Blount (TN) Investor Pulse Report (2026-Q1)

In Blount County, investors hold 8,324 single-family properties, representing a significant 18.6% of the total market of 44,645 SFRs.

Individual investors are the primary force in the market, owning 7,108 properties (85.4%), while company-owned portfolios account for the remaining 1,351 properties (16.2%).

This individual dominance is also reflected in the entity count, with 9,385 individual landlords compared to just 916 companies, a ratio of more than 10-to-1.

A striking 78.0% of investor-owned homes (6,495 properties) were acquired with cash, compared to only 1,829 that are financed, indicating a market with high liquidity and low leverage.

The portfolio is almost entirely focused on rental income, with 8,193 properties (98.4%) classified as rented, underscoring the business objective of these holdings.

Investors in Blount County demonstrate a consistent ability to acquire properties below market rates. In Q1 2026, landlords paid an average of $384,897, which is 18.2% less than the $470,403 paid by traditional homeowners, saving $85,506 per transaction.

While still significant, this Q1 discount represents a narrowing of the price gap compared to previous quarters, where the discount reached as high as 22.8% ($107,100) in Q2 2025.

The data reveals a clear trend of price appreciation for investor acquisitions over the past several years. The average purchase price has risen from $305,694 during the 2020-2023 period to $384,897 in the first quarter of 2026.

The year-over-year price growth is also evident, with the average price increasing from $340,972 in 2024 to $367,644 in 2025.

This sustained discount, even in a rising market, suggests that investors are successfully employing strategies to find and secure undervalued properties.

Investor activity was a significant driver of the Blount County market in Q4 2025, with landlords purchasing 90 of the 380 homes sold, capturing 23.7% of all sales.

The quarter's buying activity was overwhelmingly controlled by small-scale investors. Mom-and-pop landlords (owning 1-10 properties) were responsible for 81 of the 90 purchases, a staggering 90.0% of the investor total.

First-time or single-property landlords were the most active group, with 85 separate entities acquiring 60 properties, signaling a healthy influx of new participants into the rental market.

Mid-size landlords (11-1,000 properties) played a smaller role, purchasing a combined 9 properties during the quarter.

Notably, large institutional investors (1,000+ properties) were completely inactive, making zero purchases in Q4, which reinforces the market's reliance on smaller, local capital.

The investor landscape in Blount County is defined by the dominance of small landlords. Investors owning 1-10 properties, often called mom-and-pops, control 95.0% of all investor-owned single-family homes.

This finding challenges the common narrative of corporate dominance, as institutional investors (Tier 09) hold a minimal footprint, owning just 82 properties, which translates to only 1.0% of the investor market.

The market is highly fragmented, with the single-property (Tier 01) landlord segment being the largest by a wide margin. These 6,911 properties make up 80.8% of the entire investor-owned portfolio.

Mid-size landlords, owning between 11 and 1,000 properties, collectively hold the remaining 4.0% of the portfolio, indicating a steep drop-off in scale after the 10-property mark.

This distribution underscores that the local rental market is primarily supplied by thousands of individual small-scale real estate investing participants rather than a few large corporations.

A clear pattern emerges when analyzing ownership by entity type across different portfolio sizes. While individuals own the majority of smaller portfolios, companies take control as portfolio sizes increase.

The crossover point occurs in the 6-10 property tier, where companies own 55.5% of the properties, surpassing individuals for the first time.

Individuals overwhelmingly control the entry-level tiers, owning 91.4% of single-property portfolios and 79.9% of two-property portfolios.

Company ownership becomes increasingly concentrated in larger tiers. For instance, companies own 84.9% of properties in the 11-20 tier and a near-total 98.8% in the 21-50 tier.

This data illustrates a typical investor lifecycle: individuals start small, and those who scale often incorporate to form companies to manage their larger, more complex portfolios.

Geographic analysis of Blount County reveals distinct areas of investor concentration. By sheer volume, the most investor-owned properties are in 37804 (1,621 properties), 37803 (1,579 properties), and 37801 (1,300 properties).

However, a different story emerges when looking at ownership as a percentage of total housing. The highest investor penetration rates are found in zip code 37882, where an astonishing 54.8% of all SFRs are investor-owned.

Zip code 37878 follows closely with a 52.5% investor ownership rate, meaning landlords own more than half of the single-family homes in these two communities.

This highlights a key distinction between where investors own the *most* properties and where they control the *largest share* of the market. For example, 37804 has the highest count but a more modest 18.0% ownership rate.

These high-concentration zip codes, particularly 37882 and 37878, represent markets that are fundamentally shaped by rental housing dynamics.

Transaction data reveals a clear and sustained trend of portfolio accumulation among landlords in Blount County. In Q1 2026, investors were strong net buyers, purchasing 122 properties while selling only 31, a buy-to-sell ratio of 3.94 to 1.

This behavior is not a recent development. In 2025, landlords maintained a 3.42 ratio (673 buys vs. 197 sells), and in 2024, the accumulation was even more aggressive, with a 5.18 ratio (565 buys vs. 109 sells).

Even institutional investors (1,000+ properties), despite their small footprint, are in an accumulation phase. They were net buyers in 2025 (15 buys vs. 7 sells) and 2024 (10 buys vs. 5 sells).

The consistent net-buyer status across all investor types and over multiple years signals strong confidence in the Blount County rental market and a long-term hold strategy.

This continuous absorption of housing supply by investors has significant implications for the availability and pricing of homes for traditional owner-occupant buyers.

In the first quarter of 2026, landlords were a major force in the market, participating in 122 of the 594 total transactions, which accounts for a 20.5% share of all activity.

Transaction volume was heavily skewed towards smaller investors, with mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) responsible for 111 of the 122 investor transactions, while institutional investors made none.

A surprising pricing pattern emerged from the Q1 data. The smallest, single-property investors paid the highest average price at $380,923. In contrast, larger, more experienced landlords in the 101-1,000 property tier paid significantly less, averaging just $201,875 per purchase.

This price difference suggests that new or smaller investors may be competing more directly with traditional homebuyers in the retail market, while larger operators are more adept at sourcing off-market or discounted properties.

Inter-landlord trading was also present, with 9.4% of single-property investor purchases and 23.5% of two-property investor purchases coming from other landlords, indicating a fluid market for existing rental assets.