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Scott County demonstrated superior acquisition capabilities, purchasing properties for an average of $180,368 – a substantial 19.1% less than traditional homeowners who paid $223,039. This translates to an average saving of $42,671 per property for landlords.

The landlord discount, while still significant, showed a notable narrowing trend quarter-over-quarter; it decreased from 31.9% ($83,291 discount) in Q3 2025 to 19.1% ($42,671 discount) in Q4 2025, suggesting a slight increase in competition or changes in market dynamics.

Across all of 2025, landlords acquired properties at an average price of $182,183, indicating a slight year-over-year increase compared to the average price of $202,286 in 2024. However, it's critical to note that zero properties were acquired in recent quarters, suggesting low liquidity or reporting in these specific timeframes, making direct quarterly comparisons of activity volume challenging.

Despite the lack of recent quarterly acquisition volume, the overall trend from the pandemic-era (2020-2023) to 2025 shows price appreciation; average landlord acquisition prices rose from $159,175 during 2020-2023 to $182,183 in 2025.

The consistent pattern of landlords paying less than homeowners across all reported quarters (ranging from 12.6% to 31.9% discounts) suggests a strategic advantage in identifying undervalued properties or negotiating more favorable terms in Scott County.

The absence of landlord acquisition data for multiple recent quarters (Q1-Q4 2025 and Q4 2024 show 0 properties acquired in the specific timeframe tables) indicates a period of very low new landlord buying activity in Scott County during these periods, despite the existing large landlord portfolio.

In Q4 2025, landlords were highly active in Scott County, securing 22 SFR properties, which accounts for a substantial 43.1% of the total 51 SFR purchases in the market. This highlights their significant influence on local real estate transactions.

Mom-and-pop landlords, encompassing Tiers 01-04, overwhelmingly dominated purchasing activity this quarter, responsible for 21 (91.3%) of all landlord acquisitions. This underscores that small-scale investors remain the primary drivers of investment in the Scott County market.

New landlords entering the market, specifically those purchasing their first single property (Tier 01), were particularly active, with 25 distinct entities acquiring 18 properties in Q4. This signals continuous entry and growth at the smallest investor scale.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) showed no purchasing activity in Q4 2025, acquiring 0 properties, reaffirming their minimal direct involvement in current market acquisitions in Scott County.

The distribution of Q4 purchases further emphasizes the fragmented nature of the landlord market; single-property landlords (Tier 01) bought 18 properties, while only 2 properties were acquired by two-property landlords (Tier 02), and 1 by small landlords (3-5 properties), showing activity concentrated at the very smallest end of the spectrum.

The average properties per entity in Q4 purchasing activity for Tier 01 (18 properties by 25 entities, meaning less than 1 property per entity) suggests that many new individual entities acquired their *first* property during this quarter, expanding the landlord base rather than existing entities significantly scaling up.

Mom-and-pop landlords, those owning 1 to 10 properties (Tiers 01-04), collectively control an overwhelming 96.7% of all investor-owned SFR properties in Scott County, representing the vast majority of the rental housing supply.

The market is heavily concentrated at the smallest scale, with single-property landlords (Tier 01) alone possessing 1,602 properties, accounting for a dominant 85.8% of the total investor-owned housing stock. This highlights first-time or minimal landlords as the backbone of the local market.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) have a negligible presence in Scott County, owning only 2 properties, which constitutes a mere 0.1% of the total landlord-owned SFR. This stands in stark contrast to the perception of large corporate landlords dominating housing markets.

While Tier 01 landlords dominate, the next largest segment by property count are those in Tier 02 (two-property owners) with 98 properties (5.2%), followed by Tier 03 (3-5 properties) with 84 properties (4.5%), showing a rapid drop-off in concentration as portfolio size increases.

The data for average acquisition prices by tier is not provided for all-time ownership (section 8-2 summary), but Q4 transaction data (section 12-2) suggests that single-property landlords (Tier 01) had the highest average purchase price at $193,468 in Q4, potentially indicating a willingness to pay more or a focus on specific property types.

The very small numbers in higher tiers (e.g., Tier 07 with 4 properties, Tier 08 with 1 property, Tier 09 with 2 properties) illustrate that Scott County's investor market structure is profoundly decentralized, with minimal involvement from larger, more complex entities.

Individual investors maintain overwhelming dominance across all specified landlord tiers in Scott County, consistently holding the vast majority of properties within each tier. There is no identified crossover point where companies become the majority owners in the provided data, reinforcing the individual-centric nature of the market.

For single-property landlords (Tier 01), individual investors are responsible for 1,555 properties, representing 96.0% of this tier, while companies own a minor 64 properties (4.0%). This pattern establishes individual ownership from the entry level upwards.

