The Landlord Lens - The Top 10 Best States to Be a Landlord in 2025

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Are you a landlord or real estate investor looking for the most landlord-friendly places to invest? In this video, we reveal the top 10 best states to be a landlord—based on factors like eviction laws, rent control (or lack thereof), property taxes, and return on investment. Whether you're managing one property or building a portfolio, knowing where landlord rights are strongest can help you maximize cash flow and minimize headaches. #landlordinvesting #rentalproperty #realestateinvestor #passiveincome

We already did one of top 10 worst states, but this is the flip. It's the top 10 states to be a landlord. Speaking of, here's one of them, the number one state. What's the number one state? Hey, everybody. Welcome to this week's landlord lens. I am joined as usual by Seamus Nally, our CEO. Hey, Seamus.

How are you doing? John, I'm doing great. And today, we've got a great topic. What's that topic today, Seamus? It's the top 10 states to be a landlord. So we already did one of top 10 worst states. Take a look at that if you want. but this is the flip. Where is it great to be a landlord at?

And what are we basing that on, John? Yeah, so we're going to be basing that on a combination of laws and investment potential. So we're going to look for states that don't have statewide rent control that have no good cause eviction mandates, that have a speedy and efficient eviction process, and good property tax rates and insurance costs, solid rent to price, cash flow margin, and landlord screening flexibility. Woo! All those great things that landlords love to have. Yes, sir. You ready?

I'm ready. What's coming at number 10, Seamus? Number 10 is where we are located right now, the wonderful state of Colorado. Colorado. All right, so why is Colorado so great? Honestly, as a landlord in Colorado, I was pretty surprised that Colorado came in at number 10 because every single legislative cycle there are more and more laws on the docket that are designed to actually make it harder to be a landlord. But when you actually look at the laws in place right now, it is pretty darn good.

we've got a 10-day non-payment notice, no security deposit cap, a pretty fast eviction docket, and it is a great rental market in general. A lot of people are moving to Colorado, which has created a lot of opportunity to get investment properties and wonderful tenants. Yep, very high rents. And it's beautiful. It always helps to that it's beautiful. Beautiful and pretty low chance of natural disasters. Every now and then we have a wildfire, but they're typically not actually impacting homes. That's exactly right. All right. What's coming in for number nine? Number nine, we are heading to Kentucky.

Oh, boy, I love bourbon. That's great. I love no statewide rent control. I love that too. I also love how many cash flowing deals you can find in a place like Kentucky. Absolutely, with a median home price of about $215,000. There's pretty strong rent ratios, which is fantastic. And evictions are as fast as the horses.

You're talking about 30 days to get an eviction, which is fantastic. Fantastic. All right, number eight is Ohio. This one's great because similar to the last one, evictions are pretty easy. Four weeks. The backlog is cleared from Ohio from the COVID stuff already. You've also got low home prices versus rents, so it's easy to cash flow and flexible lease termination laws. I'm sensing a real theme here on some of our best states.

That's right. Yes. Big surprise. Moving on to the next one, North Carolina. North Carolina. I have family there. It's pretty great. It is a beautiful state. One of the things that makes it beautiful if you're a landlord is you have no rent caps. You got that 10-day notice and really fast-growing metro areas, whether it's Raleigh or Charlotte.

That's right. There are great places to live, great jobs in and around those locations. Exactly. And in those locations, especially I know Charlotte's, the financial hub of the South, they have pretty moderate property taxes there relative to the economic output of that city. Yep. And one thing I love, you don't have the big hurricane risk, but you still don't have to deal with any snow removal or anything like that for your tenants, which is a really nice combination. Yeah, very easy to manage it. Okay, we are moving down just a little bit lower to Georgia. Georgia. What do you love about Georgia? It's a seven-day pay or quit. So we had 10 day in Colorado. We had 10 day in North Carolina. Georgia's taking it. three days earlier to just seven days, which is fantastic. Below average property tax rates, when you look across the country, they also haven't accelerated at the same pace other locations have, and no deposit caps. So if you are taking a risk on a renter with maybe a

more of a checkered background from a credit score standpoint, you can actually increase the security deposit to make up for that. Yes, it's terrific. The rents are also growing faster than the cost of homes, which is something you always want to look for. Alabama. Roll tide. That's right. So Alabama's also similar to Georgia has a not just no rent control, but a ban on rent control. So municipalities and counties can't do anything. There's a seven-day cure quit, just like Georgia, and one of the lowest tax burdens of any state for property ownership. Awesome. You also have a bustling university system, which creates a lot of opportunities for landlords in around those campuses. Yeah, it's Southern hospitality for your wallet. Wow, I'd say mic drop, but we are only on five. So let's roll on to number four, Indiana.

