Crook (WY) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords collectively control a substantial majority of the SFR market in Crook County, owning 1,436 properties, which represents 63.9% of the total 2,248 SFR properties available. This dominance highlights a market heavily influenced by investor activity.

Individual investors, often referred to as mom-and-pop landlords, are the overwhelming force in the county's investor landscape, holding 1,262 properties, or 87.9% of all landlord-owned SFR. This significantly overshadows company ownership, which accounts for 221 properties (15.4%).

The market is fundamentally driven by rentals, as an astounding 99.7% of all landlord-owned properties (1,432 properties) are non-owner-occupied and rented. This indicates investors are primarily focused on generating rental income rather than short-term flips or other strategies.

A strong preference for cash acquisitions defines the investor market in Crook County, with 968 properties (67.4% of all landlord holdings) being cash-owned. This suggests a less leveraged market, potentially signaling greater financial stability among landlords compared to the 468 financed properties (32.6%).

Individual landlords significantly outnumber company landlords by a ratio of 8.78 to 1, with 1,896 individual entities compared to 216 company entities. This solidifies the "mom-and-pop" structure of the investor market, even though there might be some overlap in property counts when summing individual and company properties.

The Q4 2025 real estate market in Crook County saw an unusual inversion in pricing, with landlords paying a premium of $56,904 (19.4%) over traditional homeowners, averaging $350,415 compared to homeowners' $293,511. This deviates significantly from typical market behavior where landlords often secure discounts.

Landlord acquisition pricing has been highly volatile over the past year. After achieving substantial discounts in Q1 2025 (25.2% or $68,985), Q2 (20.3% or $62,961), and a particularly deep discount in Q3 (36.5% or $187,168), the Q4 shift to paying a premium indicates a rapidly changing competitive landscape for investor properties.

Despite the Q4 premium, landlord acquisition prices have shown a strong upward trend since the pandemic era, appreciating by 26.8% from an average of $276,220 during 2020-2023 to $350,415 in Q4 2025. This highlights significant property value growth over recent years, though the specific number of landlord purchases associated with these averages for earlier periods is not detailed.

Analyzing the broader yearly averages, landlord prices increased by 18.8% from 2020-2023 ($276,220) to 2024 ($328,221), suggesting robust market growth. However, the average price for 2025 ($317,818) saw a slight decrease of 3.2% compared to 2024, implying a potential moderation or plateauing of prices year-over-year before the Q4 surge.

The sharp fluctuation in the landlord-homeowner price gap—moving from significant discounts to a premium—suggests a highly dynamic and potentially competitive market in Crook County, where investor strategies and market conditions are evolving rapidly quarter-over-quarter.

Landlords were highly active in the Crook County SFR market during Q4 2025, securing 14 properties, which accounts for over half (53.8%) of all 26 SFR purchases in the quarter. This demonstrates a strong investor appetite despite the overall low transaction volume.

Mom-and-pop landlords, specifically those acquiring 1-10 properties (Tiers 01-04), overwhelmingly dominated Q4 purchasing activity, responsible for 12 properties or 85.7% of all landlord acquisitions. This underscores the grassroots nature of investor activity in the county.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were particularly prominent, acquiring 12 properties and constituting the entirety of the mom-and-pop landlord purchases, representing 85.7% of all landlord Q4 purchases. This tier also saw 21 distinct entities active in single-property acquisitions.

In stark contrast to mom-and-pop activity, institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) made a minimal impact in Q4, acquiring only 1 property, representing just 7.1% of landlord purchases. This suggests a very limited presence or a divestment strategy from larger players in this specific market.

The buying landscape for Q4 shows a clear bifurcation, with individual, smaller-scale investors being the primary drivers of acquisition activity. The average properties per entity highlights that even in larger tiers, the actual number of properties acquired by each entity during this quarter was low (e.g., 1 property for the 1000+ tier entity), emphasizing the low transaction volume.

The investor-owned SFR market in Crook County is profoundly decentralized, with mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties) controlling an overwhelming 98.9% of the properties (1,466 properties across Tiers 01-04). This figure highlights the market's reliance on small-scale investors rather than large entities.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) are the absolute backbone of the investor market, owning 1,294 distinct SFR properties, which accounts for a substantial 87.3% of all investor-held housing. This tier's dominance suggests a high entry rate for first-time investors or individuals adding a single rental property.

Mid-size landlords (11-50 properties, Tiers 05-08) hold a modest 1.0% of the market (15 properties), demonstrating a limited intermediate growth segment between individual owners and the near-absent institutional presence. Specifically, Tiers 11-20 account for 14 properties (0.9%), while Tiers 21-50 hold just 1 property (0.1%).

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) maintain a negligible footprint in Crook County, owning only 1 property, which represents a mere 0.1% of the total investor-owned SFR. This significantly contrasts with narratives often portrayed in larger, more urbanized markets.

The concentration of ownership within the smallest tiers points to a market structure that is highly accessible and fragmented, primarily driven by individuals or very small businesses accumulating a few properties. The virtual absence of institutional players means this market is insulated from large-scale corporate influence.

