invh-20231231
UNITED STATESSECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSIONWashington, D.C. 20549
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023
OR
For the transition period from to
Invitation Homes Inc.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Dallas, Texas
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Common stock, $0.01 par value INVH New York Stock Exchange
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Yes ☑ No ☐
Yes ☑ No ☐
Large Accelerated Filer ☑ Accelerated Filer ☐ Emerging Growth Company ☐
Non-Accelerated Filer ☐ Smaller Reporting Company ☐
As of June 30, 2023, the aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $21.1 billion (based upon the closing sale price of the common stock on that date on the New York Stock Exchange).
As of February 20, 2024, there were 611,958,239 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
INVITATION HOMES INC.
Page
PART I
Item 1. Business 8
Item 1A. Risk Factors 21
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 51
Item 1C. Cybersecurity 51
Item 2. Properties 53
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 53
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 53
PART II
Item 6. Reserved 55
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 79
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 80
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 80
Item 9B. Other Information 83
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspection 83
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers, and Corporate Governance 84
Item 11. Executive Compensation 84
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 84
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 85
Exhibit Index
Signatures
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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), which include, but are not limited to, statements related to our expectations regarding the performance of our business, our financial results, our liquidity and capital resources, and other non-historical statements. In some cases, you can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “outlook,” “believes,” “expects,” “potential,” “continues,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “seeks,” “projects,” “predicts,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” or the negative version of these words or other comparable words. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties as summarized below in “Summary Risk Factors.” These risks and uncertainties include among others, risks inherent to the single-family rental industry and our business model, macroeconomic factors beyond our control, competition in identifying and acquiring properties, competition in the leasing market for quality residents, increasing property taxes, homeowners’ association (“HOA”) fees, and insurance costs, poor resident selection and defaults and non-renewals by our residents, our dependence on third parties for key services, risks related to the evaluation of properties, performance of our information technology systems, risks related to our indebtedness, risks related to the potential negative impact of unfavorable global and United States economic conditions (including inflation and interest rates), uncertainty in financial markets (including due to bank failures), geopolitical tensions, natural disasters, climate change, and public health crises, on our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, business, associates, and residents. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. We believe these factors include but are not limited to, those described under Part I. Item 1A. “Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as such factors may be updated from time to time in our other periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), which are accessible on the SEC’s website at https://www.sec.gov. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other periodic filings. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and we expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except to the extent otherwise required by law.
Summary Risk Factors
Our ability to successfully operate our business is subject to numerous risks, including those that are generally associated with operating in the real estate industry. Some of the more significant challenges and risks are summarized below. This summary contains only a select portion of the risks set forth in Part I. Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
•Our operating results are subject to risks associated with our real estate assets, as well as unfavorable global and United States economic conditions, uncertainty in financial markets (including due to bank failures), and geopolitical tensions;
•Supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, or labor inflation could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, or operating results;
•A significant portion of our costs and expenses are fixed, including increasing property taxes, insurance costs, and HOA fees, and we may not be able to adapt our costs structure to offset declines in our revenue;
•Timing and costs of renovating our properties and the cost of maintaining rental properties may negatively affect our financial results;
•Concentration of our investments in certain markets and in the single-family properties sector of the real estate industry exposes us to seasonal fluctuations in rental demand and downturns in our markets or in the single-family properties sector;
•We face significant competition for quality residents, which may limit our ability to lease homes on favorable terms;
•Our reliance on information supplied by prospective residents, which may be inaccurate, may lead to poor leasing decisions, and our portfolio may contain more risk than we believe;
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•If a significant number of our residents fail to meet their lease obligations or fail to renew their leases, our reputation, financial performance, and ability to make distributions to our stockholders may be adversely affected;
•We face risks associated with acquisitions and dispositions of properties which could lead to material losses on our investments in our properties and adversely impact anticipated yields, including risks related to:
•competition in identifying and acquiring our properties;
•possible title defects;
•acquisitions of new homes from third-party homebuilders;
•bulk portfolio acquisitions and dispositions;
•acquisitions through an auction process;
•evaluation of properties based on potentially inaccurate assumptions
•difficulty selling our real estate investments; and
•acquisitions of properties consistent with our investment strategy regardless of favorability of rental and housing markets;
•Our dependence upon third parties for key services may have an adverse effect on our operating results or reputation if the third parties fail to perform;
•Relatively short lease terms expose us to the risk that we may have to re-lease our properties frequently, which we may be unable to do on attractive terms, on a timely basis, or at all;
•Fluctuations of rent rates in our markets could adversely affect our financial condition, operating results, and ability to make distributions to our stockholders;
•Declining real estate valuations and impairment charges could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results;
•Investments in joint ventures may restrict our market choices and expose us to challenges, including limited decision-making authority, reliance on partners' financial conditions, potential liabilities for services provided, and disputes with joint venture partners;
•We may suffer losses that are not covered by insurance and we may elect to self-insure against potential losses;
•We are employing a business model with a limited track record, which may make our business difficult to evaluate;
•We may encounter challenges providing property and asset management services to portfolio owners of single-family homes leading to management distractions or operational inconsistencies;
•Compliance with governmental laws, regulations, and covenants, including expanding tenant rights’ laws, restrictions on evictions and collections, rent control laws, affordability covenants, permit, license, and zoning requirements, may negatively impact our rental income and profitability;
•Legal and regulatory proceedings and demands from tenant and consumer advocacy organizations, exacerbated by increased political and regulatory scrutiny of our industry, and negative publicity could constrain our operations and may result in significant litigation expenses and reputational harm;
•Many of our properties are part of HOAs, subjecting us and our residents to the rules of such HOAs, which are subject to change, and violations may lead to additional fees and penalties and costly litigation with such HOAs;
•Leasing fraud may negatively impact our operations, including the loss of revenue and/or an increase in costs to combat these activities, and may result in fines, settlements, litigation expenses, and reputational damage;
•We are highly dependent on information systems, and system failures, security breaches, and our use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence could disrupt our business and present business, reputational, legal, and compliance risks;
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•We are subject to risks related to environmental, social, and governance issues, including risks from natural disasters, environmentally hazardous conditions, and physical and transitional climate change risks;
•Difficulty securing financing from debt and equity markets, or a credit ratings downgrade may negatively impact our growth strategy, financial condition, and operating results;
•We utilize a significant amount of indebtedness in our business, and our cash flows and operating results could be adversely affected by required debt payments or related interest and other risks of our debt financing;
•Provisions of Maryland law and our charter may limit the ability of a third party to acquire control of us, even if such change in control would be in the best interests of our stockholders; and
•Failure to maintain our qualification as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) may result in taxation as a regular domestic corporation leading to a substantial tax liability, and maintaining our REIT status may hinder our ability to operate solely on the basis of maximizing profits.
This summary is qualified in its entirety by the more complete statement of risks and uncertainties in Part I. Item 1A. “Risk Factors.” You should carefully read the entire statement together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K when considering the risks and uncertainties in evaluating our company and our business.
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DEFINED TERMS
Invitation Homes Inc. (“INVH”), a REIT, conducts its operations through Invitation Homes Operating Partnership LP (“INVH LP”). Through THR Property Management L.P., a wholly owned subsidiary of INVH LP, and its wholly owned subsidiaries (collectively, the “Manager”), we provide all management and other administrative services with respect to the properties we own. The Manager also provides professional property and asset management services to portfolio owners of single-family homes for lease, including our investments in unconsolidated joint ventures. Unless the context suggests otherwise, references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to “Invitation Homes,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” and “us” refer to INVH and its consolidated subsidiaries.
In this Annual Report on Form 10-K:
•“average monthly rent” represents average monthly rental income per home for occupied properties in an identified population of homes over the measurement period and reflects the impact of non-service rent concessions and contractual rent increases amortized over the life of the related lease. We believe average monthly rent reflects pricing trends that significantly impact rental revenues over time, making average monthly rent useful to management and external stakeholders as a means of evaluating changes in rental revenues across periods;
•“average occupancy” for an identified population of homes represents (i) the total number of days that the homes in such population were occupied during the measurement period, divided by (ii) the total number of days that the homes in such population were owned during the measurement period. We believe average occupancy significantly impacts rental revenues in a given period, making comparisons of average occupancy across different periods helpful to management and external stakeholders in evaluating changes in rental revenues across periods;
•“Carolinas” includes Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC, Greensboro-High Point, NC, Raleigh-Cary, NC, Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, and Winston-Salem, NC;
•“core markets” represent the 16 markets identified on our portfolio table in Part II. Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Our Portfolio;”
•“days to re-resident” for an individual home represents the number of days between (i) the date the prior resident moves out of a home and (ii) the date the next resident is granted access to the same home, which is deemed to be the earlier of the next resident’s contractual lease start date and the next resident’s move-in date. Days to re-resident impacts our average occupancy and thus our rental revenues, making comparisons of days to re-resident helpful to management and external stakeholders in evaluating changes in rental revenues across periods;
•“in-fill” refers to markets, MSAs, submarkets, neighborhoods, or other geographic areas that are typified by significant population densities and low availability of land suitable for development into competitive properties, resulting in limited opportunities for new construction;
•“Metropolitan Statistical Area” or “MSA” is defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget as a region associated with at least one urbanized area that has a population of at least 50,000 and comprises the central county or counties containing the core, plus adjacent outlying counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the central county or counties as measured through commuting;
•“net effective rental rate growth” for any home represents the percentage difference between the monthly rent from an expiring lease and the monthly rent from the next lease and, in each case, reflects the impact of non-service rent concessions and contractual rent increases amortized over the life of the related lease. Leases are either renewal leases, where our current resident chooses to stay for a subsequent lease term, or a new lease, where our previous resident moves out and a new resident signs a lease to occupy the same home. Net effective rental rate growth drives changes in our average monthly rent, making net effective rental rate growth useful to management and external stakeholders as a means of evaluating changes in rental revenues across periods;
•“Northern California” includes Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA, San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA, Stockton, CA, Vallejo, CA, and Yuba City, CA;
•“PSF” means per square foot. When comparing homes or cohorts of homes, we believe PSF calculations help management and external stakeholders normalize metrics for differences in property size, enabling more meaningful comparisons based on characteristics other than property size;
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•“Same Store” or “Same Store portfolio” includes, for a given reporting period, wholly owned homes that have been stabilized and seasoned, excluding homes that have been sold, homes that have been identified for sale to an owner occupant and have become vacant, homes that have been deemed inoperable or significantly impaired by casualty loss events or force majeure, homes acquired in portfolio transactions that are deemed not to have undergone renovations of sufficiently similar quality and characteristics as the existing Invitation Homes Same Store portfolio, and homes in markets that we have announced an intent to exit where we no longer operate a significant number of homes for the primary purpose of income generation. Homes are considered stabilized if they have (i) completed an initial renovation and (ii) entered into at least one post-initial renovation lease. An acquired portfolio that is both leased and deemed to be of sufficiently similar quality and characteristics as the existing Invitation Homes Same Store portfolio may be considered stabilized at the time of acquisition. Homes are considered to be seasoned once they have been stabilized for at least 15 months prior to January 1st of the year in which the Same Store portfolio was established. We believe information about the portion of our portfolio that has been fully operational for the entirety of a given reporting period and its prior year comparison period provides management and external stakeholders with meaningful information about the performance of our comparable homes across periods and about trends in our organic business;
•“Southeast United States” includes our Atlanta and Carolinas markets;
•“South Florida” includes Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL, and Port St. Lucie, FL;
•“Southern California” includes Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA, and San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA;
•“SWH” refers to Starwood Waypoint Homes. On November 16, 2017, INVH and certain of its affiliates entered into a series of transactions with SWH and certain SWH affiliates, which resulted in SWH and its operating partnership being merged into INVH and INVH LP, respectively, with INVH and INVH LP being the surviving entities;
•“total homes” or “total portfolio” refers to the total number of homes we own, whether or not stabilized, and excludes any properties previously acquired in purchases that have been subsequently rescinded or vacated. Unless otherwise indicated, total homes or total portfolio refers to wholly owned homes and excludes homes owned in joint ventures. Additionally, unless the context otherwise requires, all measures in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are presented on a total portfolio basis;
•“turnover rate” represents the number of instances that homes in an identified population become unoccupied in a given period, divided by the number of homes in such population. To the extent the measurement period shown is less than 12 months, the turnover rate may be reflected on an annualized basis. We believe turnover rate impacts average occupancy and thus our rental revenues, making comparisons of turnover rate helpful to management and external stakeholders in evaluating changes in rental revenues across periods. In addition, turnover can impact our cost to maintain homes, making changes in turnover rate useful to management and external stakeholders in evaluating changes in our property operating and maintenance expenses across periods; and
•“Western United States” includes our Southern California, Northern California, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Denver markets.
