Linn (KS) Investor Pulse Report (2026-Q1)

In Linn County, investors hold a significant 1,000 single-family properties, making up 31.9% of the total 3,138 SFRs. This indicates a substantial investor presence in the local housing market.

Individual investors are the primary force, owning 855 properties, which accounts for 85.5% of the investor-owned portfolio. In contrast, company-owned entities hold 148 properties, or 14.8%.

A defining characteristic of this market is the complete absence of financing among investors. All 1,000 properties are recorded as cash-owned, suggesting investors in this area are not reliant on leverage and may have a lower risk profile.

The portfolio is heavily geared towards generating rental income. Of the 1,000 properties, 985 are classified as rented, representing a 98.5% rental penetration rate within the investor-owned stock.

The market structure is composed of 1,286 distinct landlord entities. Mirroring property ownership, individuals constitute the vast majority, with 1,169 individual landlords compared to just 117 company landlords.

A critical finding for Linn County is the complete absence of recent acquisition price data for both landlords and traditional homeowners. This lack of data stems from zero recorded transactions in the latest quarter.

Consequently, it is not possible to analyze the typical price discount that investors might achieve compared to homeowners, a key metric in other markets. The market's current inactivity prevents any such comparison.

Historical price context is also sparse. Data for the 2020-2023 period indicates an average acquisition price of $133,463, but this figure is associated with zero properties purchased, rendering it an unreliable benchmark for past activity.

The lack of pricing trends or comparative data points to an extremely illiquid market. Investors looking for opportunities in Linn County would face significant challenges in property valuation and market analysis due to the low volume of sales.

The investor purchase market in Linn County was entirely dormant in the first quarter of 2026. There were zero SFR purchases made by investors, corresponding with zero total SFR sales recorded in the county.

This halt in activity means landlords captured 0.0% of the market share, a stark indicator of a frozen real estate market. No properties were transacted by any buyer type during this period.

As a result of the inactivity, there was no change in the composition of the investor landscape. No new single-property landlords entered the market, and no acquisitions were made by mid-size or institutional players.

The complete lack of purchasing across all investor tiers, from mom-and-pop to institutional, signals a broader market stall rather than a strategic pullback from a specific investor segment.

Ownership in Linn County's investor market is extremely concentrated among small-scale landlords. Mom-and-pop investors, defined as those holding 1-10 properties, collectively own 98.0% of all investor-held SFRs.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) form the bedrock of this market, alone accounting for 821 properties, or 80.0% of the entire investor portfolio. This highlights the market's reliance on first-time or small-scale real estate investing.

Conversely, large-scale investors have a minimal presence. Institutional investors in the 1,000+ property tier own just one property, representing a mere 0.1% of the market share.

Mid-size landlords (11-1,000 properties) also represent a very small fraction of ownership, collectively holding only 2.0% of the investor-owned properties in the county.

Due to the frozen transaction market, there is no available data on acquisition prices by tier, making it impossible to determine if larger investors pay different prices than their smaller counterparts in this geography.

While individuals dominate the overall investor landscape in Linn County, corporate ownership becomes more significant as portfolio sizes increase. In the 6-10 property tier, companies own 12 properties, representing 40.0% of that segment.

This contrasts sharply with smaller tiers, where company ownership is much lower. Companies own just 11.4% of single-property portfolios and 10.4% of 3-5 property portfolios, indicating a clear crossover point where business formalization becomes more common.

Individuals maintain a strong majority in the smallest tiers, owning 88.6% of single-property portfolios and 89.6% of those with 3-5 properties. This reinforces the 'mom-and-pop' character of the market's entry level.

The data suggests that as investors scale their operations beyond a handful of properties, they are more likely to use a corporate structure. The 6-10 property tier appears to be the primary threshold for this transition in Linn County.

Comparative pricing analysis between individual and company buyers is not possible, as the complete lack of recent transactions provides no data on acquisition costs for either owner type.

Geographic analysis reveals specific pockets of high investor concentration within Linn County. The 66040 zip code is the epicenter of investor ownership by volume, containing 458 investor-owned properties.

In terms of market penetration, the 66738 zip code stands out with a 100.0% investor ownership rate, meaning every single-family home in the area is investor-owned. This represents an absolute saturation of the local market.

Other areas with high investor activity include the 66056 zip code, with 205 properties and a 28.5% ownership rate, and the 66010 zip code, which has a 37.1% investor ownership rate.

This data illustrates that investor ownership is not evenly distributed. Investors appear to be targeting specific zip codes, leading to both high raw counts in some areas and extremely high ownership percentages in others.

A detailed property search within these top zip codes could reveal the specific attributes that make them attractive to investors, from property characteristics to rental demand.

There is no available historical transaction data for landlords in Linn County. This prevents any analysis of long-term buying and selling patterns, such as determining whether investors have historically been net buyers or net sellers.

Analysis of market liquidity, specifically the volume of landlord-to-landlord transactions, cannot be performed. It is impossible to know what percentage of acquisitions have historically come from other investors.

Trends in buy and sell prices over time are also unknown. Without this data, calculating typical profit margins or tracking price appreciation within the investor market is not feasible.

The absence of this information suggests that Linn County is a market with either very low historical transaction volume or one where such transactions are not comprehensively tracked in available property datasets.

For both existing and prospective investors, this lack of historical data presents a challenge for market forecasting and strategic planning.

The transaction market for real estate investors in Linn County was completely inactive during the first quarter of 2026. Landlords participated in zero transactions, as there were no recorded SFR sales in the market.

This lack of activity was universal across all investor sizes. Transaction volume for both mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) and institutional investors (Tier 09) was zero.

Consequently, no purchase price data is available for the quarter. It is impossible to compare the acquisition prices across different investor tiers, a key indicator of buying strategies.

Data on the sources of investor purchases is also absent. The percentage of properties bought from other landlords, a measure of internal market churn, could not be calculated due to the zero-transaction environment.

The complete halt in transactions indicates a deeply illiquid market where neither acquisitions nor dispositions were occurring, signaling a potential pause in all real estate investor activity.