Seattle Start-up Raises $20 Million

Creates platform to help investors analyse and purchase single-family rental properties

A Seattle-based start-up named Picket Homes has raised $20 million to boost the development of its platform that helps investors analyse, purchase and manage single-family rental properties. The platform has more than 50 million US single-family properties in 25 rental markets. Using machine-trained models and data, it helps investors sift through real estate property listings. It also provides reports that forecast sale/rental values, expenses, cash flow, and long-term asset appreciation and facilitates transactions. The platform offers digital leasing, smart home tech, online bill pay and maintenance requests. It also provides access to a service team and mobile app for residents.

Picket Homes, which was launched in 2019 by co-founder and CEO Quinten Shay, has over a 100 employees. It has facilitated more than $270 million in single-family rental home investments last year, primarily with institutional customers. The company said it plans to expand by targeting individual investors.

The start-up generates revenue through its software platform and brokerage and property management services. It said its investor pool has “grown rapidly” in the last 18 months, and its tech and property management services serve “thousands of residents”. Picket said purchases on the platform have been concentrated in the Southeast. However, the company added that it’s “rapidly expanding” in the Southwest, Midwest, and Northeast.

Picket’s funding comes at a time when higher interest rates have weakened investor appetite for buying homes. Investors purchased nearly 49 per cent fewer properties in the first quarter of 2023 than the year-ago period, according to a report. The share of single-family home purchases dropped to 67.3 per cent of investor purchases, the lowest share in the past six years, the report found. There are also fewer homes for sale. The US housing market was short 6.5 million homes between 2012 and 2022, according to a report. As of April, the monthly supply of homes on the market would last 7.6 months if no new houses were built.