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PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
Invitation Homes is a leading owner and operator of single-family homes for lease, offering residents high-quality homes in sought-after neighborhoods across the United States. As of December 31, 2023, we own approximately 85,000 homes for lease which are located primarily in 16 core markets across the country. These homes help meet the needs of a growing share of Americans who prefer the ease of a leasing lifestyle over the burden of owning a home. We provide our residents access to updated homes with features they value, as well as close proximity to jobs and access to good schools. The continued demand for our product proves that the choice and flexibility we offer are attractive to many people.
We operate in markets with strong demand drivers, high barriers to entry, and high rent growth potential, primarily in the Western United States, Florida, and the Southeast United States. Through disciplined market and asset selection, as well as through strategic mergers and acquisitions, we designed our owned portfolio to capture the operating benefits of local density as well as economies of scale that we believe cannot be readily replicated. Since our founding in 2012, we have built a proven, vertically integrated operating platform that enables us to effectively and efficiently acquire, renovate, lease, maintain, and manage both the homes we own and those we manage on behalf of others.
The portfolio of homes we own average approximately 1,880 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, appealing to a resident base that we believe is less transitory than a typical multifamily resident. We invest in the upfront renovation of homes in our portfolio in order to address capital needs, reduce ongoing maintenance costs, and drive resident demand.
At Invitation Homes, we are committed to creating a better way to live and to being a force for positive change, while at the same time advancing efforts that make our company more innovative and our processes more sustainable. Environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) initiatives are an important part of our strategic business objectives and are critical to our long-term success.
Our mission statement, “Together with you, we make a house a home,” reflects our commitment to high-touch customer service that continuously enhances residents’ living experiences and provides homes where individuals and families can thrive. Each aspect of our operations — whether in our corporate headquarters or field offices located in our 16 core markets — is driven by a resident-centric model. Our associates take our values seriously and work hard every day to honor the trust our residents have placed in us to provide clean, safe, and functional homes for them and their loved ones. In turn, we focus on ensuring that our associates are fairly compensated and that we provide a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture where they are appreciated for who they are and what they bring to the business. We also place a strong emphasis on the impact we have in our communities and to the environment in general, and we continue to develop programs that demonstrate that commitment. In addition, we ensure that we operate under strong, well-defined governance practices and adhere to the highest ethical standards at all times.
History
Through certain of the six holding entities that owned our business prior to our initial public offering (the “IH Holding Entities”), we commenced operations in 2012. On January 31, 2017, we effected certain reorganization transactions that resulted in INVH LP holding, directly or indirectly, all of the assets, liabilities, and results of operations of the Manager and the full portfolio of homes owned by the IH Holding Entities. As a result of the reorganization transactions, INVH LP became a consolidated subsidiary of INVH. A wholly owned subsidiary of INVH, Invitation Homes OP GP LLC (the “General Partner”), serves as INVH LP’s sole general partner.
Invitation Homes Inc., a Maryland corporation, was incorporated in Delaware on October 4, 2016. On February 6, 2017, Invitation Homes Inc. changed its jurisdiction of incorporation to Maryland and completed an initial public offering of its shares of common stock (the “IPO”).
As of December 31, 2023, INVH owns a 99.7% partnership interest in INVH LP and has the full, exclusive, and complete responsibility for and discretion over the day-to-day management and control of INVH LP.
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Our principal executive offices are located at 1717 Main Street, Suite 2000, Dallas, Texas 75201, and our telephone number is (972) 421-3600.
Our Platform
Our vertically integrated, scalable platform allows greater influence over the experience of our residents while enabling us to better control operating costs and continuously share best practices across functional areas of the business. Our differentiated platform is built upon:
•Resident-centric focus. Our high-touch business model enables us to continuously solicit and integrate resident feedback into our operations and tailor our approach to address their preferences, providing a superior living experience and fostering customer loyalty. We believe this, in turn, drives rent growth, occupancy, and low turnover rates and will enable us to develop significant brand equity in the longer term.
•Local presence and expertise. In-market managers oversee the operations of local leasing, property management, and maintenance teams, enabling us to provide outstanding resident service, leverage local expertise in managing rental, occupancy, and turnover rates, and improve cost and oversight of renovations and ongoing maintenance of our homes. As a result of our concentrated footprint within our core markets, our regional managers and in-market teams are able to realize local-operator advantages, while still benefiting from significant economies of scale.
•Scalable, centralized infrastructure. We support local market operations with national strategy, infrastructure, workflows enabled by technology, and standards to drive efficiency, consistency, and cost savings. We utilize our extensive scale and investments in technology to ensure the consistent quality of our resident experience and maximize cost efficiencies and purchasing power. On a national level we are also able to standardize resident leases, employ a consistent approach to resident screening and leasing operations, and utilize dynamic, rules-based pricing tools informed by local market conditions.
Our approach to investment and asset management similarly combines local presence and expertise with national oversight. Our investment and asset management teams are primarily located in-market and apply their local market knowledge within the framework of a proprietary and consistent underwriting methodology, with support from national leadership focused on investment and asset management strategy based in our corporate headquarters. Through the integration of investment, property management, and asset management functions, our platform enables our teams to incorporate real-time information regarding leasing activity, property operations, maintenance, and capital spending into asset selection and asset management. We believe the advantages of our integrated acquisition platform and local market expertise drive the performance of our existing total portfolio of 84,567 owned homes as of December 31, 2023 as well as the portfolio of homes we manage on behalf of others. We similarly believe that employing experienced, in-house acquisitions teams at the local level gives us a competitive advantage in selectively acquiring homes that will maximize risk-adjusted total return.
Our Business Activities
Since our founding in 2012, we have built a proven, vertically integrated operating platform that allows us to effectively and efficiently acquire, renovate, lease, maintain, and manage both the homes we own as well as those we manage on behalf of others, including our joint venture partners and third parties. Our differentiated approach, which combines a resident-centric focus, local market presence and expertise, and national strategy, infrastructure, technology-enabled workflows, and standards, informs all areas of our operations.
Property Operations
Property operations encompasses the in-house local market management and execution of marketing, leasing, resident relations, and maintenance functions. We have developed and employ a highly scalable, vertically integrated, and resident-centric property management service platform, referred to as “ProCare.” All of our property management functions have been internally managed since our founding in 2012, and we have implemented an extensive property management infrastructure, including an online resident portal, smart home technology, a mobile app for residents to schedule and track maintenance requests, a technology suite to manage work orders and associate schedules, dedicated in-market associates, and local offices in each of our markets.
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We have organized our property management associates and operating structure such that Vice Presidents of Operations in each of our core markets are responsible for the operations of local leasing, property management, and maintenance teams. We believe our operating model differentiates our approach to local market operations and enables us to provide superior, high-touch resident service, maximize the effectiveness of our in-market associates in managing rental, occupancy, and turnover rates and improve our cost management and oversight over both upfront renovations and ongoing maintenance.
All of our local market associates are supported by our centralized national infrastructure, which allows us to deploy best practices and standardization where appropriate. The combination of our local market presence and national infrastructure enables us to exercise greater control over our property management service platform, allowing us to enhance the experience of our residents, better manage operating costs, and share best practices across various functional areas of our business.
Marketing and Leasing
Our associates are responsible for establishing rental rates, marketing and leasing properties, and collecting and processing rent. We establish and manage rental rates based on a dynamic, rules-based pricing tool that is informed by local market conditions, including a competitive analysis of market rents for institutional single-family rental properties, the size, fit and finish, and location of the home, the number of applications received, and the number of days a home has been available on the market. We also consider a number of qualitative factors, such as neighborhood characteristics, community amenities, and proximity to employment centers, desirable schools, transportation corridors, and local services.
We typically begin pre-marketing properties 30 to 45 days in advance of their becoming vacant to maintain high occupancy rates and reduce vacancy losses. We advertise available properties through multiple channels, including our proprietary website, internet listing services (such as Zillow, Trulia, HotPads, and Realtor.com), Multiple Listing Service (“MLS”), yard signs, search engine marketing, digital media, and local brokers. We offer flexible showing options for convenience, including virtual tours and floor plans, self-showings that leverage smart home technology, and in-person showings. We own internal brokerages to serve the states in which we operate and utilize in-market leasing experience specialists to drive an end-to-end resident experience that achieves our occupancy, revenue, and retention goals while facilitating enjoyment of a worry-free leasing lifestyle.
Prospective residents may submit an application on our website. To maintain brand consistency and better track compliance with leasing requirements, we utilize standardized online applications, national lease agreements, move-in and move-out documents, resident communications, and other ancillary documents. We evaluate prospective residents in a standardized manner through the use of third-party resident screening providers that obtain appropriate identification, evaluate credit history and household income, review the applicant’s rental history, and complete a background check for criminal activity, each in accordance with applicable law. Although we require a minimum income to rent ratio, many additional factors are also considered during the resident evaluation process, including eviction history, criminal history, and rental and other payment history.
Our disciplined investment strategy and local, in-market approach have given us scale and density of homes in desirable neighborhoods, enabling us to execute cost-effective advertising strategies targeting potential residents whose online behaviors indicate interest in these neighborhoods. We believe this approach increases our likelihood of capturing and retaining residents and enhances our opportunity to develop and market other programs and services.
Digital Marketing Initiatives and Branding
We encourage meaningful community interaction across our digital platforms by continuously refreshing the content of our website, blog, and social media accounts with articles, home maintenance advice, giveaways, and incentives designed to enrich the lives of our residents and protect our homes. For example, we alert our residents to prepare for storms, encourage them to pay their rent online, offer “Lease Friendly” and “Make It Home” design tips and giveaways, and hold an annual Resident Appreciation Month. Our resident engagement and social following continue to grow, owing partially to positive feedback from residents, who specifically mention our approachable lifestyle and home maintenance content that helps them make a house a home.
Resident Relations and Property Maintenance
The associates in each of our markets are responsible for property repairs and maintenance and resident relations. In coordination with a third-party vendor, we offer a 24/7 emergency telephone line to handle after-hours maintenance issues on
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an expedited basis as needed, and our residents can also contact us through our mobile app, our online resident portal, our call centers, or our local property management offices. As part of our property management best practices, we seek to conduct routine repairs and maintenance in a timely manner, as appropriate, by appointment at the resident’s convenience. We seek to utilize quality materials to minimize the recurrence of maintenance requests and maximize long-term rental income and cash flows from our portfolio.
We typically utilize our in-house maintenance associates in each of our markets to provide ordinary course, “handyman” services, and outsource more complex or extensive repairs, such as roofing, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (“HVAC”) systems, plumbing, and electrical work to vetted, pre-approved third-party vendor partners. We strive to maximize the number of maintenance calls that are addressed by our in-house maintenance technicians. In cases where we outsource more complex or extensive repairs, our in-house maintenance associates provide oversight to ensure quality control and cost effectiveness. In addition, our in-house maintenance associates conduct periodic ProCare visits to our properties to help foster positive, long-term relationships with our residents, track and report maintenance needs effectively, conduct preventive maintenance, and ensure compliance with lease terms, local laws, and HOA rules and regulations.
ProCare service, our proactive property management service platform, includes several touchpoints over the term of a resident’s lease designed to enhance their satisfaction with our service model, improve the efficiency of our service and our homes’ systems, and ensure that each resident is properly educated regarding the home and their responsibilities. When a new resident moves into one of our homes, our associates conduct a resident orientation during which we revisit the terms of the lease, outline what aspects of the home’s upkeep are the resident’s responsibility, walk through all of the home’s major systems in order to familiarize the resident with their safe and proper operation, and inform the resident that we will be conducting a post move-in maintenance visit. Following the move-in orientation, each resident is encouraged to keep a record of any non-emergency service items. We conduct a post move-in maintenance visit approximately 45 days after move-in, during which our in-house property maintenance associates will address any non-emergency service needs the resident has noted. We believe this process has a number of benefits. First, by conducting an in-person move-in orientation, we are able to ensure that residents understand their obligations under the terms of their lease, as well as how to safely and properly operate the home’s systems, reducing both the likelihood of misaligned expectations and unnecessary wear and tear on the property. Second, by scheduling a post move-in maintenance visit, we are able to address multiple service requests in a single visit, improving the resident experience by avoiding the inconvenience of multiple service appointments and improving the efficiency and productivity of our in-house property maintenance associates. Finally, the post move-in maintenance visit allows us to more quickly identify residents who may not be adhering to the terms of their lease or may be subjecting the home to undue wear and tear and/or damages as a result of their treatment of the property.
