A portrait of the modern American landlord: More than half of rental property owners are small investors and new to the market

Just months before their wedding, Hilary Reiter Azzaretti and her then-fiancé moved in together and inadvertently ended up in a lucrative profession as a landlord in Utah’s most prestigious ski town.

“We live in Park City, and the condo he lived in is in an incredible location, walking distance to the ski slopes,” said Reiter Azzaretti, president of Redhead Marketing & PRtells Realtor.com®. “There was no point in selling because we can rent it out annually at a rate that generates income.”

The new landlords briefly considered converting their apartment into a short-term rental, but ultimately concluded that the potential downsides, such as wear and tear on the property, outweighed the economic benefits.

“Housing is hard to find in Park City due to the proliferation of nightly rentals, so we like to think we’re giving back to the community by giving someone a place that allows pets,” says Reiter Azzaretti.

The Utah couple are part of a new wave of landlords who share some key traits: They are largely independent, financially motivated and have entered the market in the past five years.

The situation of Reiter Azzaretti and her husband as landlords is not unusual. One in four (25.1%) do business with a family member, such as a parent, sibling or significant other, and only 11% own or manage properties jointly with business associates, according to a new survey by the Available online landlord platform, which is part of the Realtor.com network.

To better understand the independent landlord market, researchers asked five questions Apps survey over three days at the end of December 2025, targeting more than 1,000 property owners.

One of the key findings to emerge from the assessment is that the rental market is dominated by newcomers like Reiter Azzaretti and her husband Marco, with more than half of respondents (53%) having become landlords in 2021 or later.

It is striking that 2025 was the most common entry year, with approximately 17% of all participating landlords.

About 3 in 10 respondents said they first entered the rental market between 2010 and 2020.

Intentional versus accidental landlords

Landlords generally fall into two camps: intentional and accidental.

According to the survey, the majority of respondents (57.9%) become landlords by purchasing a property for the explicit purpose of generating rental income.

However, almost a third (30.1%) say they entered the market by keeping and renting out their previous home.

The remaining approximately 12% of participants chose alternative paths to renting, from inheriting property or managing it on behalf of someone else, to acquiring it through marriage, as was the case with the Utah newlyweds.

Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner says the rise of the casual landlord is consistent with recent housing data.

“We have had two years of historically low sales activity and prices have fallen significantly in 2025, leading to a wave of delistings,” he says. “Many people who would otherwise have sold their homes were unhappy with the price they could fetch and started renting out their homes. This will boost rental supply, which will help keep rental prices falling nationally.”

Why become a landlord?

People become landlords for a variety of reasons, but just over 41% of respondents cited building long-term wealth as their top motivation.

Reiter Azzaretti says this forward-thinking mentality led her and her husband three years ago to rent out his apartment in upscale Park City rather than sell it.

“The Winter Olympics will return here in 2034, so it is worth preserving the property as it is within walking distance of several competitions and will likely continue to increase in value,” she says.

At the same time, almost a third of respondents said they were motivated by generating passive income, while about 12% cited retirement planning as the main reason for renting out their property.

In terms of the scope of their portfolios, most landlords who participated in the Avail survey (72%) reported managing between one and four rental units, indicating a strong presence of non-institutional, mom-and-pop investors.

The remaining 28% said they own five or more properties, with 13% owning more than ten rental properties.

Looking to the future, Reiter Azzaretti does not rule out reshaping her own real estate portfolio with a foreign investment.

“We may buy a house in Italy before selling the apartment in Park City,” she explains. “In that case, we would put it on Airbnb when we’re not there because my brother-in-law in Rome can make that happen.”

Reiter Azzaretti acknowledges that work as a landlord can be labor-intensive and often stressful, but says her own positive experience as a renter under the care of a considerate property owner in Park City has shaped her approach.

“He was always quick to make repairs and resolve any issues,” she recalls. “I hope we are easy landlords and as responsive as he was.”