CRE Vets Launch Site for Single-Family Investing

Beasley says Roofstock opens local markets to worldwide investors.

SAN FRANCISCO—The first dedicated online marketplace for investing in leased single-family rental homes has been created by investors for investors. Roofstock is a new way to buy and sell investment properties. It provides analytical tools and diligence information to help investors evaluate properties before buying. The process includes electronic document delivery and e-signatures, allowing transactions to close rapidly and securely. For sellers, properties can be sold without having to wait until tenants move out, avoiding the lost income while marketing a vacant home and the significant selling costs associated with traditional channels. For buyers, Roofstock offers a proprietary inventory of leased, certified, professionally managed homes that generate immediate cash flow and future home price appreciation potential. “Investors routinely purchase about 1 million homes annually, but the existing channels are antiquated, and don’t adequately serve buyer and seller needs today,” said Roofstock co-founder and CEO, Gary Beasley . “Roofstock is turning the real estate market on its head–breaking down the barriers to investing–and opening local markets to investors across the country and around the world.” Roofstock was started last year by single-family rental industry pioneers, Beasley, Gregor Watson , Rich Ford and serial entrepreneur Devin Wade . Watson previously founded leading single-family rental investment firm, 643 Capital Management. As a managing director at Jefferies , Ford was one of the leading investment bankers in the single-family rental industry, and among the first to embrace it as an institutional asset class more than five years ago. Wade’s expertise is in payments and secure processing, having founded multiple successful start-ups. And Beasley is the former CEO of Waypoint Homes and co-CEO of public REIT, Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust , which collectively amassed more than $3 billion of single-family rental assets during his tenure. Beasley also spent five years building the online residential brokerage firm, ZipRealty , now part of Realogy , which he took public in 2004 as its CFO. Beasley tells GlobeSt.com: “We’re extremely encouraged by early feedback on our marketplace. People are blown away by how simple we’re making the investing process, providing a diligence vault for investors to review before buying, and taking the hassles out of back and forth negotiations with our buy-it-now pricing approach. We’re democratizing real estate investing by leveling the playing field for of all shapes and sizes.” Using independent, third-party experts to inspect and certify homes as part of the listing process, Roofstock creates a new way to buy and sell leased rental properties across the country. “In a market starved for yield, single-family rental homes offer an attractive combination of current yield and growth, generating double-digit return on equity potential without the volatility associated with today’s stock market,” said Ford, Roofstock’s chief development officer. Buyers get access to vetted homes with current cash flow and professional property management in place. Unlike a traditional real estate process, all homes on the site can be purchased at set prices, so there’s no wasted time in bidding or back and forth negotiations. Moreover, prices factor in both market comparables and property-specific conditions, with buyers also benefiting from sellers being able to list for less and still net more, given the efficiencies of the Roofstock marketplace. Sellers, meanwhile, can sell homes faster without having to vacate them, thereby avoiding the lost rent, renovation costs and high selling commissions typically associated with marketing vacant homes through traditional channels. Added Roofstock chairman and co-founder Watson: “You’d never vacate an apartment building to sell it. Why should rental homes be any different?” At opening, Roofstock is offering certified inventory in several markets in Florida. The company will add markets throughout the year to better serve the needs of its growing number of buyers and sellers.