We also conduct pre-move-out consultations 15 to 30 days prior to scheduled resident move-outs and any additional pre-move-out consultations required by applicable law. These consultations allow us to notify residents of any repairs they may need to undertake prior to moving out of the property, such as removing scuff marks or landscaping maintenance, in order to avoid forfeiture of part or all of their security deposit. In addition, these visits allow our in-house property maintenance associates to begin preparing a scope of work and budget for the turnover work we undertake between residents to prepare our homes to be re-leased to a new resident. These visits also improve our ability to pre-market our homes.
Regardless of the purpose or timing of the visit, our in-house property maintenance associates are required to conduct a general property condition assessment (“GPCA”) every time they visit one of our homes. The GPCA requires our in-house property maintenance associates to assess and document interior and exterior conditions and whether the resident is adhering to the terms of their lease, as well as any potential safety hazards or potential causes of damage that could result in us incurring significant maintenance costs if left unaddressed. If a deficiency is identified by our in-house property maintenance associates we endeavor to take prompt action to correct it.
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Investment and Asset Management
Acquisition Strategy
We have a disciplined acquisition platform that is capable of deploying capital from multiple capital sources, including our own balance sheet and joint ventures that we manage, across multiple acquisition channels and markets simultaneously. Our strategy targets both existing homes via MLS or through portfolio acquisitions and newly constructed homes via strategic relationships with homebuilders. Our markets were generally selected through a robust process utilizing an analysis of housing and rental market supply and demand fundamentals, macroeconomic and demographic trends, and risk-adjusted total return potential. Specifically, the process we use to select and, on an ongoing basis, evaluate our markets ranks these markets based on relative weightings of factors that include, but are not limited to, forecast population and employment growth, household formation, historical and forecast deliveries of new residential housing supply, size of the addressable market, volume of new and existing home sales, potential yields implied by the relationship between market rental rates and the price of single-family residential housing, forecast home price appreciation, and forecast rental rate growth.
We have amassed significant scale within our 16 core markets. In these markets, our acquisition strategy has been, and will continue to be, focused on buying, renovating, and operating high quality single-family homes for lease that we believe will appeal to and attract a high quality resident base, that will experience robust long-term demand, and that will benefit from capital appreciation. In evaluating acquisitions, we analyze numerous factors, including neighborhood desirability, proximity to employment centers, schools, and transportation corridors, community amenities, construction type, and required ongoing capital needs, among others.
We target submarkets and neighborhoods in undersupplied high-growth markets and leverage our in-house acquisition and operations teams’ local market expertise to acquire homes in desirable locations that we believe will experience above average rental rate growth and home price appreciation. Our in-house acquisition teams are comprised of dedicated professionals located in our markets and at our corporate headquarters who provide strategic direction and broad oversight. Our acquisition teams have significant local market experience and expertise in single-family investments and sales, which enables us to target specific submarkets, neighborhoods, individual streets, and homes that meet our selection and underwriting criteria. As part of our selective and disciplined investment approach, we have analyzed and considered a far greater number of potential acquisitions than the number of homes we have actually acquired or have agreed to purchase in the future from a homebuilder with whom we have a strategic relationship. We thus have a substantial proprietary database from which we can draw as we evaluate future acquisition opportunities in our markets. As a result of our large existing portfolio and volume of acquisitions to date, we believe we have a high degree of visibility into rental rates and fixed and controllable operating expenses, which allows us to more accurately underwrite expected net yields of homes prior to acquisition.
To identify investment opportunities, we also collaborate with local market real estate brokers, homebuilders, and strategic third-party technology platforms, which we leverage to source off-market acquisition opportunities. Within our markets, our approach allows us to screen broadly and rapidly to identify potential acquisitions in highly targeted submarkets at the neighborhood and street levels. Our in-house team of acquisition professionals coordinates with our in-house renovation, maintenance, and property management teams to ensure that feedback from historical acquisitions is shared across functions so that our ongoing investment activities are informed by, and benefit from, insight from prior experience.
Partnerships with Homebuilders
We have increasingly leveraged strategic relationships with homebuilders to identify opportunities to purchase newly constructed homes. These partnerships allow us to meaningfully scale and expand our portfolio with single-family homes that are specifically designed to be leased by our target customer. We commission the construction of homes in high-demand areas that cater to the needs and preferences of our residents, contributing to the overall number of homes available in a supply-constrained environment. These contractual arrangements generally provide for periodic deposits from us to the homebuilders and scheduled delivery of homes over a specified period of time.
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Property Renovations
We have an in-house team of dedicated associates located in our markets who oversee the upfront property renovation process and the ongoing maintenance of our homes, with support from centralized construction experts and infrastructure, including technology-enabled workflows. This team works in collaboration with our in-house investment and property management teams to maximize the total return of our upfront investment and minimize ongoing maintenance costs. To this end, our professionals ensure the following are evaluated: the structural needs and major systems of a property (e.g., examining roofs, HVAC systems, and siding); other maintenance-reducing improvements and repairs (e.g., installing durable hard-surface flooring, removing carpet from high-traffic areas, and testing plumbing and pipes both in the home and out to the street); and the level of fit and finish required to maintain consistency with our brand standards and maximize rental demand (e.g., selecting cabinet and countertop finishes and appliances designed to improve resident demand).
In general, before a previously owned home is acquired or first becomes vacant after acquisition, our in-house teams begin the renovation process by preparing a detailed renovation budget and scope of work based on an assessment of each property’s major systems and structural features. These include HVAC, roofs, pools, and plumbing and electrical systems. In addition, we also evaluate other features of the home’s fit and finish, including appliances, landscaping, decks and/or patios, and fixtures. During our initial assessment, we also determine the potential for, and potential return on, any value-additive upgrades that may reduce future operating costs or enhance rental demand and, by extension, our ability to realize more attractive rental, occupancy, or turnover rates.
We are able to drive cost efficiencies through oversight by our local associates of the entire process of renovating our homes. Each property’s detailed budget and scope of work prepared by our in-house team of renovation professionals is reviewed and vetted by our operations teams, both locally and nationally, and in certain cases of work we contract directly, presented for bid to one or more of our pre-approved vendor partners in each of our markets. In the case of work for which we rely upon general contractors, we set prices based on the scope of work involved. By establishing and enforcing best practices and quality consistency, and through a constant process of evaluating and grading our vendor partners, we believe that we are able to reduce the costs of both materials and labor. For example, we have negotiated discounts and extended warranties for products that we regularly use during the renovation process, including appliances, HVAC systems and components, carpet and flooring, and paint, among others. We are also able to reduce general contractor fees by working directly with vendors. We believe this approach results in both a larger proportion of our upfront renovation expenditures going toward actual investment in our homes as well as lower overall expenditures than if we were to outsource all elements of vendor selection and oversight to third-party general contractors.
Portfolio Optimization
We maintain a sophisticated process to identify and efficiently dispose of homes that no longer fit our investment objectives and recycle capital into homes that better fit our long-term investment objectives. We believe we have a proven ability to optimize sales prices while reducing both time to sell and selling costs by utilizing multiple distribution channels, including bulk portfolio sales, our “Resident First Look” program (which facilitates home sales to our current residents), direct-to-market sales, and MLS. We believe the significant local density of our portfolio, which averages approximately 5,000 homes in each of our core markets as of December 31, 2023, allows us to selectively sell properties without sacrificing the operating efficiency of our concentrated scale.
Environmental, Social, and Governance
As one of the nation’s premier home leasing companies, we have an opportunity to make a profound impact through sustainability initiatives as we seek to embody our values of Unshakeable Integrity, Genuine Care, Continuous Excellence, and Standout Citizenship. Our mission statement “Together with you, we make a house a home” reflects our efforts to create an exceptional leasing experience for our residents, a workplace where our associates can thrive, and ESG practices that contribute to a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable world. As outlined in our 2022 ESG update, Bringing Sustainability Home, we are committed to incorporating sustainability efforts into our strategy, processes, and operations.
We believe that integrating ESG initiatives into our strategic business objectives is part of our long-term success, and we continue to evolve our corporate strategy to meet sustainability and social responsibility commitments. To that end, our in-house ESG professionals and a cross-functional task force of associates ensure consistent attention and focus on ESG matters. In addition, the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the board of directors is responsible for monitoring,
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reviewing, and providing oversight of our ESG strategy, initiatives, and policies via periodic updates from management regarding our ESG activities and progress. We also believe in the value of feedback, and we hold ourselves accountable. We participate in the GRESB Real Estate Assessment for a third-party evaluation of our ESG performance, and we are the first United States REIT to link the pricing of a revolving credit facility to our GRESB score.
Through our integrated and ongoing approach to sustainability and corporate responsibility, we seek to drive positive change and create value for our stakeholders. Our guiding social responsibility, business, and workplace policies apply to our directors, officers, associates, and vendors. These policies apply to all activities undertaken by or on behalf of Invitation Homes anywhere we operate. Among other things, these policies encompass community and associate engagement, diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DE&I”), human rights, corporate governance and ethics, and environmental initiatives.
Environmental Stewardship
We are committed to sustainability and being a good corporate citizen. We focus on environmental sustainability because we recognize that the operation of our assets, how our associates manage and conduct our business, and how our residents use their homes can have a meaningful impact on the environment. While each resident is solely responsible for utility expenses related to energy and water usage, we seek to address environmental impacts within our control and encourage our residents to do the same in their homes. For information about our perspective on climate change see Part II. Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Climate Change.”
Social Responsibility
We strive to provide a work environment that attracts, develops, and retains top talent by creating an engaging work experience with opportunities for development. Further, our engagement with residents, community members, vendors, and others helps build strong connections that benefit our communities.
Residents
By offering quality homes in attractive neighborhoods, we believe we give residents the choice to lease a home in a community that may not have otherwise been attainable. We strive to provide our residents with a worry-free leasing lifestyle through service that includes welcoming them with an in-person home orientation at move-in, making their lives easier with our smart home technology and other value-add service offerings, providing 24/7 maintenance combined with our ProCare property management platform, and surveying residents to ask for feedback that can help us make their experience even better. We have successfully driven consistently high resident satisfaction by promoting a culture of Genuine Care, including through a formal recognition program and by linking a portion of all operational associates’ compensation to resident satisfaction.
Maintaining consistent and transparent communication with our residents is a priority. In the last few years, we have updated resources on our external website to promote transparency, including:
•a step-by-step guide to our application process, including detailed qualification requirements, for potential residents;
•a detailed move-out guide to inform residents of the steps to take when moving out of one of our homes, as well as tips on how to receive their full security deposit back; and
•a detailed list of lease components such as rent, utility reimbursements, value-add services, and related fees to build awareness of the residents’ service selections and the charges they are responsible for when they lease a home.
We also believe it is important to listen to our residents, and we take their feedback to heart in our quest to continuously enhance the Genuine Care we provide. We survey residents at each key step in their journey with Invitation Homes, such as at move-in and move-out, and after every maintenance interaction they have with an Invitation Homes associate or vendor. We use this feedback and other information to hold ourselves accountable, with 100% of our operational associates having a portion of their compensation tied directly to resident satisfaction survey scores. We also use feedback from surveys and focus groups to help inform new service offerings and enhancements we make to the resident experience. In addition to our website and resident surveys, we engage with our residents through monthly resident newsletters, blog posts, and social media campaigns and contests.
Our all-time company rating of 4.2 on Google and Yelp combined, our A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (“BBB”), and our BBB accreditation evidence our commitment to resident satisfaction.
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In late 2023, we entered into a partnership with Esusu, a financial technology platform designed to facilitate the reporting of positive rent payment behavior to all three credit reporting agencies. We believe our residents should receive credit for timely rent payments. At no cost to them, we have successfully enrolled 180,000 residents in the positive rent reporting program. Credit scores for a majority of our residents have improved on average by over 30 points since enrollment. Additionally, our residents benefit from convenient access to Esusu’s online portal where they can view their credit scores and trended score data, gaining valuable insights to enhance their financial awareness.
Human Capital
As of December 31, 2023, we had 1,555 dedicated full-time associates, which we supplement with temporary and contract resources as needed. None of our associates are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Associates are the backbone of our company, and we understand that nothing is accomplished without the day-to-day dedication of our invaluable teams. Whether they are front-line market associates who represent us each and every day with our residents or centralized team members who support the front line and strive to ensure the quality and consistency of our work, our associates are our greatest asset. From our focus on associates’ well-being, health, and safety to our support of a DE&I culture, we treat each other fairly and act with honesty, integrity, and respect.
