Dive Brief:

• Dallas-based single-family rental owner and operator Invitation Homes plans to expand its portfolio of 80,000 rental homes with $600 million to $1 billion in acquisitions in 2024, as stated in its fourth-quarter earnings call on Feb. 14.
• The company expects to acquire most of these properties from its home builder partners and third-party vendors, said Jonathan Olsen, chief financial officer at Invitation Homes, on the call. Much of the funding for these purchases will come from estimated property sales between $400 million and $600 million.
• Invitation also plans to expand its third-party property and asset management platform this year. The company launched this service in January for a portfolio of 14,000 single-family homes from an undisclosed owner, CEO Dallas Tanner said on the call.

Dive Insight:

Invitation’s 2024 full-year guidance calls for same-store NOI growth ranging from 3.5% to 5.5%, same-store core revenue growth from 4.5% to 5.5% and same-store core expense growth of 5.5% to 7%, Olsen said on the call.

The estimates align with Invitation’s 2023 performance; the company acquired $1.1 billion in homes in 2023, totaling 3,221 units, according to its Q4 earnings release. “We returned to a more sustainable growth profile, while continuing to expand and improve on the overall resident experience,” Tanner said.

With the introduction of its new third-party management platform, Invitation aims to gain revenue not just from management fees, but from value-add services such as smart home offerings and Internet bundles. Tanner foresees more portfolio management deals coming in the near future.

“We believe providing professional property and asset management services is both a logical next step for our business, as well as a strategic significant leap forward,” Tanner said.  “It empowers us to accretively leverage our platform in a capital-light manner, while helping us to achieve further scale, increased efficiency and additional margin expansion for our company, and substantial savings and convenience for our residents.”