Florence (SC) Investor Pulse Report (2026-Q1)

In Florence County, SC, investors own 8,974 single-family residential properties, accounting for 22.5% of the total 39,846 SFRs in the market. This signifies a substantial investor presence in the local housing landscape.

Ownership is heavily skewed towards individuals rather than corporations. Individual investors own 6,379 properties, or 71.1% of the investor-owned portfolio, while companies own 2,647 properties (29.5%). This pattern extends to the entity level, where there are 7,081 individual landlords compared to just 1,058 company landlords.

The market shows a strong preference for all-cash holdings, which suggests a lower sensitivity to interest rate fluctuations. There are 7,193 cash-owned properties, over four times the 1,781 properties that are financed.

The portfolio is overwhelmingly focused on rental activity, with 8,784 of the 8,974 properties identified as rented. This demonstrates that the primary strategy for investors in this market is generating rental income.

This composition paints a picture of a market dominated by local, individual investors who often pay with cash, rather than one controlled by large, heavily-leveraged corporations. This structure can contribute to market stability.

A massive pricing advantage for investors emerged in the first quarter of 2026. Landlords acquired properties for an average of $135,873, which is 54.0% less than the $295,245 paid by traditional homeowners. This equates to a raw discount of $159,372 per property.

This discount represents a significant and widening trend. The 54.0% gap is substantially larger than the 47.8% discount observed in Q3 2025 and the 51.3% discount in Q2 2025. It marks a dramatic increase from early 2025, when the discount was a much smaller 14.8%.

The widening gap suggests that investors are increasingly targeting properties that fall outside the interest of typical homebuyers. This could include distressed assets, homes requiring significant renovation, or off-market deals not available to the general public.

While overall home prices for traditional buyers have remained relatively stable around the $300,000 mark, landlord purchase prices have fluctuated more, dropping to $135,873 in Q1 2026. This indicates investors are capitalizing on specific market segments for value.

This trend highlights a bifurcated market where professional buyers operate with different strategies and access different inventory, allowing them to acquire assets at a profoundly lower cost basis than the average homebuyer.

Investor activity accounted for a significant portion of the Florence County housing market in the last quarter, with landlords purchasing 95 of the 312 total SFRs sold, a market share of 30.4%.

The acquisition activity was overwhelmingly led by small-scale investors. Mom-and-pop landlords (owning 1-10 properties) were responsible for 67 of the 95 purchases, representing 70.5% of all investor acquisitions.

New entrants are a key feature of the market. The single-property tier saw the most activity, with 44 distinct entities acquiring 38 properties. This influx of new landlords signals a low barrier to entry for real estate investing in the area.

In stark contrast, institutional investors (1000+ properties) had a minimal impact, purchasing only 2 properties, which accounted for a mere 2.1% of investor activity. This reinforces the narrative of a market dominated by local, small-scale players.

Mid-size landlords also played a role, but their activity was fragmented across various tiers, with no single mid-size tier accounting for more than 9.5% of the quarterly purchases.

The investor landscape in Florence County is definitively controlled by small-scale landlords. Investors owning 1-10 properties, often called 'mom-and-pops', command a staggering 85.9% of all investor-owned single-family homes.

This concentration at the smaller end of the market directly counters the narrative of corporate landlord dominance. Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) own just 22 properties, representing a mere 0.2% of the investor portfolio. Their presence is statistically insignificant compared to smaller players.

The most significant segment is the single-property landlord (Tier 01). This group alone owns 5,750 properties, which accounts for 62.3% of all investor-owned housing. This highlights that first-time and small-scale investment is the primary driver of the rental market.

Mid-size landlords (11-1000 properties) occupy a relatively small niche. Tiers 05 through 08 combined own 1,282 properties, or just 13.9% of the total investor portfolio. The market structure clearly shows a long tail of small investors rather than a consolidation among larger firms.

This distribution suggests a highly fragmented and localized rental market, where ownership is dispersed among thousands of individual community members rather than a few large corporations.