We believe that diverse, equitable, and inclusive companies make for more innovative, engaged, and happy teams. Our organization celebrates diversity and cultivates a culture of equity and inclusion. As of December 31, 2023, women comprise 44% of all associates and 43% of our manager and above population, and people of color comprise 44% of all associates and 30% of our manager and above population. During the year ended December 31, 2023, 43% of our new hires were women and 45% were people of color. We currently have six active Employee Resource Groups (“ERGs”): Together With Women; The Black Collective; Juntos; GenNEXT; Open Invitation; and Asian Alliance. As of December 31, 2023, 460 associates were members of at least one ERG.
Our DE&I philosophy contributes to our overall business strategy and serves as a catalyst for retaining our associates, recruiting diverse talent, and building beneficial business relationships with key stakeholders. This business approach is expected to help increase our workforce diversity, retain and upskill our talent, and enhance our company’s culture. We expect this to position us as an employer of choice and one of the nation’s leading home leasing companies. In 2023, we were recognized for our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion through several external awards: Best Company for Diversity, Best Company for Women, Best CEO for Women and Best CEO for Diversity by Comparably; and Best Company by Fairygodboss.
We value feedback from our associates, and we maintain a continuous listening associate survey tool, Our Family. Your Voice. We continue to achieve high participation by our associates, with 86% of our associates sharing feedback at least once in 2023. This tool provides managers with actionable feedback on several key engagement dimensions. We believe meaningful actions based on associate feedback provided by the surveys have resulted, and will continue to result, in ongoing high engagement with our associates as evidenced by our strong associate Net Promoter Score of 65 at the end of 2023, compared to a benchmark of 32. In 2023, our focus on engagement led to recognition by Comparably for Best Company Culture, Best Company for Work-Life Balance, and Best Company for Outlook and by US News and World Report as one of the Best Companies to Work for in Real Estate.
We recognize the value of providing regular development opportunities for our associates that improve their capability to succeed in their current roles and achieve career growth to meet their aspirations. Growing People for Success is our fully integrated talent cycle that incorporates our performance and feedback process, career growth and development, and leadership behaviors model. We also conduct an annual mandatory compliance training campaign and offer a robust catalog of online learning and development videos designed to help associates build their skills. We were recognized by Comparably in 2023 for Best Company for Career Growth.
We are committed to accelerating the development of our leaders through various programs such as “Leadership Essentials,” a program designed to build capable and confident leaders that can lead and inspire a diverse workforce in an ever-changing environment. In 2023, we launched the second cohort of “Peak,” an immersive six-month leadership development program for 25 emerging leaders. We also expanded “LeAP,” our leadership assessment program, aimed at creating a science-based approach to identifying, growing, and retaining our top talent. This commitment to leadership development resulted in Invitation Homes being recognized by Comparably in 2023 as having Best Company Leadership.
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We believe that competitive compensation and benefits are key drivers of associate attraction, retention, motivation, and engagement. Compensation is one component of our Total Value offering for Invitation Homes associates, and we strive to compensate associates fairly and consistently based on market rates for their roles, experience, and how they perform. We monitor our pay equity practices on an ongoing basis and consider pay equity dynamics when promoting internally and hiring externally. Sustaining pay equity is a key focus for us now and in the future.
Another component of our Total Value offering for associates is our holistic wellness program, which is designed to enhance mental, physical, and financial wellbeing. We also offer a myFlexibility program under which many of our office-based associates work hybrid schedules. Health and safety programs and processes are also vitally important to the wellbeing of our associates, and we conduct monthly safety training for our maintenance associates and a regular driving safety training for our fleet drivers. We strive to drive continuous improvement in our health and safety performance by maintaining high standards for our health and safety compliance programs and reinforcing expectations with respect to safe behaviors and safety rules. We endeavor to ensure that our associates are well-informed about health and safety measures and are provided with the appropriate equipment and tools to protect themselves and those around them. We continually monitor the number of work-related injuries per 100 associates in a one-year period. New incidents are reported and evaluated for corrective action, and through continuous investment in health and safety, we strive to mitigate the risk of on-the-job injuries. Our 2023 incident rate was 3.39, compared to 3.49 in 2022 and 3.26 in 2021.
We believe it is critically important to maintain a corporate culture that demands integrity and reflects ethical values. Everyone who works at or with Invitation Homes should feel confident about our high ethical standards, our honesty, and our integrity. We maintain a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (the “Code of Conduct”) that is applicable to all of our directors, officers, and associates. The Code of Conduct helps guide us as we collaborate to accomplish our goals together, while holding ourselves individually responsible for our work and accountable for our actions. Our Vendor Code of Conduct is an extension of our values to our vendors and serves to highlight our commitment to ethical business practices and regulatory compliance.
Communities
We value being part of the communities where we do business, and we recognize that the vitality of our business is directly linked to the vitality of the communities in which we operate. We also believe our business has a positive economic impact on the communities in which we operate, through improved neighborhoods that benefit from our home renovations, the value of our local teams living in and contributing to the local economy, and the payment of real estate taxes and purchase of local goods and services.
We encourage our associates to be good neighbors in their respective communities by partnering with local organizations to provide support to those in need. We are actively engaged in a broad range of community and philanthropic activities in our markets, contributing funds nationwide and encouraging our associates to be active in their communities by providing each of them 20 hours of paid volunteer time each year. In 2023, associates volunteered 19,733 hours in their local communities.
Governance and Ethical Business Practices
We strive every day to ensure that our actions result in value for the individuals and organizations that have chosen to invest in our company, and we take that responsibility very seriously. We believe that ethical business practices and good governance promote the long-term interests of our stockholders, strengthen the board of directors and management accountability, and improve our standing as a trusted member of the communities we serve.
We believe it is critically important to maintain a corporate culture that demands integrity and reflects our ethical values. We are committed to operating at the highest ethical level and serving as a responsible fiduciary for our stockholders. Everyone who works at or with Invitation Homes should feel confident about our high ethical standards, our honesty, and our integrity. Our Code of Conduct drives our daily decisions, demonstrating our commitment to be a responsible corporate citizen and a good business partner. We work hard daily and are committed to delivering on our company’s mission statement — “Together with you, we make a house a home.” In doing so, our actions are guided by our company’s core values: Unshakeable Integrity, Genuine Care, Continuous Excellence, and Standout Citizenship. The Code of Conduct helps guide us as we collaborate to accomplish our goals together, while holding ourselves individually responsible for our work and accountable for our actions.
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Code of Conduct
Our Code of Conduct is supported by associate conduct policies and programs and reinforced through regular associate training. Honesty and integrity are essential in our daily interactions with residents, fellow associates, vendors, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Our Code of Conduct articulates these tenets, including policies on conflicts of interest, gifts and entertainment, fraud, sanctions, outside activities, political contributions, and bribery and corruption. Any associate who violates the requirements of the Code of Conduct, or any of our other policies, is subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination.
Reporting Violations and Whistleblower Protection
Our confidential compliance hotline is critical to our our ethics and compliance program. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is operated by a third-party compliance management provider, enabling automated and anonymous reporting. We have implemented a “whistleblower” policy that allows our associates to file reports regarding any impropriety on a confidential and anonymous basis and establishes comprehensive procedures for the receipt, retention, investigation, and treatment of reports. The reports are reviewed with our audit committee at meetings throughout the year. Our Code of Conduct provides that “neither our company, nor any director, officer, employee, contractor, subcontractor, or agent of the company will, directly or indirectly, discharge, demote, suspend, threaten, harass, or in any manner discriminate or retaliate against any person who, in good faith, makes a report or assists in investigating a report.”
Vendor Practices
We have adopted a Vendor Code of Conduct that extends our values to company vendors and highlights our commitment to ethical business practices, safe labor conditions, respect for human rights, environmental stewardship, and regulatory compliance.
Risk Management
We face various forms of risk in our business ranging from broad economic, housing market, and interest rate risks to more specific factors, such as credit risk related to our residents, re-leasing of properties, and competition for properties. Our board of directors believes that effective risk management involves our entire corporate governance framework. Both management and the board of directors have key responsibilities in managing risk throughout our company. Our board of directors provides overall risk oversight, both directly and through its committees, to help management identify and assess the major risks our company faces and to develop policies and procedures for monitoring and controlling such risks.
Management is responsible for the day-to-day management of risk, including identification and assessment of material risks, implementation of appropriate risk management strategies, and integration of risk management into our decision-making process. Members of the board of directors regularly meet with members of management and other key associates who advise the directors on areas of enterprise risk, risk mitigation, response strategies, and any incidents that have arisen. We believe that the systems and processes developed by our experienced executive team, with the strategic counsel and stewardship of our board of directors, allow us to effectively monitor, manage, and ultimately mitigate these risks.
We seek to maximize revenue collections through our robust, standardized resident screening process (which includes, among other things, credit checks, evaluations of household income, and criminal background checks), as well as by utilizing an online resident payment portal, which includes an auto-pay feature, to facilitate the electronic collection of a majority of our rental payments. In addition, we track resident delinquency on a daily basis and assess any late fees promptly in accordance with the terms of our lease (typically between the third and fifth calendar day of the month).
See “ — Systems and Technology” for information about cybersecurity risk management.
Insurance
We maintain property, casualty, flood, and corporate-level insurance coverage related to our business, including general liability, business auto, umbrella, commercial crime, directors’ and officers’ liability, fiduciary liability, cyber liability, employment practices liability, and workers’ compensation insurance. We believe the policy specifications and insured limits under our insurance program are appropriate and adequate for our business and properties given the relative risk of loss, the
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cost of the coverage, and industry practice. However, our insurance coverage is subject to deductibles and coverage exclusions, and we are self-insured up to the amount of such deductibles and exclusions. See Part I. Item 1A. “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business and Operations — We may suffer losses that are not covered by insurance.”
Systems and Technology
Effective systems and technology are essential components of our business. To ensure scalability for continued growth of our portfolio of single-family homes for lease, we have made significant investments in various processes and systems including lease and property management, construction management, property and corporate accounting, asset management and data analysis. In addition to carefully monitoring our core platform, we consistently advance cloud-based digital technologies to benefit both our residents and our associates.
We offer choice and control to our prospective and existing residents by providing a mobile-responsive website, an iOS app, and an Android app to engage with us. Prospective residents can browse homes available for lease, take virtual tours, request additional information, and apply to lease a specific home. Our existing residents have the added convenience of requesting maintenance services, paying rent, and learning about value-add services – all from their digital platform of choice.
Our associates are able to support and manage requests for critical functions such as leasing and maintenance through easy-to-use digital tools. Our system is designed to handle the core requirements of residential property accounting, including accounting for security deposits as well as payment of property-level expenses. The system also interfaces with our third-party resident screening vendors to expedite evaluations of prospective residents’ rental applications.
Throughout our operations, we rely on technology systems that integrate with various third-party vendors and service providers. The failure of these systems or services to perform at subscribed levels could adversely impact our business. Taking a proactive approach and engaging with our third-party vendors about service delivery and implementing security risk management controls allow us to mitigate any potential negative impact on our business. For more information on the risks related to our use of technology and cybersecurity risk management, see Part I. Item 1A. “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Information Technology, Cybersecurity, and Data Protection — Security breaches and other disruptions could compromise our information systems and expose us to liability, which would cause our business and reputation to suffer” and Part I. Item 1C. “Cybersecurity.”
Competition
We face competition from different sources in each of our primary activities: acquiring and leasing our properties and providing asset and property management services for single-family homes. We believe our competitors in acquiring properties for investment purposes are larger investors, including private equity funds and other REITs, that are seeking to capitalize on the same market opportunity that we have identified, individual investors, and small private investment partnerships looking for one-off acquisitions of investment properties that can either be leased or restored and sold. Our primary competitors in acquiring portfolios include large and small private equity investors, public and private REITs, and other sizable private institutional investors. These same competitors may also compete with us for residents and may provide property and asset management services similar to those that we provide. Competition may increase the prices for properties that we would like to purchase, reduce the amount of rent we may charge for our properties, reduce the occupancy of our portfolio, and adversely impact our ability to achieve attractive total returns. However, we believe that our acquisition platform, our extensive in-market property operations infrastructure, and local expertise in our markets provide us with competitive advantages.
