CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Out-of-state investors have caused quite the chaos in the Queen City housing market over the last two years.

Around this time last year, investment buyers bought about a third of the homes for sale in Charlotte.

It’s neighborhoods with a home in the $250,000 to $400,000 range that investment firms have had their eye on.

“So basically, they will offer a lot to sell because of the high demand for this area,” a West Charlotte homeowner, who did not want to be named in this article, said.

She lives in West Charlotte and has witnessed first-hand how investment buyers go above and beyond to take ownership, only to put the property back on the market as a rental.

“Over the phone, they slip little notes in the mailbox, but I am not interested,” she said.

With an over-saturated market and less financial game, i-buyers are no longer interested in the Queen City like they were a year ago.

“The investors that were buying every home, and you saw their billboards and ads,” said Matt Stone, managing partner, and broker at Matt Stone Real Estate. “You couldn’t even escape driving down the highway without seeing ‘guaranteed offer on your home.’ They’ve largely left the market and the investors that are still left in the market.”

In the last year, investors backed out of the Charlotte market faster than just about anywhere else in the country.

According to Redfin, a residential real estate brokerage, investor purchases dropped more than 40% in Charlotte year over year.

“So that’s the one advantage,” Stone said. “Buyers now don’t have to compete against 17 i-buyers that are making offers on the same home.”

While sellers are no longer getting a flood of wall street offers, homeowners are now stuck living in communities that some say have lost their identity.

“It’s like a revolving door,” the West Charlotte homeowner said.

When she bought her home 21 years ago, she said other homeowners surrounded her. 

Now, it’s primarily renters.

“The market is out to make money. The cost of the renters is really more than a mortgage payment. So, that is how the investors are making the money,” she said.