Single-Family Rental Industry Is Beginning to Consolidate

The single-family rental market has changed drastically in the past 10 years. Curbed’s Jeff Andrews reports OwnAmerica, an online exchange for single-family rentals, sold to property manager Renters Warehouse. With the new deal, Renters Warehouse will provide an easy way to buy single-family rental property online and offer in-house property management services.

“The industry now is kind of hitting a second inning,” said Greg Rand, founder of OwnAmerica, who now becomes the chief strategy officer for the new Renters Warehouse. “The consolidation of large ownership players like [Invitation Homes], that’s been the story for a couple of years, but now there’s consolidation of service provider industry players, like businesses within the SFR industry. That’s now starting to take place.”

The new Renters Warehouse gives investors end-to-end services, from identifying the right property or portfolio to buying it and managing them as rentals to selling the properties if or when the time comes.

Rand says he realized that without the property management component, OwnAmerica was only providing a piece of the puzzle. Prior to the sale to Renters Warehouse, OwnAmerica could help an SFR buyer find a property manager through a referral, which was usually Renters Warehouse. He says most buyers didn’t take the company up on that offer, however.