Inflation
Inflation primarily impacts our results of operations as a result of increased repair and maintenance and other costs and wage pressures. Inflation could also impact our cost of capital as a result of changing interest rates on variable rate debt that is not hedged or if our debt instruments are refinanced in a high-inflation environment. Our resident leases typically have a term of one to two years, which generally enables us to compensate for inflationary effects by increasing rents on our homes to current market rates. Although an extreme or sustained escalation in costs could have a negative impact on our residents
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and their ability to absorb rent increases, we do not believe this had a material impact on our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2023.
Seasonality
Our business and related operating results have been, and we believe will continue to be, impacted by seasonal factors throughout the year. In particular, we have experienced higher levels of resident move-outs during the summer months, which impacts both our rental revenues and related turnover costs. Further, our property operating costs are seasonally impacted in certain markets by increases in expenses such as HVAC repairs and costs to re-resident during the summer season.
Regulation
General
Our business operations and properties are subject to various covenants, laws, ordinances, and rules. We seek to comply in all material respects with such covenants, laws, ordinances, and rules, and we also require that our residents agree to comply with such covenants, laws, ordinances, and rules in their leases with us.
Fair Housing Act
The Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) and its state law counterparts and the regulations promulgated by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and various state agencies prohibit discrimination in housing on the basis of race or color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women, and people in the process of adopting a child or securing custody of children under the age of 18), disability or, in some states, financial capability and veteran status, among other protected classes. We train our associates on a regular basis regarding such laws and regulations and we believe that our properties are in compliance with the FHA and other such regulations.
Municipal Regulations and Homeowners’ Associations
Our properties are subject to various municipal regulations and orders, and county and city ordinances, including without limitation, use, operation and maintenance of our properties. Certain of our properties are subject to the rules of the various HOAs where such properties are located. HOA rules and regulations are commonly referred to as “covenants, conditions and restrictions,” or CC&Rs, and typically consist of various restrictions or guidelines regarding use and maintenance of the property, including, among others, landscaping standards, noise restrictions, or guidelines as to how many cars may be parked on the property.
Broker Licensure
We own internal brokerages to serve the states in which we operate and utilize in-market leasing experience specialists to drive an end-to-end resident experience that achieves our occupancy, revenue, and retention goals while facilitating enjoyment of a worry-free leasing lifestyle. Our internal brokerages are subject to numerous federal, state, and local laws and regulations that govern the licensure of real estate agents and brokers and affiliate brokers and set forth standards for, and prohibitions on, the conduct of real estate brokers. Such standards and prohibitions include, among others, those relating to fiduciary and agency duties, administration of trust funds, collection of commissions, and advertising and consumer disclosures, as well as compliance with federal, state, and local laws and programs for providing housing to low-income families. Under applicable state law, we generally have a duty to supervise and are responsible for the conduct of our internal brokerages.
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Environmental Matters
As a current or prior owner of real estate, we are subject to various federal, state, and local environmental laws, regulations, and ordinances, and we could be liable to third parties as a result of environmental contamination or noncompliance at our properties, even if we no longer own such properties. We are not aware of any environmental matters that would have a material adverse effect on our financial position. See Part I. Item 1A. “Risk Factors — Legal and Regulatory Related Risks — Contingent or unknown liabilities could adversely affect our financial condition, cash flows, and operating results. ”
Laws and Regulations Regarding Privacy and Data Protection
We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations that involve matters such as privacy, data protection, content, consumer protection, and other matters. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act and the Nevada Privacy Law, which took effect in January 2020, establish certain transparency rules and create new data privacy rights for users, including more ability to control how their data is shared with third parties. See Part I. Item 1A. “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Information Technology, Cybersecurity, and Data Protection — Our business is subject to laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, consumer protection, and other matters.Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in claims, changes to our business practices, monetary penalties, or otherwise harm our business.”
Segment Reporting
Operating segments are defined as components of an enterprise for which discrete financial information is available that is evaluated regularly by the Chief Operating Decision Maker (“CODM”) in deciding how to allocate resources and in assessing performance. Our CODM is the Chief Executive Officer.
Under the provisions of ASC 280, Segment Reporting, we have determined that we have one reportable segment related to acquiring, renovating, leasing, and operating single-family homes as rental properties. The CODM evaluates operating performance and allocates resources on a total portfolio basis. The CODM utilizes net operating income (“NOI”) as the primary measure to evaluate performance of the total portfolio.
REIT Qualification
We have elected to qualify as a REIT for United States federal income tax purposes. So long as we qualify as a REIT, we generally will not be subject to United States federal income tax on net taxable income that we distribute annually to our stockholders. To qualify as a REIT for United States federal income tax purposes, we must continually satisfy tests concerning, among other things, the real estate qualification of sources of our income, the composition and values of our assets, the amounts we distribute to our stockholders, and the diversity of ownership of our stock. To comply with REIT requirements, we may need to forego otherwise attractive opportunities and limit our expansion opportunities and the manner in which we conduct our operations.
Website and Availability of SEC filings
We file annual, quarterly, and current reports, proxy statements, and other information with the SEC. Our SEC filings are available to the public over the Internet at the SEC’s website at https://www.sec.gov.
We maintain an internet site at INVH.com, where we make our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act available free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with or furnished to the SEC. Our website and the information contained on or through that site are not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We use our website INVH.com as a channel of distribution of material company information. For example, financial and other material information regarding our company is routinely posted on and accessible at INVH.com. Accordingly, investors should monitor the website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, and public conference calls and webcasts. In addition, you may automatically receive email alerts and other information about Invitation Homes when you enroll your email address by visiting the Email Notification section at INVH.com under the Investor
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Resources tab. The contents of our website and social media channels are not, however, a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and are not incorporated by reference herein.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
The risk factors noted in this section and other factors noted throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K, describe certain risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement and should be considered carefully in evaluating our company and our business. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations.
Risks Related to Our Business Environment and Industry
Our operating results are subject to general economic conditions and risks associated with our real estate assets.
Our operating results are subject to risks generally incident to the ownership and rental of residential real estate, many of which are beyond our control, including, without limitation:
•unfavorable global and United States economic conditions (including inflation and interest rates), uncertainty in financial markets, and geopolitical tensions;
•bank failures or other liquidity constraints affecting financial institutions;
•changes in national, regional, or local economic, demographic, or real estate market conditions;
•changes in job markets and employment levels on a national, regional, and local basis;
•declines in the value of residential real estate;
•overall conditions in the housing market, including:
•macroeconomic shifts in demand for rental homes;
•inability to lease or re-lease homes to residents on a timely basis, on attractive terms or at all;
•failure of residents to pay rent when due or otherwise perform their lease obligations;
•unanticipated repairs, capital expenditures, weather related damages, or other costs;
•uninsured damages; and
•increases in property taxes, HOA fees, and insurance costs;
•level of competition for suitable rental homes;
•terms and conditions of purchase contracts;
•costs and time period required to convert acquisitions to rental homes;
•changes in the terms or availability of financing that may render the acquisition of any homes difficult or unattractive;
•the liquidity of real estate investments, generally;
•the short-term nature of most residential leases and the costs and potential delays in re-leasing;
•changes in laws, including those that increase operating expenses or limit our ability to increase rental rates. See “Legal and Regulatory Related Risks — Eviction, tenant rights, rent control, and rent stabilization laws, and other similar laws and/or regulations that limit our ability to collect rent, enforce remedies for failure to pay rent, or increase rental rates may negatively impact our rental income and profitability;”
•the impact of potential reforms relating to government-sponsored enterprises involved in the home finance and mortgage markets;
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•rules, regulations and/or policy initiatives by government and private actors, including HOAs, to discourage or restrict the purchase or operation of single-family properties by entities owned or controlled by institutional investors;
•the potential effects of climate change, related regulatory policies, legislation, and/or investor responses and expectations, and the transition to a lower-carbon economy;
•disputes and potential negative publicity in connection with eviction proceedings;
•construction of new supply;
•costs resulting from the clean-up of, and liability to third parties for damages resulting from, environmental problems, such as indoor mold;
•fraud by borrowers, originators, and/or sellers of mortgage loans;
•undetected deficiencies and/or inaccuracies in underlying mortgage loan documentation and calculations;
•casualty or condemnation losses;
•the geographic mix of our properties;
•the cost, quality, and condition of the properties we are able to acquire; and
•our ability to provide adequate management, maintenance, and insurance.
Any one or more of these factors could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Many factors impact the single-family rental market; and if rents in our markets do not increase sufficiently to keep pace with rising costs of operations, our income and distributable cash could decline.
The success of our business model depends, in part, on conditions in the single-family rental market in which we operate. One of the possible impacts on our results of operations and key operating metrics due to limitations on our ability to increase rental rates could be a decrease in gross rental revenues and other property income. Our investment strategy is based on assumptions about occupancy levels, rental rates, interest rates, and other factors; and if those assumptions prove to be inaccurate, our cash flows may be reduced. Multiple economic and demographic factors may contribute to increases or decreases in homeownership rates resulting in fluctuating rental rates and average occupancy levels. Revenues earned from our property and asset management services are sensitive to macroeconomic conditions that negatively impact rent collections and the performance of the properties we manage. In addition, we expect that if investors like us increasingly seek to capitalize on opportunities to purchase housing assets and convert them to productive uses, competition in the market for the supply of single-family rental properties may increase and could result in a higher cost to acquire those properties. A softening of the rental market in our core areas would reduce our rental revenue and profitability.
Inflation could adversely affect our business and financial results.
Inflation, which continued to increase during 2023, has adversely affected us by increasing the costs of products, materials, and labor needed to operate our business and could continue to adversely affect us in future periods. The effects of inflation on our financial condition and results of operations over the past few years are primarily related to increased operating costs for the procurement of goods and service, compensation of our associates, including benefits, and financing costs in the form of interest expense. Continued inflationary pressures could have a material impact on our results of operations in the future. In an inflationary environment, we may not be able to raise rents sufficiently to keep up with the rate of inflation. High levels of inflation may also negatively impact consumer income and spending, among other factors, which may adversely impact our business, financial condition, cash flows, and results of operations. Actions by the government to stimulate the economy may increase the risk of significant inflation, which may also have an adverse impact on our business or financial results.
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Increasing property taxes, insurance costs, and HOA fees may negatively affect our financial results.
As a result of our substantial real estate holdings, the cost of property taxes and insuring our properties is a significant component of our expenses. Our properties are subject to real and personal property taxes that may increase as tax rates change and as the real properties are assessed or reassessed by taxing authorities. As the owner of our properties, we are responsible for payment of the taxes to the applicable government authorities. If real property taxes increase, our expenses will increase. If we fail to pay any such taxes, the applicable taxing authority may place a lien on the real property and the real property may be subject to a tax sale.
In addition, a significant portion of our properties are located within HOAs, and we are subject to HOA rules and regulations. HOAs have the power to increase monthly charges and make assessments for capital improvements and common area repairs and maintenance.
Property taxes, insurance costs, and HOA fees may be subject to significant increases, which can be outside of our control. If the costs associated with property taxes, insurance, or HOA fees and assessments rise significantly and we are unable to increase rental rates due to current market conditions, rent control laws, or other regulations to offset such increases, our results of operations would be negatively affected.
Our business, results of operations, financial condition, and cash flows may be adversely affected by pandemics and outbreaks of infectious disease.
A significant outbreak of infectious disease, medical epidemic, or a pandemic may result in a widespread health crisis and may lead to an economic downturn that could negatively affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. To the extent our current or prospective residents experience unemployment, deteriorating financial conditions, and declines in household income, resulting from medical epidemics or pandemics, they may be unwilling or unable to pay rent in full on a timely basis or renew or enter into new leases for our homes, and our revenues and operating results could be negatively affected.
Measures put in place in response to a pandemic such as temporary eviction moratoriums if certain criteria are met by residents, deferral of missed rent payments without incurring late fees, and restrictions on rent increases may impose restrictions on our ability to enforce residents’ contractual rental obligations and limit our ability to collect and increase rents.
The resulting impact from a future pandemic or outbreak of infectious disease on rental revenues and other property income could impact our ability to make all required debt service payments and to continue paying dividends to our stockholders at expected levels or at all.
Additionally, the lingering impact of a pandemic and related containment measures may interfere with the ability of our suppliers and other business partners to carry out their assigned tasks or supply materials, products, services, or funding (in the case of our revolving credit facility) at ordinary levels of performance relative to the conduct of our business.
A general decline in business activity and demand for real estate transactions resulting from a pandemic could adversely affect (1) our ability to acquire or dispose of single-family homes on terms that are attractive or at all and (2) the value of our homes and our business such that we may recognize impairment on the carrying value of our investments in single-family residential properties and other assets subject to impairment review, including, but not limited to, goodwill.
