The company trying to turn single-family rental houses into a liquid asset class you can buy from your couch. Roofstock's marketplace is genuinely useful — full inspection reports, tenant history, and projected returns for every property. The challenge is that houses are not stocks: every one is unique, every neighborhood is different, and convincing someone to spend $200K on a property they've never visited requires Jedi-level trust building. Rising interest rates didn't help either.
Founded
2015
HQ
Oakland, CA
Total Raised
$365M
Founder
Gary Beasley, Gregor Watson
Status
Private — operating. Experienced layoffs in 2023 as housing market cooled
Website
www.roofstock.comTHE ORIGIN STORY
Gary Beasley (former CEO of Starwood Waypoint Homes, which managed 30,000+ rental houses) saw that single-family rentals were a $4 trillion asset class with no efficient marketplace. Buying a rental property required flying to the city, hiring agents, getting inspections, and hoping for the best.
In 2015, he and Gregor Watson launched Roofstock to make buying a rental home as easy as buying a stock — fully online with data-driven underwriting. The key innovation: selling homes with tenants already in place, so buyers start earning rental income immediately.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Online marketplace for buying and selling single-family rental properties. Roofstock lets investors buy tenant-occupied rental homes without physically visiting them — complete with inspection reports, neighborhood analytics, rent estimates, and property management connections.
Revenue comes from marketplace transaction fees (typically 0.5% from buyers and 3% from sellers), Roofstock One (fractional rental property ownership), and property management referral fees.
THE PRODUCTS
Roofstock Marketplace (buy/sell tenant-occupied rental homes), Roofstock One (fractional ownership of rental properties), Property Management referral network, and Roofstock Academy (educational content for rental property investors). The marketplace features certified properties with inspection reports, rent estimates, and neighborhood scores.
HOW THEY GREW
Institutional and fractional. Roofstock One allows investors to buy shares of individual rental properties starting at $5,000 — fractionalizing a $200,000 house into tradeable shares.
The platform also courts institutional investors (pension funds, REITs) who want to buy portfolios of 50-500 homes. Data analytics that score every property on projected returns, neighborhood quality, and risk make both approaches scalable.
THE HARD PART
Trust. Buying a $200,000 house you've never visited based on photos and reports requires enormous trust in the platform.
Roofstock had to build institutional-grade inspection processes, guarantee programs, and a return policy (30-day money back) to overcome buyer hesitation. The 2022-2023 housing market cooldown slowed transaction volumes significantly.
Rising interest rates made rental property returns less attractive compared to risk-free Treasury yields.
MONEY TRAIL
Series A
2016 · Led by Khosla Ventures, Canvas Ventures
$7M raised
Series C
2018 · Led by Bain Capital Ventures, Canvas Ventures
$35M raised
Series E
2021 · Led by SoftBank Vision Fund, Lightspeed
$240M raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Canvas Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and SoftBank Vision Fund backed Roofstock.
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