Investment real estate brokerage and digital platform SFRhub.com announced it will join forces with data intelligence and services provider
The two companies agreed to a memorandum of understanding that will integrate technologies and provide a streamlined process to rental-home investors looking to buy or sell
“We believe this multiplatform collaboration is truly one of the largest disruptions in the CRE industry,” said Jeff Cline, executive director and principal of SFRhub.com, in a press release.
The platform, to be offered on SFRhub’s website, will aim to facilitate the sale of rental properties from initial stages to closing, utilizing intelligence and resources from Altisource’s line of businesses, including rental data from RentRange, asset valuation data from Springhouse, auction services from Hubzu, closing and title services from PremiumTitle and additional inspection and construction services.
“Our goal is to offer SFR investors, whether buying or selling one or many homes in a larger bulk portfolio, a solution to expedite and simplify the investment process with technology and support so they can achieve their investment and management goals and compete with larger-scale investors,” Cline said.
Founded in 2018, SFRhub.com has reviewed, underwritten or marketed close to 200,000 single-family investment rentals and features an average of $1 billion in listings.
The agreement between the two companies comes amid a period of record purchase-growth among real estate investors in 2021, particularly for single-family homes. According to Redfin, investors bought 90,215 properties in the third quarter, an 18.2% share of that market. The figure represents a 10.1% increase from 81,969 transactions in
The total dollar amount of purchases set a record as well — $63.6 billion — compared with $58.8 billion in the second quarter and $35.7 billion a year ago. The average cost of investor-purchased properties climbed 5.3% higher year over year to $438,770, with 76.8% of deals paid for
“Increasing home prices fueled by an intense housing shortage have created opportunities for investors to reap big profits,” said Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari in a recent press release. “Those same factors have pushed more Americans to rent, which also creates opportunities for investors because investors typically turn the homes they purchase into rentals and can now charge higher rents.”
Atlanta led the list of communities with the largest percentage of investor homes sold during the quarter, a 32% share of its market, followed by Phoenix at 31.7% and Charlotte at 31.5%.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Home Builders reported last week that single-family build-to-rent starts also rose to its highest quarterly volume on record. For the three months ending Sept. 30, builders began construction on approximately 16,000 new single-family BTR homes, with 47,000 such properties started in the last year, a 17.5% increase from 40,000 over the prior four quarters. While build-to-rent single-family housing accounts for only a 4.1% four-quarter moving average of market share, it has increased in the years since the Great Recession and appears likely to continue, according to NAHB’s chief economist and senior vice president for economics and housing policy Robert Dietz.
“As more households seek lower-density neighborhoods and single-family residences, a growing number will do so from the perspective of renting,” he said in the association’s blog.