Even in mid-sized portfolios like the Small-medium (11-20 properties) tier, individual investors still own the majority with 2 properties (66.7%), compared to companies owning 1 property (33.3%). This indicates that even as portfolios grow, individual ownership remains strong.

The largest tier where company ownership is present, Medium-large (51-100 properties), shows individuals owning 50 properties (96.2%) versus companies owning 2 properties (3.8%), further illustrating the limited penetration of corporate entities across the investment spectrum.

Across all tiers for which data is provided (1, 2, 3-5, 6-10, 11-20, 51-100), individual ownership consistently remains above 66%, demonstrating a profound structural reliance on individual investors rather than corporate entities to supply rental housing in Scott County.

The absence of tier-specific pricing data split by owner type in the summary makes it impossible to directly compare individual vs. company acquisition prices within each tier. However, the ownership distribution clearly indicates different investment scales and strategies by entity type.

The zip code TN-Scott-37841 leads Scott County in terms of sheer volume of investor-owned properties, with 812 SFR properties. This indicates a significant concentration of landlord investment activity within this specific area.

While not the highest by raw count, the zip code TN-Scott-37732 exhibits a remarkable 100.0% investor ownership rate, meaning every SFR property in this micro-market is owned by a landlord. This signals an exceptionally unique, and potentially niche, investment market.

Several top zip codes demonstrate both high counts and high ownership rates, suggesting concentrated hotspots for investor activity. For instance, TN-Scott-37892 has 163 investor-owned properties and a 42.0% ownership rate, while TN-Scott-37852 has 218 properties and a 41.0% rate.

The top five regions by investor-owned count collectively represent significant portions of the county's investor market, with the top zip code alone (TN-Scott-37841) holding 812 properties. This indicates that while the county is overall investor-heavy, there's a clear geographic clustering of these properties.

Comparing the top 5 by count versus top 5 by percentage reveals a strong correlation: the zip codes with the most landlord properties also tend to have very high landlord penetration rates. This indicates that investor focus is on specific, high-demand micro-markets within Scott County.

The acquisition price data by geographic region is not provided in the summary for section 10, thus preventing an analysis of how landlord acquisition prices vary across these specific zip codes.

Landlords in Scott County are consistently strong net buyers, particularly in Q4 2025, where they purchased 32 properties while selling only 1, resulting in an impressive 32x buy/sell ratio for the quarter.

Over the full year 2025, all landlords maintained a net buyer position, with 111 buy transactions against 12 sell transactions, yielding a 9.25x buy/sell ratio. This sustained activity indicates a continued expansion of landlord portfolios in the county.

The trend of net buying is consistent across previous periods as well; in 2024, landlords bought 78 properties and sold 13, maintaining a strong net positive position with 65 more acquisitions than dispositions.

In contrast to the overall landlord market, institutional investors (1000+ tier) showed a more balanced, or net neutral, transaction pattern in 2025, with 1 buy and 1 sell, indicating no significant accumulation or divestment from their limited holdings in Scott County.

The data for `Landlord-to-Landlord %` of buy and sell transactions is not provided in the summary for section 11, preventing an analysis of inter-landlord trading activity or implied profit margins from transaction prices, as average sell prices are also missing from this section.

The consistent net buying behavior of all landlords in Scott County signals a strong belief in the market's long-term rental potential and overall stability, with sustained demand for investment properties.

Landlords played a significant role in Scott County's Q4 2025 real estate market, engaging in 32 transactions, which constitutes 40.0% of the total 80 SFR transactions for the quarter.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) were the primary drivers of this activity, collectively conducting 30 transactions. Single-property landlords (Tier 01) led with 25 transactions, followed by two-property (Tier 02) with 3 transactions, and small landlords (3-5 properties, Tier 03) with 2 transactions.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) showed no transaction activity in Q4 2025, consistent with their minimal overall presence and purchasing behavior observed in previous sections.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) recorded the highest average purchase price at $193,468 in Q4, indicating they are either targeting specific, potentially higher-value properties, or are willing to pay more to enter the market. The lowest average price was seen in the Two-property (Tier 02) and Small landlord (3-5 properties, Tier 03) tiers, both at $123,333 and $125,000 respectively, suggesting different acquisition strategies by tier.

None of the Q4 transactions across any tier were identified as being bought from other landlords (0.0% from landlords), suggesting that new acquisitions are predominantly sourced from traditional homeowners or non-landlord sellers rather than existing investor portfolios.

The activity in Q4 transactions for each tier (e.g., Tier 01 with 25 transactions) broadly aligns with the overall ownership distribution (Tier 01 dominating ownership), indicating that the most prevalent landlord type is also the most active in new acquisitions.