An economic downturn resulting from a pandemic, and a disruption of, and/or instability in, the global financial markets or deteriorations in credit and financing conditions may affect our access to capital necessary to fund business operations, including acquisitions, or address maturing liabilities on a timely basis.
Disease outbreaks, epidemics, pandemics, or similar widespread public health concerns and the volatile regional and global economic conditions stemming therefrom, as well as reactions to future pandemics, could also precipitate or aggravate the other risk factors set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which in turn could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
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Risks Related to our Business and Operations
We may not be able to effectively manage our growth, and any failure to do so may have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Since commencing operations in 2012, we have grown rapidly, assembling a portfolio of approximately 85,000 owned homes as of December 31, 2023 and providing property and asset management services to portfolio owners of single-family residential properties. Our future operating results may depend on our ability to effectively manage our growth, which is dependent, in part, upon our ability to:
•stabilize and manage an increasing number of properties and resident relationships across our geographically dispersed portfolio while maintaining a high level of resident satisfaction and building and enhancing our brand;
•identify and supervise a number of suitable third parties on which we rely to provide certain services outside of property management to our properties;
•attract, integrate, and retain new management and operations associates; and
•continue to improve our operational and financial controls and reporting procedures and systems.
We can provide no assurance that we will be able to manage our properties or grow our business efficiently or effectively, or without incurring significant additional expenses. Any failure to do so may have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
A significant portion of our costs and expenses are fixed, and we may not be able to adapt our cost structure to offset declines in our revenue.
Many of the expenses associated with our business, such as property taxes, insurance, HOA fees, utilities, acquisition, renovation and maintenance costs, and other general corporate expenses are relatively inflexible and will not necessarily decrease with a reduction in revenue from our business. Some components of our fixed assets depreciate more rapidly and require ongoing capital expenditures. Our expenses and ongoing capital expenditures are also affected by inflationary increases, and certain of our cost increases may exceed the rate of inflation in any given period or market. Our rental income is affected by many factors beyond our control, such as the availability of alternative rental housing and economic conditions in our markets. In addition, state and local regulations may require us to maintain properties that we own, even if the cost of maintenance is greater than the value of the property or any potential benefit from renting the property, or pass regulations that limit our ability to increase rental rates. As a result, we may not be able to fully offset rising costs and capital spending by increasing rental rates, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and cash available for distribution.
We recorded net losses in the past and we may experience net losses in the future.
We have recorded consolidated net losses in the past. These net losses were inclusive in each period of significant non-cash charges, consisting primarily of depreciation and amortization expense. We expect such non-cash charges to continue to be significant in future periods and, as a result, we may record net losses in future periods.
We are dependent on our executive officers and dedicated associates, and the departure of any of our key associates could materially and adversely affect us. We also face intense competition for the employment of highly skilled managerial, investment, financial, and operational associates. Additionally, our results of operations can be adversely affected by labor shortages, turnover, and labor cost increases.
We rely on a small number of persons to carry out our business and investment strategies, and the loss of the services of any of our key management associates, or our inability to recruit and retain qualified associates in the future, could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results.
In addition, the implementation of our business plan may require that we employ additional qualified associates. Competition for highly skilled managerial, investment, financial, and operational associates is intense. As additional large real estate investors enter into and expand their scale within the single-family rental business, we have faced increased
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challenges in hiring and retaining associates, and we cannot assure our stockholders that we will be successful in attracting and retaining such skilled associates. If we are unable to hire and retain qualified associates as required, our growth and operating results could be adversely affected.
Our ability to meet our labor needs while controlling our labor costs is subject to numerous external factors, including unemployment levels, prevailing wage rates, rising inflation, changing demographics, and changes in employment legislation. High unemployment levels and federal unemployment subsidies may adversely affect the labor force available to us or increased labor costs. In addition, we continue to experience disruptions from workforce turnover due to a scarcity of talent, as businesses compete for personnel, and rising labor costs. Many of our positions require specialized skill sets resulting in a longer than average time period to fill vacant positions. We are also experiencing and may continue to experience additional pressure due to labor shortages associated with the impact of continued elevated demand. If we are unable to retain qualified associates or our labor costs increase significantly, our business operations and our financial performance could be adversely impacted.
Our investments are and may continue to be concentrated in our markets and in the single-family properties sector of the real estate industry, which exposes us to seasonal fluctuations in rental demand and downturns in our markets or in the single-family properties sector.
Our investments in real estate assets and the investments we manage on behalf of others are and may continue to be concentrated in our markets and in the single-family properties sector of the real estate industry. A downturn or slowdown in the rental demand for single-family housing caused by adverse economic, regulatory, or environmental conditions, or other events, in our markets may have a greater impact on the value of our owned and managed properties or our operating results than if we had more fully diversified our investments. We believe that there are seasonal fluctuations in rental demand with demand higher in the spring and summer than in the late fall and winter. Such seasonal fluctuations may impact our operating results.
In addition to global and United States economic conditions, our operating performance will be impacted by the economic conditions in our markets. We base a substantial part of our business plan on our belief that property values and operating fundamentals for single-family properties in our markets will continue to improve over the near to intermediate term. However, these markets have experienced substantial economic downturns in the past and could experience similar or worse economic downturns in the future. We can provide no assurance as to the extent property values and operating fundamentals in these markets will improve, if at all. If an economic downturn in these markets occurs or if we fail to accurately predict the timing of economic improvement in these markets, the value of our properties could decline and our ability to execute our business plan may be adversely affected to a greater extent than if we owned and managed real estate portfolios that were more geographically diversified, which could adversely affect our financial condition, operating results, and ability to make distributions to our stockholders and cause the value of our common stock to decline.
We may not be able to effectively control the timing and costs relating to the renovation and maintenance of our properties, which may adversely affect our operating results and ability to make distributions to our stockholders.
Most of our properties require some level of renovation either immediately upon their acquisition or in the future following expiration of a lease or otherwise. We may acquire properties that we plan to renovate extensively. We may also acquire properties that we expect to be in good condition only to discover unforeseen defects and problems that require extensive renovation and capital expenditures. To the extent properties are leased to existing residents, renovations may be postponed until the resident vacates the premises at which time the costs of renovating will be incurred. In addition, from time to time, we may perform ongoing maintenance or make ongoing capital improvements and replacements and perform significant renovations and repairs that resident deposits and insurance may not cover. Because the portfolio of homes we own and manage consists of geographically dispersed properties, our ability to adequately monitor or manage any such renovations or maintenance may be more limited or subject to greater inefficiencies than if our properties were more geographically concentrated.
Our properties have infrastructure and appliances of varying ages and conditions. Consequently, we routinely retain independent contractors and trade professionals to perform physical repair work and are exposed to all of the risks inherent in property renovation and maintenance, including potential cost overruns, increases in labor and materials costs, delays by contractors in completing work, delays in the timing of receiving necessary work permits, delays in receiving materials,
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fixtures, or appliances, certificates of occupancy, and poor workmanship. Labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, among other challenges, continue to affect the ability of our associates, suppliers, and other business partners to carry out their assigned tasks, provide services, or supply materials at ordinary levels of performance relative to the conduct of our business. In addition, we are experiencing disruptions from workforce turnover, affecting the renovation and maintenance of our properties, as businesses emerging from the pandemic compete for personnel. Many of our positions require specialized skill sets resulting in a longer than average time period to fill position vacancies. If our assumptions regarding the costs or timing of renovation and maintenance across our properties prove to be materially inaccurate, our operating results and ability to make distributions to our stockholders may be adversely affected.
We face significant competition in the leasing market for quality residents, which may limit our ability to lease the single-family homes we own and manage on favorable terms.
We depend on rental income from residents for substantially all of our revenues. As a result, our success depends in large part upon our ability to attract and retain qualified residents for our properties. We face competition for residents from other lessors of single-family properties, apartment buildings, and condominium units. Competing properties may be newer, better located, and more attractive to residents. Potential competitors may have lower rates of occupancy than we do or may have superior access to capital and other resources, which may result in competing owners more easily locating residents and leasing available housing at lower rental rates than we might offer at our homes. Many of these competitors may successfully attract residents with better incentives and amenities, which could adversely affect our ability to obtain quality residents and lease our single-family properties on favorable terms. Additionally, we may fail to receive certain subsidies that we have received in the past, while some competing housing options may qualify for such government subsidies or other government subsidies, which may render the properties of our competitors as more accessible and therefore more attractive than our properties. This competition may affect our ability to attract and retain residents and may reduce the rental rates we are able to charge.
In addition, increases in unemployment levels and other adverse changes in economic conditions in our markets may adversely affect the creditworthiness of potential residents, which may decrease the overall number of qualified residents for our properties within such markets. Unfavorable global and United States economic conditions (including inflation and interest rates), uncertainty in financial markets (including due to bank failures), may materially negatively impact our residents, such as being unable to access their existing cash to fulfill their payment obligations to us due to future bank failures, and our business could be negatively impacted.
We could also be adversely affected by overbuilding or high vacancy rates of homes in our markets, which could result in an excess supply of homes and reduce occupancy and rental rates. Continuing development of apartment buildings and condominium units in many of our markets will increase the supply of housing and exacerbate competition for residents.
In addition, laudable government sponsored programs to promote home ownership may encourage potential renters to purchase residences rather than lease them, thereby causing a decline in the number and quality of potential residents available to us.
No assurance can be given that we will be able to attract and retain suitable residents. If we are unable to lease our homes to suitable residents, we would be adversely affected and the value of our common stock could decline.
We intend to continue to acquire properties from time to time consistent with our investment strategy even if the rental and housing markets are not as favorable as they have been in the recent past, which could adversely impact anticipated yields.
We intend to continue to acquire properties from time to time consistent with our investment strategy, even if the rental and housing markets are not as favorable as they have been in the recent past. Future acquisitions of properties may be more costly than those we have acquired previously. The following factors, among others, may make acquisitions more expensive:
•improvements in overall economic conditions and employment levels;
•greater availability of consumer credit;
•improvements in the pricing and terms of mortgages;
•the emergence of increased competition for single-family properties from private investors and entities with similar investment objectives to ours; and
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•tax or other government incentives that encourage homeownership.
A general decline in business activity and demand for real estate transactions could adversely affect our ability to acquire or dispose of single-family homes on terms that are attractive or at all, which may be impacted in periods of rising interest rates.
We plan to continue acquiring properties as long as we believe such properties offer an attractive total return opportunity. Accordingly, future acquisitions may have lower yield characteristics than recent past and present opportunities and, if such future acquisitions are funded through equity issuances, the yield and distributable cash per share may be reduced, and the value of our common stock may decline.
Competition in identifying and acquiring our properties could adversely affect our ability to implement our business and growth strategies, which could materially and adversely affect us.
In acquiring our properties, we compete with a variety of institutional investors, including other REITs, specialty finance companies, public and private funds, savings and loan associations, banks, mortgage bankers, insurance companies, institutional investors, investment banking firms, financial institutions, governmental bodies, and other entities. We also compete with individual private home buyers and small-scale investors.
Certain of our competitors may be larger in certain of our markets and may have greater financial or other resources than we do. Some competitors may have a lower cost of funds and access to funding sources that may not be available to us. In addition, any potential competitor may have higher risk tolerances or different risk assessments and may not be subject to the operating constraints associated with qualification for taxation as a REIT, which could allow them to consider a wider variety of investments. Competition may result in fewer investments, higher prices, a broadly dispersed portfolio of properties that does not lend itself to efficiencies of concentration, acceptance of greater risk, lower yields and a narrower spread of yields over our financing costs. In addition, competition for desirable investments could delay the investment of our capital, which could adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows. As a result, there can be no assurance that we will be able to identify and finance investments that are consistent with our investment objectives or to achieve positive investment results, and our failure to accomplish any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on us and cause the value of our common stock to decline.
We depend on our residents and their willingness to meet their lease obligations and renew their leases for substantially all of our revenues. Poor resident selection, defaults, and non-renewals by our residents may adversely affect our reputation, financial performance, and ability to make distributions to our stockholders.
