Small investors accounted for nearly two-thirds of investor home purchases in the first half of 2026 — and were considerably less likely than the biggest buyers to pay cash, making them a key customer base for originators pursuing investment-property business.
Small investors purchased roughly 148,000 homes and represented 66.2% of investor acquisitions, their highest share in at least 15 years, according to Realtor.com’s latest Investor Report, released Oct. 21. Mega-investors purchased approximately 12,700 homes.
Their financing patterns differed substantially. Small investors paid cash for 56.1% of purchases, compared with 80.4% for mega-investors.
That puts smaller buyers at the center of a potential investor financing strategy, even as the overall acquisition market contracts. Investors purchased approximately 224,000 homes, down 7% from the first half of 2025 and the lowest first-half total since 2020.
Non-investor purchases declined 3.7% over the same period. Investors’ share of all home purchases slipped 0.3 percentage points to 10.7%.
“Investor buying eased, but the bigger shift is who is buying,” said Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com. “Small investors made up 66.2% of investor purchases, while large and mega investors sold more homes than they bought.”
Smaller Buyers, More Financing
Across all investor categories, the all-cash purchase share declined to 55.5%, from 59.6% a year earlier. That remained well above the marketwide cash share of 30%.
Realtor.com attributed part of the shift to the changing investor mix: smaller investors gained share while mega-investors, who rely more heavily on cash, pulled back. Climbing inventory and softer market conditions also helped ease cash buying, according to the report.
For originators, those patterns support bringing financing into the acquisition conversation early. An investor’s available cash, repair budget, reserves, and plans for another purchase can all shape whether borrowing makes sense for a particular deal.
The figures describe the first half of 2026, rather than current fall conditions. And a declining cash share within a smaller purchase market does not establish that investor loan volume increased.
The longer view nevertheless shows why investors remain a meaningful customer base. Their acquisitions were 4.2% above the pre-pandemic first-half average for 2017–2019, while non-investor purchases were 21.6% below that benchmark.
A Growing Share Of A Smaller Market
The findings extend a shift NMP covered in June, when Realtor.com’s full-year 2025 report showed smaller investors gaining share while institutional buyers pulled back.
The latest report adds a weaker acquisition market. Small investors’ growing share identifies where purchases are concentrated; it should not be mistaken for evidence that their transaction volume increased.
Mega-investors accounted for just 5.7% of investor purchases and 0.6% of all home purchases in the first half of 2026. Their purchase count was nearly 70% below its first-half 2021 level.
Both large and mega investors sold more homes than they purchased during the half, while small and medium investors remained net buyers under Realtor.com’s methodology.
For lenders evaluating potential customers, the report’s classifications require some care. Small investors are entities with one to 10 cumulative purchases across the dataset. Medium investors have 11–50 purchases, large investors have 51–350, and mega-investors have 351 or more.
Those categories measure purchasing history, rather than how many rental properties an investor currently owns.
Where Investor Business Is Concentrated
Investor activity remained concentrated in the Midwest and Sun Belt. Realtor.com cited affordability in the Midwest and ample inventory and softer prices in parts of the Sun Belt.
Memphis had the highest investor purchase share among the report’s ranked major markets, at 20.5%, followed by St. Louis at 20% and Kansas City at 19.1%. Investors accounted for 16.5% of purchases in Dallas-Fort Worth and 15.3% in San Antonio.
The largest increases in investor purchase share among the major metros analyzed came in Toledo and Salt Lake City, up 4.1 and 2.4 percentage points year over year to 17.3% and 14.9%, respectively.
Their price profiles differed sharply: the median investor purchase was $110,000 in Toledo and $528,750 in Salt Lake City. For originators, those differences underscore the need to build investor outreach around local acquisition costs and financing needs.
Markets with the highest investor share are also not necessarily those offering the greatest number of transactions. Dallas-Fort Worth recorded 11,376 investor purchases, compared with 1,688 in Memphis, according to the report’s metro appendix.
That gives originators two useful ways to assess their markets: how frequently investors participate and how much acquisition activity is available.
Entry-Level Buyers Still Face Investor Competition
The institutional pullback offers limited grounds to assume first-time buyers will face less investor competition.
The typical investor purchase price was $295,000, up 3.5% year over year but still 22.4% below the non-investor median of $380,000.
Realtor.com said lower investor purchase prices could reflect competition with entry-level buyers or greater activity in lower-priced markets. The figures do not distinguish between those explanations.
For LOs serving owner-occupants, that supports evaluating competition at the neighborhood and price-point level. National figures about institutional retreat may have little bearing on whether a borrower faces competing investor offers locally.
How The Report Counts Investors
Realtor.com uses deed records to identify investors purchasing through qualifying corporate structures, including LLCs, partnerships, trusts, and REITs, with occupancy codes indicating absentee or tenant-occupied use. Individuals buying investment properties in their own names are not captured.
The report excludes builder, relocation service, iBuyer, and financial institution transactions. Its purchase counts include qualifying foreclosures and new construction, while investor seller counts exclude dispositions of those properties. All figures reflect transactions recorded through June 2026.
For originators pursuing investor business, smaller buyers offer the clearest focus in this report. Converting that activity into a pipeline depends on understanding each buyer’s acquisition plans, cash requirements, and property economics before the next offer is made.
