When we set out to build Roofstock, we did so because we believed that everyone should have access to the unique wealth-building opportunities available in real estate. Our goal was, and continues to be, to break down the barriers to this asset class and make property investing more convenient, transparent and accessible than ever before.
Today we’re excited to take the next step in making that dream a reality. This announcement has two components, and we believe each one will bring new benefits and opportunities to our users.
First, Roofstock is acquiring Stessa, a free application designed specifically for real estate investors to keep track of rental property performance, accounting, and financial health.
Stessa makes managing rental property finances simple. With Stessa, investors can monitor the performance of their portfolio through beautifully designed dashboards, automate income and expense tracking, create tax reports in a snap, store your real estate documents and more, all in one place.
It's a powerful platform in an incredibly well designed package, available all in one easy-to-use app, accessible through browsers as well as mobile apps.
We're thrilled to welcome the Stessa team to Roofstock. Today Stessa's users track more than 170,000 individual properties representing over $45 billion of assets. We believe that by joining our teams and integrating Stessa into Roofstock's marketplace, we can help our users get smarter about their own investments and greatly simplify the process of managing real estate investments remotely.
We will soon be announcing webinars and other resources to help our users get to know Stessa and how to get the most out of the platform. Long-term, we plan to integrate some of the best features of Stessa into Roofstock’s platform to give investors even more tools at their fingertips as they use Roofstock to buy, manage and sell properties. At the same time, we will be providing the Stessa team additional resources and support to help them continue developing the app as a standalone platform. We’re excited for what this talented team has in store.
Stay tuned for more!
Roofstock is acquiring Stessa from JLL Technologies, a division of JLL, a global real estate services company. Which brings us to the next part of this announcement.
Second, Roofstock is entering into a commercial agreement with JLL to help power JLL's expansion into the single-family rental (SFR) market.
A Fortune 500 company, JLL provides a full spectrum of real estate services to global investors, including asset management, sales and leasing, property management, development, brokerage services, and more. Historically, the company’s strengths lay in its expansive commercial real estate portfolio, focusing on assets like hotels, industrial centers and commercial buildings. Today, JLL and Roofstock are announcing a commercial agreement where JLL will leverage the robust suite of technology solutions that powers the Roofstock marketplace to offer JLL’s global client base exposure to the SFR market.
What does this mean for you, the Roofstock user?
This arrangement will directly benefit you in several ways:
- JLL’s existing clients who want to sell portfolios of SFR properties will be able to list properties on the Roofstock marketplace — the same one that is available to everyone today.
Attracting a constant stream of supply is a critical part of maintaining a healthy, competitive real estate marketplace. Before Roofstock, large institutional investors would typically only buy and sell portfolios of properties directly from one another, because the logistics of selling individual properties piecemeal out of large portfolios is operationally taxing. This kept those homes in the hands of large investors and out-of-reach of everyday investors looking to access the market.
By sharing a common marketplace, our users can now access those previously untouchable homes that were part of these portfolios. Large investors who work with JLL can also fine-tune their portfolios by offloading or acquiring individual properties in a much more operationally efficient manner than previously possible.
- Roofstock users looking to sell properties can access a new pool of buyers through JLL’s clients.
Similarly, by enabling everyday investors and institutional investors alike to convene in one digital marketplace, our users will be able to reach a greater number of potential buyers than ever before.
- Every new buyer and seller on Roofstock increases liquidity, aids with price discovery, improves our property data algorithms and more - all of which ultimately benefit the user. By enabling new third parties to plug into Roofstock’s technology stack, we accelerate the speed at which these benefits accumulate, and make the marketplace that much more attractive and useful to other investors. This fosters a virtuous circle of activity that further encourages people to use Roofstock for their SFR investing needs.
- Our relationship with JLL demonstrates the power of the robust technology suite that underpins our award-winning investment capabilities today. It is also a major step toward transforming Roofstock from a marketplace to a platform on which others can build their real estate businesses.
In addition, JLL is also making a strategic minority equity investment in Roofstock, which will help enhance alignment and fuel new initiatives, services, and features for our users.
Looking Ahead
Although the world continues to grapple with very real challenges, including those posed by the pandemic, we believe the future is bright for SFR investors. We’re excited to add the accomplished Stessa team to Roofstock’s roster of talent, and we believe our commercial agreement with JLL will generate new opportunities and new value for our users and will pave the way to unite the global SFR community.
Don’t forget, we’re only a short message away if you ever have any feedback or ideas on how we can improve. We wouldn’t have been able to take this next step on our journey without you — the Roofstock user— and we’re incredibly humbled by your support and grateful for your faith in our team as we collectively take this next step in our journey.