Individual investors are the prevailing owners across all reported small to medium portfolio tiers in Crook County, strongly dominating the single-property tier (Tier 01) by holding 1,156 properties, representing 87.2% of that segment. This highlights the extensive presence of owner-operators or individuals with a single rental unit.

As portfolio size slightly increases, the share of company ownership shows a modest upward trend, moving from 12.8% in Tier 01 (169 properties) to 19.2% in Tier 02 (25 properties) and further to 29.3% in Tier 03-05 (12 properties). This indicates that while companies are present, they remain a minority in these smaller portfolio brackets.

Despite the increasing company share in larger tiers, individual investors continue to hold the majority across all reported segments. For two-property portfolios (Tier 02), individuals own 80.8% (105 properties), and for 3-5 property portfolios (Tier 03-05), they control 70.7% (29 properties).

Within the provided data for Crook County, no tier shows companies achieving majority ownership over individuals, reinforcing the region's strong reliance on individual landlords. The highest company concentration occurs in the 3-5 property tier, but still falls significantly short of individual dominance.

The clear pattern of individual investor dominance across tiers 1-5 suggests that the barrier to entry or the operational advantages for large-scale company investment are not as pronounced in this market, or that the local market dynamics favor individual, less capitalized players.

Investor-owned SFR properties are heavily concentrated in specific zip codes within Crook County, with WY-Crook-82729 leading with 587 properties, followed closely by WY-Crook-82721 with 522 properties. These two zip codes collectively account for 1,109 properties, representing approximately 77.2% of all investor-owned properties in the county.

While WY-Crook-82729 boasts the highest volume of investor properties, WY-Crook-82712 demonstrates the most intense investor penetration, with a remarkable 89.9% of its SFR properties being investor-owned (98 properties). This signifies an almost complete investor market in that specific area.

The top five sub-geographies by investor ownership rate all exceed 60%, indicating that where investors are active in Crook County, they tend to dominate a substantial portion of the housing stock. This includes 82729 (75.4%), 82714 (75.0%), and 82720 (71.1%).

A clear correlation exists between high property counts and high ownership percentages for some regions, notably WY-Crook-82729. However, other zip codes like WY-Crook-82712 and WY-Crook-82714 achieve exceptionally high ownership rates despite having relatively smaller total investor-owned property counts (98 and 24 properties respectively), suggesting specialized or limited markets.

The presence of "WY-Crook-59311" with a 60.0% investor ownership rate is notable, but without property count data for this specific entry in the top-by-count list, a full comparison to other top regions by volume is not possible.

All landlords in Crook County consistently maintained a strong net buyer position throughout 2024 and 2025, actively expanding their portfolios. In Q4 2025, they acquired 25 properties while selling only 2, resulting in a formidable buy-to-sell ratio of 12.5x.

The buying momentum was even higher in the preceding quarter, with Q3 2025 seeing 30 purchases against 2 sales, yielding a 15.0x buy-to-sell ratio. This consistent high ratio underscores a sustained strategy of accumulation by landlords in the region.

On an annual basis, landlords made 83 purchases and 6 sales in Year 2025, translating to a 13.83x buy-to-sell ratio, indicating a significant influx of rental properties into investor portfolios throughout the year. This represents an increase in buying intensity compared to 2024's 8.75x ratio (70 buys vs 8 sells).

Institutional investors (1000+ properties) exhibited a net buyer position in Q4 2025, purchasing 2 properties and selling 1. However, their activity for the entire Year 2025 was perfectly balanced, with 2 buys and 2 sells, indicating a neutral or cautious stance on net portfolio expansion, contrasting with the aggressive accumulation by smaller landlords.

The consistent high buy-to-sell ratios for all landlords, especially when compared to the balanced position of institutional players for the full year, signals that smaller, individual investors are the primary drivers of market growth and property accumulation in Crook County.

Landlord activity dominated the Q4 2025 SFR transaction market in Crook County, with 25 landlord-involved transactions accounting for 58.1% of the total 43 transactions. This highlights their central role in market liquidity and property turnover.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were the most active segment, engaging in 21 transactions, which is the highest volume among all tiers. These smaller-scale buyers also paid the highest average purchase price at $408,364.

Institutional investors (Tier 1000+) participated in 2 transactions during Q4, but their purchasing strategy dramatically differed from smaller buyers. They acquired properties at an average price of $155,073, representing a substantial 62.0% discount compared to the average price paid by single-property landlords ($408,364).

Inter-landlord trading activity varied significantly by tier; institutional investors sourced 50.0% of their Q4 purchases (1 out of 2 transactions) from other landlords. In contrast, single-property landlords acquired only 9.5% of their properties (2 out of 21 transactions) from other landlords, suggesting they primarily bought from traditional homeowners.

The average purchase prices demonstrate a notable price spread of $317,364 between the highest-paying single-property landlords ($408,364) and the lowest-paying small-medium landlords (Tier 21-50 at $91,000). This indicates diverse buying strategies and potentially different property types or market segments targeted by different investor tiers.