The Stessa community includes 250,000+ rental property owners, most of whom meet the classic definition of “mom and pop” investor.

We surveyed 883 of these landlords from October 10-25, 2024 to understand their current challenges and get an early read on their investing outlook going into 2025. Here are the results!

Survey Methodology

We invited roughly 80,000 landlords (each with at least one property managed via the Stessa platform) to take our inaugural Stessa Investor Sentiment survey. There were three (3) qualification questions and four (4) market sentiment questions. 883 landlords took the survey, 93% of whom answered all seven (7) questions.

Portfolio Size Among Respondents

Survey respondents were nearly evenly split between those who own 1–5 units and those that own 6–50 units. Owners of 51+ unit portfolios are somewhat under-represented here, making up only 4% of the respondent pool. As a result, we feel these results remain mostly true to the “mom and pop” segment of rental investors.

Survey responses can be interpreted to mostly reflect the opinions of long-term rental owners, recognizing that just under a quarter of all investors surveyed own only short-term rentals or a mix of short-term, long-term, and/or mid-term rentals.

The vast majority of survey respondents are self-managing and therefore handle operational issues themselves, including bids for R&M items, tenant comms, etc. Less than 1 in 5 survey respondents are relying solely on their PM for operations.

Rising Costs Weigh Heavily

Survey respondents were asked to rank the eight (8) options below from MOST frustrating to LEAST frustrating, in relation to owning and operating their existing portfolio. Expenses, in one form or another, occupy the top three (3) spots—a clear indicator that the inflation of recent years and the continued high interest rate environment are weighing on these investors.

Further down the rankings (and perhaps not surprisingly during an election year), political and regulatory concerns edged out worries about the health of the rental market and tenant demand/performance. We see this as a signal that leasing fundamentals remain relatively strong and that “mom and pop” investors are not overly concerned about rents and vacancy.

New Normal: Low Supply, High Costs

When investors were asked about their near-term expectations for key market and operational factors, a mixed picture emerged. While nearly 60% of surveyed investors expect interest rates to continue falling, that optimism does not appear to carry over to expectations about the supply of buying opportunities.

Survey responses also indicate that hardly anyone expects higher insurance or R&M costs to retreat from current elevated levels anytime soon. Perhaps there is a new normal emerging where low supply, steady leasing demand, and higher operating costs support strong portfolio valuations but weaker than hoped-for cash flow.

The Weather Ahead: Partly Cloudy

We also asked survey respondents to describe their current investing outlook in just a few words. Consistent themes evident in the 750+ responses include:

• Ongoing challenges in finding opportunities given projected cash flows and rates.
• Moves to balance strategy and portfolio mix between short and long-term rentals.
• Holding steady approach with many investors preferring to “wait and see.”
• Careful optimism as investors look for deals but proceed cautiously and slowly.
• Concerns about political impacts, words like “election” and “guarded” used frequently.

Investor Intentions for 2025

Finally, we asked survey respondents about their plans to make new acquisitions between October 2024 and September 2025. While the majority do indeed intend to acquire at least one new property during this timeframe, only time will tell if this intention translates into action. As we saw above, many of these same investors expect interest rates to keep falling but they are far less convinced that the availability of compelling acquisition opportunities will increase.

Thanks to all those who participated in our first Stessa Investor Sentiment survey. If you have follow-up questions or would like more information about this data, please contact us: support@stessa.com.