A clear pattern emerges when analyzing ownership by entity type across portfolio sizes: individuals dominate small portfolios, but companies take over as portfolios scale.

For investors with a single property, individuals represent the vast majority, owning 5,123 homes (88.6%) compared to 656 owned by companies (11.4%). This individual dominance continues through the 3-5 property tier, though the company share increases to 38.4%.

The crossover point occurs in the 6-10 property tier. Here, company ownership surpasses individual ownership for the first time, with companies holding 297 properties (61.4%) versus 187 for individuals (38.6%). This suggests that as investors grow beyond five properties, they tend to incorporate for liability or financial reasons.

This trend accelerates in larger tiers. In the 11-20 property tier, companies own a commanding 293 properties (82.1%), showing a decisive shift towards a corporate structure for mid-size portfolios.

This data illustrates the typical lifecycle of a real estate investor in Florence County. Most start as individuals, but professionalization and incorporation become standard practice for those who scale their operations into larger portfolios.

Investor activity in Florence County is highly concentrated geographically. The top five zip codes by property count hold 7,122 investor-owned SFRs, which is 79.4% of the county's entire investor portfolio of 8,974 properties.

The zip code 29501 is the clear leader in volume, with 3,021 investor properties. It is followed by 29506 (1,363 properties) and 29505 (1,223 properties), demonstrating a significant clustering of investment activity.

However, the areas with the highest volume are not necessarily the most saturated. The highest investor ownership *rate* is found in zip code 29114, where 42.8% of all SFRs are investor-owned. This is significantly higher than the 20.5% rate in the volume leader, 29501.

Other areas with high investor penetration include 29555 (36.0%), 29560 (32.2%), and 29583 (30.3%). This distinction between high-volume and high-penetration areas reveals different market dynamics and potential strategies for investors looking for either scale or density.

This geographic analysis shows that while investment is widespread, the bulk of activity and ownership is focused within a handful of key zip codes, each with its own unique market character.

A significant divergence in strategy is apparent between the broad landlord market and large institutional players. Overall, investors in Florence County are consistently and aggressively acquiring more properties than they sell.

In Q1 2026, landlords were strong net buyers, purchasing 103 SFRs while only selling 27, resulting in a net gain of 76 properties. This continues a long-term trend, with 2025 showing 461 buys versus 140 sells, and 2024 showing 519 buys versus 200 sells.

However, institutional investors (1000+ portfolio tier) are moving in the opposite direction. In the most recent quarter, they were net sellers, disposing of 4 properties while only buying 2. This represents a strategic shift from 2025 when they were net buyers for the year (14 buys vs 5 sells).

This split indicates that while smaller and mid-size investors continue to see opportunity and are expanding their portfolios in Florence County, the largest national players are beginning to divest from the market.

The data suggests that the market's growth is being fueled by local and regional capital, while institutional capital appears to be retreating, at least in the short term. The full collection of Investor Pulse reports can provide additional context on national trends.

In the first quarter of 2026, landlords participated in 103 of the 390 total SFR transactions, capturing a 26.4% share of all market activity in Florence County.

Transaction volume was heavily concentrated among smaller investors. Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) accounted for 75 of the 103 investor transactions (72.8%), while institutional investors (Tier 09) were involved in only 2 transactions (1.9%).

A key finding is the pricing disparity between investor tiers. New, single-property landlords paid an average of $151,395 per home. In contrast, institutional buyers paid an average of $208,680, a 37.8% premium. This suggests larger investors are targeting higher-value, turn-key, or strategically located assets compared to the value-oriented approach of smaller buyers.

The data also reveals that most acquisitions come from the open market, not from other investors. For the most active group, single-property buyers, only 13.6% of their purchases (6 of 44 transactions) were from other landlords. This indicates a healthy flow of new inventory into the rental market from traditional homeowners.

The lowest acquisition prices were seen in the mid-size tiers, with the 51-100 property tier averaging just $41,000 per purchase, suggesting a strategy focused on acquiring portfolios of lower-value properties.