We depend on rental income from residents for substantially all of our revenues. As a result, our success depends in large part upon our ability to attract and retain qualified residents for our properties. Our reputation, financial performance, and ability to make distributions to our stockholders would be adversely affected if a significant number of our residents fail to meet their lease obligations or fail to renew their leases. For example, residents may default on rent payments, make unreasonable and repeated demands for service or improvements, make unsupported or unjustified complaints to regulatory or political authorities, use our properties for illegal purposes, damage or make unauthorized structural changes to our properties that are not covered by security deposits, refuse to leave the property upon termination of the lease, engage in domestic violence or similar disturbances, disturb nearby residents with noise, trash, odors, or eyesores, fail to comply with HOA regulations, sublet to less desirable individuals in violation of our lease, or permit unauthorized persons to live with them. We have been experiencing lower collections from residents with accounts receivable balances that are aged greater than 30 days, or bad debt, and we may experience higher resident turnover.
Damage to our properties may delay re-leasing, necessitate expensive repairs, or impair the rental income or value of the property resulting in a lower than expected rate of return. Increases in unemployment levels and other adverse changes in economic conditions in our markets could result in substantial resident defaults. In the event of a resident default or bankruptcy, we may experience delays in enforcing our rights as landlord at that property and will incur costs in protecting our investment and re-leasing the property.
Furthermore, we rely on information supplied by prospective residents in making resident selections, which may in some cases be false. See “— We rely on information supplied by prospective residents in managing our business.”
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Our evaluation of properties involves a number of assumptions that may prove inaccurate, which could result in us paying too much for properties we acquire and/or overvaluing our properties or our properties failing to perform as we expect.
We are authorized to follow a broad investment policy established by our board of directors and subject to implementation by our management. Our board of directors periodically reviews and updates the investment policy and also reviews our portfolio of residential real estate, but it generally does not review or approve specific property acquisitions. Our success depends on our ability to acquire properties that can be quickly possessed, renovated, repaired, upgraded, and rented with minimal expense and maintained in quality condition. In determining whether a particular property meets our investment criteria, we also make a number of assumptions, including, among other things, assumptions related to estimated time of possession and estimated renovation costs and time frames, annual operating costs, market rental rates and potential rent amounts, time from purchase to leasing, and resident default rates. These assumptions may prove inaccurate, particularly since the properties that we acquire vary materially in terms of time to possession, renovation, quality and type of construction, geographic location, and hazards. As a result, we may pay too much for properties we acquire and/or overvalue our properties, or our properties may fail to perform as anticipated. Adjustments to the assumptions we make in evaluating potential purchases may result in fewer properties qualifying under our investment criteria, including assumptions related to our ability to lease properties we have purchased.
Our dependence upon third parties for key services may have an adverse effect on our operating results or reputation if the third parties fail to perform.
Though we are internally managed, we use local and national third-party vendors and service providers to provide certain services for our properties. For example, we typically engage third-party home improvement professionals with respect to certain maintenance and specialty services, such as HVAC, roofing, painting, and floor installations. Selecting, managing, and supervising these third-party service providers requires significant resources and expertise, and because our portfolio consists of geographically dispersed properties, our ability to adequately select, manage, and supervise such third parties may be more limited or subject to greater inefficiencies than if our properties were more geographically concentrated.
An overall labor shortage experienced by our vendors, lack of skilled labor, increased turnover, or labor inflation, caused by a pandemic or as a result of general macroeconomic factors, could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, or operating results. We have entered into a multi-year contract with a third-party vendor to provide certain services for our properties. Because of the large volume of services under this contract, only a limited number of companies are capable of servicing our needs on this scale. Accordingly, the inability or unwillingness of this vendor to continue to provide these services on acceptable terms or at all could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We generally do not have exclusive or long-term contractual relationships with third-party providers, and we can provide no assurance that we will have uninterrupted or unlimited access to their services. If we do not select, manage, and supervise appropriate third parties to provide these services, our reputation and financial results may suffer.
We rely on the systems of our third-party service providers, their ability to perform key operations on our behalf in a timely manner and in accordance with agreed levels of service, and their ability to attract and retain sufficient qualified associates to perform our work. A failure in the systems of one of our third-party service providers, or their inability to perform in accordance with the terms of our contracts or to retain sufficient qualified associates, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Notwithstanding our efforts to implement and enforce strong policies and practices regarding service providers, we may not successfully detect and prevent fraud, misconduct, incompetence, or theft by our third-party service providers. In addition, any removal or termination of third-party service providers would require us to seek new vendors or providers, which would create delays and adversely affect our operations. Poor performance by such third-party service providers may reflect poorly on us and could significantly damage our reputation among desirable residents. In the event of fraud or misconduct by a third party, we could also be exposed to material liability and be held responsible for damages, fines, or penalties and our reputation may suffer. In the event of failure by our general contractors to pay their subcontractors, our properties may be subject to filings of mechanics or materialmen liens, which we may need to resolve to remain in compliance with certain debt covenants, and for which indemnification from the general contractors may not be available.
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We are subject to certain risks associated with bulk portfolio acquisitions and dispositions and acquisitions through an auction process.
We have acquired and disposed of, and may continue to acquire and dispose of, properties we acquire or sell in bulk from or to other owners of single-family homes, banks, and loan servicers. When we purchase properties in bulk or through an auction process, we often do not have the opportunity to conduct interior inspections or conduct more than cursory exterior inspections on a portion of the properties, if at all. Such inspection processes may fail to reveal major defects associated with such properties, which may cause the amount of time and cost required to renovate and/or maintain such properties to substantially exceed our estimates. The costs involved in locating and performing due diligence (when feasible) on portfolios of homes as well as negotiating and entering into transactions with potential portfolio sellers could be significant, and there is a risk that either the seller may withdraw from the entire transaction for failure to come to an agreement or the seller may not be willing to sell us the bulk portfolio on terms that we view as favorable. In addition, a seller may require that a group of homes be purchased as a package even though we may not want to purchase certain individual assets in the bulk portfolio.
Bulk portfolio acquisitions are also more complex than single-family home acquisitions, and we may not be able to implement this strategy successfully. With respect to auction process acquisitions, allegations of deficiencies in auction practices could result in claims challenging the validity of some auctions, potentially placing our claim of ownership to the properties at risk. Upon acquiring a new home, we may have to evict residents who are in unlawful possession before we can secure possession and control of the home.
Moreover, to the extent the management and leasing of such properties has not been consistent with our property management and leasing standards, we may be subject to a variety of risks, including risks relating to the condition of the properties, the credit quality and employment stability of the residents, and compliance with applicable laws, among others. In addition, financial and other information provided to us regarding such portfolios during our due diligence may be inaccurate, and we may not discover such inaccuracies until it is too late to seek remedies against such sellers. To the extent we pursue such remedies, we may not be able to successfully prevail against the seller in an action seeking damages for such inaccuracies. If we conclude that certain individual properties purchased in bulk portfolio sales do not fit our target investment criteria, we may decide to sell, rather than renovate and lease, such properties, which could take an extended period of time and may not result in a sale at an attractive price.
From time to time we engage in bulk portfolio dispositions of properties consistent with our business and investment strategy. With respect to any such disposition, the purchaser may default on payment or otherwise breach the terms of the relevant purchase agreement, and it may be difficult for us to pursue remedies against such purchaser or retain or resume possession of the relevant properties. To the extent we pursue such remedies, we may not be able to successfully prevail against the purchaser.
Our strategy to acquire homes from third-party homebuilders could subject us to significant risks that could adversely affect our financial condition, cash flows, and operating results, and the strategy may be restricted by governmental regulations and zoning requirements.
We expect to continue entering into contracts with homebuilder counterparties for the acquisition of new homes. Pursuant to these contracts, homes will be delivered to us pursuant to a negotiated delivery schedule. We have made commitments for future fundings, and there can be no assurance that funding will be available to us for such purposes. Additionally, if home values decline subsequent to when we entered into contracts with homebuilder counterparties, we may not be able to adjust our contractual acquisition prices to reflect the decreased home values.
This strategy depends on the performance of our counterparties and the ability of homebuilders to develop new homes specifically for our purchase. We rely on builder counterparties to acquire land suitable for residential building in our markets, and to deliver quality homes at reasonable prices in a timely manner, in accordance with agreed to specifications. A failure of builder counterparties to perform in accordance with the terms of our agreements, could have a material adverse effect on our business. Further, poor performance by homebuilder counterparties may reflect poorly on us and could damage our reputation. Additionally, governmental laws, regulations, and zoning requirements may be imposed that restrict our ability to purchase homes from third-party homebuilders that are intended for rental purposes in areas where we would like to invest.
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Unoccupied homes could be difficult to lease, which could adversely affect our revenues.
The properties we acquire may often be vacant at the time of closing, and we may acquire multiple unoccupied homes in close geographic proximity to one another. We may not be successful in locating residents to lease the individual properties that we acquire as quickly as we had expected, or at all. Even if we are able to place residents as quickly as we had expected, we may incur vacancies in the future and may not be able to re-lease those properties without longer than assumed delays, which may result in increased renovation and maintenance costs and opportunity costs from lost revenues.
Unoccupied homes may also be at risk for fraudulent activity which could impact our ability to lease a home. As a result, if vacancies continue for a longer period of time than we expect or indefinitely, we may suffer reduced revenues, incur additional operating expenses and capital expenditures, and our homes could be substantially impaired, all of which may have a material adverse effect on us.
We rely on information supplied by prospective residents in managing our business.
We evaluate prospective residents in a standardized manner through the use of a third-party resident screening vendor partners. Our resident screening process includes obtaining appropriate identification, a thorough evaluation of credit history and household income, a review of the applicant’s rental history, and a background check for criminal activity. We make leasing decisions based on information in rental applications completed by a prospective resident and screened by our third-party partners, and we cannot be certain that this information is accurate. Additionally, these applications are submitted to us at the time we evaluate a prospective resident, and we do not require residents to provide us with updated information during the terms of their leases, notwithstanding the fact that this information can, and frequently does, change over time. For example, increases in unemployment levels or adverse economic conditions in certain of our markets may adversely affect the creditworthiness of our residents in such markets. Even though this information is not updated, we will use it to evaluate the characteristics of our portfolio over time. If resident-supplied information is inaccurate or our residents’ creditworthiness declines over time, we may make poor or imperfect leasing decisions and our portfolio may contain more risk than we believe.
Our leases are relatively short-term, exposing us to the risk that we may have to re-lease our properties frequently, which we may be unable to do on attractive terms, on a timely basis, or at all.
Substantially all of our new leases have a duration of one to two years. As such leases permit the residents to leave at the end of the lease term, we anticipate our rental revenues may be affected by declines in market rental rates more quickly than if our leases were for longer terms. Short-term leases may result in high turnover, which involves costs such as restoring the properties, marketing costs, and lower occupancy levels. Our resident turnover rate and related cost estimates may be less accurate than if we had more operating data upon which to base such estimates. If the rental rates for our properties decrease or our residents do not renew their leases, our operating results and ability to make distributions to our stockholders could be adversely affected. In addition, a portion of our potential residents are represented by leasing agents and we may need to pay all or a portion of any related agent commissions, which will reduce the revenue from a particular rental home. Alternatively, to the extent that a lease term exceeds one year, we may lose the opportunity to raise rents in an appreciating market and be locked into a lower rent until such lease expires.
We may not have control over timing and costs arising from renovating our properties, and the cost of maintaining rental properties can be higher than the cost of maintaining owner-occupied homes, which will affect our results of operations and may adversely impact our ability to make distributions to our stockholders.
Renters impose additional risks to owning real property. Renters do not have the same interest as an owner in maintaining a property and its contents and generally do not participate in any appreciation of the property. Accordingly, renters may damage a property and its contents, and may not be forthright in reporting damages or amenable to repairing them completely, or at all. A rental property may need repairs and/or improvements after each resident vacates the premises, the costs of which may exceed any security deposit provided to us by the resident when the rental property was originally leased. Accordingly, the cost of maintaining rental properties can be higher than the cost of maintaining owner-occupied homes, which will affect our results of operations and may adversely impact our ability to make distributions to our stockholders.
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Declining real estate valuations and impairment charges could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
We periodically review the value of our properties to determine whether their value, based on market factors, projected income, and generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”), has permanently decreased such that it is necessary or appropriate to take an impairment loss in the relevant accounting period. Such a loss would cause an immediate reduction of net income in the applicable accounting period and would be reflected in a decrease in our balance sheet assets. Even if we do not determine that it is necessary or appropriate to record an impairment loss, a reduction in the intrinsic value of a property would become manifest over time through reduced income from the property and would therefore affect our earnings and financial condition.
Our participation in joint venture investments may limit our ability to invest in certain markets, and we may be adversely affected by our lack of sole decision-making authority, our reliance on joint venture partners’ financial condition, and disputes between us and our joint venture partners.