Indiana, the Hoosier State. What's good about the Hoosier State? Well, you got solid cure quit, no deposit rent caps, and the landlord-friendly small claims court allows you to follow up on non-paid rent. It's so good to hear about a state that treats your private property as your property. It is really nice, isn't it? Way to go, Indiana. Number three, Arizona.

Ooh, it's hot there, isn't it? Yeah, and Arizona got a lot of attention after 08 when a lot of the institutional buyers came in. They all wanted to own property in Arizona, and for good reason. It's that five-day eviction notice. So we've gone 10. We've seen 7, and now Arizona is at 5. There's no rent control. And from a tenant screening standpoint, you basically get access to all of the information.

So you're not restricted. you have what you need to make the best possible decision. That's right. Arizona also has the benefit of a dry climate, and they've built pretty much everything to have very low maintenance cost for property owners. Yep. You don't have natural disasters there. Certainly no snow removal either.

Number two, speaking of natural disasters, we're at Florida. Yeah, and that is a pretty big asterisk, I think, to the state of Florida. Well, they have very attractive things, like a three-day pay or quit, no rent caps. flexible lease term terms, really bustling market. If you look at anything that looks at migration of people within the United States during and post-COVID, many, many people are moving to Florida. But like I said, there is a big asterisk. What is that asterisk?

That would be hurricanes and its impact on insurance costs. Yes. And property taxes if you own a condo because, or not property taxes, but HOA fees. Because the HOA is paying the property taxes on the building that you live in. And if that insurance is rising, it just gets passed straight to you. Yeah, and we've seen similar to other places like California, which was the worst place to be a landlord, we've seen a lot of insurance providers actually pull out of the state of Florida due to the cost of insurance with hurricanes. One thing I will also mention in Tag is our friend, maybe friend, don't actually know him at all. Ron DeSantis did just pass a bunch of laws around squatters, right?

And actually eliminating squatter rights. So that is a big win for the state of Florida once those are giving me an effect. Yeah, huge win. And they're sort of pioneers in that. A couple of the states on this list are right now considering laws that are essentially copycats of the language there. Oh, boy, do I hope that spreads. Speaking of, here's one of them, the number one state. What's the number one state? Howdy, John. It's Texas. Texas. Texas has a three-day eviction timeline, no rent control, and a super-pro landlord screening and lease options, plus a super-pro landlord court system. Absolutely. And Texas has a lot of big cities, which have been experiencing some really strong growth post post-COVID.

Now, there has been some data that's come out recently about property values actually dropping, but that's actually because there's more supply coming online. And so, while there might be some depreciation, the more supply due to the lack of regulation is generally good for the country. It's good for the state. That's right. It's hard to overstate how good Texas has responded to the craziness of COVID and made themselves a very healthy housing market. Looking at those top 10, I feel pretty fortunate owning a rental in one of those 10 states. We know a lot of landlords are actually looking remotely, regardless of where they're located, they're looking at this top 10 less and they're saying, can I buy there? Can I move aspects of my portfolio there to grow and know that I'm in a place where the law is going to be? on my side is a landlord. That's exactly right. Yeah, where the rule of laws on your side.

John, we got down to Texas, which is our best state, right? But how about a couple honorable mentions? Let's sprinkle a little bit of flowers around. What's the first honorable mention you'd like to pull out? So one I will pull out is West Virginia. The laws are great. It's pretty easy to be a landlord there. You're not going to get screwed up by the sheriff or the laws, but there's no tenants left. That does make it harder. I'll throw out a state, which is the state of Wyoming. Wyoming has very friendly landlord laws. They have no state income tax, which is great as well. They're also building, thanks to the boom in data centers that have happened in Wyoming. Haven't surprised to see that it didn't make the list. Property values are

definitely lower. Rent to price is a bit lower today too, but one to keep an eye out for. But you're going to have snow removal. A lot of snow removal. Yeah. Yeah. While throughout another Mountain West State, Nevada. Much of Nevada is concentrated around the Vegas area and also the Reno area in that highway up north, but it's a boom or bust state in property values. So it's

very wild west in that way and very gambling in that way. So I recommend you steer clear unless you have some credible information that Vegas is going to grow a lot in the next 10 years for sure. Sounds good. And the last one that I'm going to touch on is right next to Colorado, which is Utah, great landlord

landlord-friendly laws. Terrible with cash flow recently as some of the prices have gone up and rent hasn't moved quite as much. But I'm sure we've got lots of viewers out there who have owned property in Utah for a long time and you're saying this is the place to be. Cool. If we didn't mention your state

that you thought you were just basically waiting for us to say, please drop that state in the comments and some reasons why. Happy to look at it. John, maybe we did mention your state and it sucks. and we're wrong. Feel free to tell us that as well. Maybe John said something you just don't like. Feel free to shout that out.

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