Real Estate News and Market Moves Week 9

Join Auben at IMN to learn how SFR can ensure you stay relevant in today’s rapidly changing market cycle.

I love single family rental property, also known as SFR.

When I started in real estate in the fall of 2005, there was no such thing as SFR. Single family activity included house flippers who would become content for HGTV. And then there were landlords who owned a couple of houses they rented out—and, if you were lucky, they also kept the homes maintained. 

There was no such thing as prop tech. And institutional capital did not even consider single-family could be a viable asset class capable of being managed at scale.

The concept of intentionally-owned, professionally managed single family rental property was non-existent. Everywhere. 

Even more amazing was how few professional real estate people were willing to consider focusing on single family rental sales or management. Consistently, I encountered residential agents who did not want to sell inexpensive homes. And commercial agents who believed that the smartest money in the room would always be in commercial. 

All I could see was opportunity. An absolute,  unbelievable amount of opportunity in an extremely stable asset.  

What I didn’t see (initially) was how extremely variable and hyperlocal SFR would be. And what a challenge it would also be to standardize and organize. A challenge made infinitely greater before the arrival of viable tech. There were definitely times when I questioned my vision. However, a quote from the late, great Sam Zell references a freedom of thought I was fortunate to have about SFR from day one. 

Zell said of his career in real estate,