Online platforms like Roofstock, OwnAmerica bring institutional tools to mom and pop landlords Roofstock CEO Gary Beasley was browsing through his company?s website while on a flight to New York when his neighbor leaned over and asked what he was looking at. Beasley explained that Roofstock is an online investment platform for buying and selling single-family rental properties.
After getting an impromptu demo, Beasley?s neighbor registered on the site and took a rental unit off the market before their plane even landed. Flight attendants brought them champagne to celebrate the deal.
?He was blown away,? Beasley said of his neighbor.
This in-flight sale of a rental home highlights the speed and ease with which single-family rental (SFR) homes can exchange hands now. New online SFR platforms allow investors to trade homes and collect rent as easily as if they were trading stocks and collecting dividends on Etrade, as the platforms help investors not only buy the property, but finance, lease, and manage it as well. ?In order to do this back in the day, you really had to buckle up your boots and do a lot of heavy lifting,? said Rick Palacios, director of research at John Burns Real Estate Consulting. ?Now, anybody with some money can do it through these platforms. The convenience and the ease of use is just light years ahead of what it was a decade ago.?
Roofstock is just one of many SFR investment platforms that have sprung up since the housing bust in 2008. Aside from ...