Redfin Completes RentPath Purchase

Real estate home-selling site Redfin has completed its $608 million cash acquisition of rental site RentPath, the companies announced. “Combined with RentPath, Redfin can now be a destination for all North American consumers looking for a home,” the companies stated in the announcement.

RentPath operates websites including ApartmentGuide.com, Rent.com and Rentals.com, and collectively attract 16 million monthly visitors. Redfin is based in Seattle and RentPath is in Atlanta. The companies will retain their separate headquarters and operations, and Dhiren Fonseca will stay on as president of RentPath, the announcement stated.

“A deal that we expected to take 90 days to approve closed in 42,” Refin Chief Executive Glenn Kelman said in a prepared statement. “And now we can’t wait to tell RentPath’s property management customers, who were once uncertain about the company’s future, about our big plans to double our audience of people seeking a home to rent.” The companies’ technology platforms have integrated easily, Kellman added.

“Redfin and RentPath will immediately start the engineering work to get RentPath’s rental listings on Redfin.com,” the release stated. “We expect these listings to be on Redfin.com in 2022.”

The deal comes at a time of upheaval for the residential real estate market, which remains white-hot in much of the country and is still digesting the fallout of a COVID-19-inspired peak in purchases of vacation properties or primary homes outside of traditionally popular urban areas.

Redfin lead economist Taylor Marr noted in a summer 2020 conversation with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster that interest in purchasing new or replacement homes also was driven in part by low interest rates.

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee, which works to establish ranges for interest rates, has continued taking actions intended to keep rates low. According to Freddie Mac, the national average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remains slightly lower than when Marr shared his observations.