We currently, and may in the future, co-invest with third parties through partnerships, joint ventures, or other entities, acquiring non-controlling interests in or sharing responsibility for managing the affairs of a property, partnership, joint venture, or other entity. These joint ventures may be subject to restrictions that prohibit us from making other investments in certain markets until all of the funds in such partnership, joint venture, or other entity are invested or committed. In addition, we may also not be in a position to exercise sole decision-making authority regarding the property, partnership, joint venture, or other entity, and our joint venture partners could take actions that are not within our control. Such actions could, among other things, impact our ability to maintain our status as a REIT. Further, investments in partnerships, joint ventures, or other entities may, under certain circumstances, involve risks not present were a third party not involved, including the possibility that joint venture partners might become bankrupt or fail to fund their share of required capital contributions. Joint venture partners may have economic or other business interests or goals that are inconsistent with our business interests or goals and may be in a position to take actions contrary to our policies or objectives. Such investments also may have the potential risk of impasses on decisions, such as a sale, because neither we nor our partners would have full control over the partnership or joint venture. Disputes between us and our partners may result in litigation or arbitration that would increase our expenses and prevent our officers and/or directors from focusing their time and effort on our business. Consequently, actions by, or disputes with, any of our joint venture partners might result in subjecting properties owned by the partnership or joint venture to additional risk. In addition, we may in certain circumstances be liable for the actions of any of our third-party partners or co-venturers.
We provide property management and other services on a contractual basis to co-investors in certain of our joint ventures that invest in single-family rental properties. These services include marketing, leasing, maintenance, renovation, accounting, transaction management, and financial markets services. Our exposure to liabilities in connection with such property management activities could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results.
We may suffer losses that are not covered by insurance.
We attempt to ensure that our properties are adequately insured to cover casualty losses. However, there are certain losses, including losses from floods, fires, earthquakes, wind, hail, pollution, acts of war, acts of terrorism or riots, certain environmental hazards, and security breaches for which we may self-insure or which may not always or generally be insured against because it may not be deemed economically feasible or prudent to do so. Changes in the cost or availability of insurance could expose us to uninsured casualty losses. In particular, a number of our properties are located in areas that are known to be subject to increased earthquake activity, fires, or wind and/or flood risk. Any and all such severe weather events may be exacerbated by global climate change, resulting in increased insurance premiums and deductibles, or a decrease in the availability of coverage. See “Risks Related to Environmental, Social, and Governance Issues — We are subject to risks from natural disasters such as earthquakes, wildfires, and severe weather.” While we have annual policies for earthquakes, hurricane, and/or flood risk, our properties may nonetheless incur casualty losses that are not fully covered by insurance. In such an event, the value of the affected properties would be reduced by the amount of any such uninsured loss, and we could experience a significant loss of capital invested and potential revenues in such properties and could potentially remain obligated under any recourse debt associated with such properties. Inflation, changes in building codes and ordinances, environmental considerations, and other factors might also keep us from using insurance proceeds to replace or renovate a
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particular property after it has been damaged or destroyed. Under those circumstances, the insurance proceeds we receive might be inadequate to restore our economic position in the damaged or destroyed property. Any such losses could adversely affect us and cause the value of our common stock to decline. There can be no assurance that we are adequately insured to protect against potential casualty losses and liabilities, and we may elect to self-insure against certain potential losses, accept higher deductibles, utilize an insurance captive, or reduce the amount of coverage in response to excessive insurance premium increases.
In addition, we may have no source of funding to repair or reconstruct the damaged home, and we cannot assure that any such sources of funding will be available to us for such purposes in the future.
We may have difficulty selling our real estate investments, and our ability to distribute all or a portion of the net proceeds from any such sale to our stockholders may be limited.
Real estate investments are relatively illiquid and, as a result, we may have a limited ability to sell our properties. When we sell any of our properties, we may recognize a loss on such sale. We may elect not to distribute any proceeds from the sale of properties to our stockholders. Instead, we may use such proceeds for other purposes, including:
•purchasing additional properties;
•repaying debt or buying back stock;
•creating working capital reserves; or
•making repairs, maintenance or other capital improvements or expenditures to our remaining properties.
Our ability to sell our properties may also be limited by our need to avoid the 100% prohibited transactions tax that is imposed on gain recognized by a REIT from the sale of property characterized as dealer property. For example, we may be required to hold our properties for a minimum period of time and comply with certain other requirements in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), or dispose of our properties through a taxable REIT subsidiary (“TRS”), in which case we will incur corporate level tax on any net gains from such dispositions.
We may encounter challenges in effectively providing the professional property and asset management services we offer to owners of single-family home portfolios on a contractual basis. Our failure to effectively perform professional property and asset management functions or to effectively manage the expanded portfolio of properties we manage could materially and adversely affect us.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to effectively manage a significant increase in the number of properties we manage. The potential difficulties we may encounter in providing professional property and asset management services may include, without limitation:
•our inability to effectively perform the property and asset management services at the level and/or the cost that we anticipate or as a result of a failure to allocate sufficient resources to meet those needs;
•our inability to manage the complexities associated with hiring and retaining key personnel required to provide property and asset management services to the increased number of properties we manage as we grow;
•integrating additional regulatory and legal compliance controls and financial reporting practices and controls into our business;
•failure to have received comprehensive diligence regarding the properties or existing tenants that we manage, which may have impaired our assessment of the engagement;
•potential unknown liabilities and unforeseen increased expenses associated with property and asset management; and
•performance shortfalls as a result of the diversion of management’s attention caused by a significant increase in the number of properties we manage.
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For all these reasons, it is possible that providing professional property and asset management services could result in the distraction of our management or inconsistencies in our operations, services, standards, controls, policies, and procedures, any of which could adversely affect our business and financial results.
We are employing a business model with a limited track record, which may make our business difficult to evaluate.
Until recently, the single-family rental business was comprised primarily of private and individual investors in local markets and was managed individually or by small, non-institutional owners and property managers. Our business strategy involves purchasing, renovating, maintaining, and managing a large number of residential properties and leasing them to qualified residents. Entry into this market by large, well-capitalized investors is a relatively recent trend, so few peer companies exist and none have yet established long-term track records that might assist us in predicting whether our business model and investment strategy can be implemented and sustained over an extended period of time. It may be difficult to evaluate our potential future performance without the benefit of established long-term track records from companies implementing a similar business model. We may encounter unanticipated problems as we continue to refine our business model, which may adversely affect our results of operations and ability to make distributions to our stockholders and cause our stock price to decline significantly.
We have a limited operating history and may not be able to operate our business successfully or generate sufficient cash flows to make or sustain distributions to our stockholders.
We have a limited operating history. As a result, an investment in our common stock may entail more risk than an investment in the common stock of a real estate company with a substantial operating history. If we are unable to operate our business successfully, we would not be able to generate sufficient cash flow to make or sustain distributions to our stockholders, and stockholders could lose all or a portion of the value of their ownership in our common stock. Our ability to successfully operate our business and implement our operating policies and investment strategy depends on many factors, including:
•our ability to effectively manage renovation, maintenance, marketing, and other operating costs for our properties;
•economic conditions in our markets, including changes in employment and household earnings and expenses, as well as the condition of the financial and real estate markets and the economy, in general;
•our ability to maintain high occupancy rates and target rent levels;
•the availability of, and our ability to identify, attractive acquisition opportunities consistent with our investment strategy;
•our ability to compete with other investors entering the single-family rental industry;
•costs that are beyond our control, including title litigation, litigation with residents or tenant organizations, legal compliance, property taxes, insurance, and HOA fees;
•judicial and regulatory developments affecting landlord-tenant relations that may affect or delay our ability to dispossess or evict occupants or increase rental rates;
•reversal of population, employment, or homeownership trends in our markets; and
•interest rate levels and volatility, which may affect the accessibility of short-term and long-term financing on desirable terms.
In addition, we face significant competition in acquiring attractive properties on advantageous terms, and the value of the properties that we acquire may decline substantially after we purchase them.
Legal and Regulatory Related Risks
Compliance with existing governmental laws, regulations, and covenants (or those that may be enacted in the future) that are applicable to the properties we own and manage on behalf of others, including affordability covenants, permit, license,
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and zoning requirements, may adversely affect our ability to make future acquisitions, renovations, or dispositions, result in significant costs, delays, or losses, and adversely affect our growth strategy.
Rental homes are subject to various federal, state, and local laws and regulatory requirements, including permitting, licensing, and zoning requirements. Brokerage of real estate leasing transactions and the provision of property management services require us and our associates to maintain applicable licenses in each state in which we perform these services. If we and our associates fail to maintain our licenses, conduct these activities without a license, or violate any of the regulations covering our licenses, we may be required to pay fines or return commissions received or have our licenses suspended or revoked. Local regulations, including municipal or local ordinances, restrictions, and restrictive covenants imposed by community developers may restrict our or the use of our properties and may require us to obtain approval from local officials or community standards organizations at any time with respect to our properties, including prior to acquiring any of our properties or when undertaking renovations of any of our existing properties. Among other things, these restrictions may relate to fire and safety, seismic, asbestos-cleanup, or hazardous material abatement requirements. Such local regulations may cause us to incur additional costs to renovate or maintain our properties in accordance with the particular rules and regulations. Additionally, state and local agencies may place affordability covenants on certain properties to ensure that they are used to provide affordable housing for persons or families of lower income. If any of our properties contain affordability covenants recorded in their chains of title, we will be forced to sell such properties at a maximum price limit as calculated per the applicable affordable housing covenant, which will likely result in us having to sell such properties below their market values. Our properties are also subject to federal, state, and local accessibility requirements, including and in addition to those imposed by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act.
Any violation by us of the laws and regulations we are subject to could lead to significant fines or penalties and could limit our ability to conduct business. We cannot assure you that existing regulatory policies will not adversely affect us or the timing or cost of any future acquisitions, renovations, or dispositions, or that additional regulations will not be adopted that would increase such delays or result in additional costs or losses. Our business and growth strategies may be materially and adversely affected by our ability to obtain permits, licenses, and approvals. Our failure to obtain such permits, licenses, and approvals could have a material adverse effect on us and cause the value of our common stock to decline.
Eviction, tenant rights, rent control, and rent stabilization laws, and other similar laws and/or regulations that limit our ability to collect rent, enforce remedies for failure to pay rent, or increase rental rates may negatively impact our rental income and profitability.
While acting as the landlord for the numerous properties we own and manage on behalf of others, we are involved from time to time in evicting residents who are not paying their rent or who are otherwise in material violation of the terms of their lease. Eviction activities impose legal and managerial expenses that raise costs and expose us to potential negative publicity. The eviction process is typically subject to legal barriers, mandatory “cure” policies, our internal policies and procedures, and other sources of expense and delay, each of which may delay our ability to gain possession and stabilize the property. There has recently been an increase in restrictions and other regulations regarding evictions and expansion of tenant rights by federal, state, and local governments and courts, continuing to result in additional legal and regulatory hurdles to the eviction process. Additionally, eviction proceedings by owners and operators of single-family homes for lease have been the focus of negative media attention, which damages our reputation.
State and local landlord-tenant laws may impose legal duties to assist residents in relocating to new housing, or restrict the landlord’s ability to remove the resident on a timely basis or to recover certain costs or charge residents for damage residents cause to the landlord’s premises. Because such laws vary by state and locality, we must be familiar with and take all appropriate steps to comply with all applicable landlord-tenant laws and need to incur supervisory and legal expenses to ensure such compliance.
Furthermore, state and local governmental agencies may introduce rent control laws or other regulations that limit our ability to increase rental rates, which may affect our rental income. Especially in times of recession and economic slowdown, rent control initiatives can amass significant political support. If rent controls unexpectedly became applicable to certain of our properties, our revenue from and the value of such properties could be adversely affected.
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For example, in 2019, the state of California passed the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, a rent control law which limits our ability to increase rental rates for existing residents and put into place protections for the terminations of tenancies. This law has negatively impacted our rental income from certain of the 11,862 homes we own in California as of December 31, 2023, and may continue to do so.
To the extent that we do not comply with laws and regulations regarding eviction, tenant rights, rent control, rent stabilization, and similar matters, we may be subjected to civil litigation filed by individuals (including class actions) or actions by federal, state, or local law enforcement and, as a result, our reputation and financial results may suffer. We may be required to modify or cease existing business practices, pay fines and/or our adversaries’ litigation fees and expenses if judgment is entered against us in such litigation or if we settle such litigation.
Given increasing political support for these types of laws and regulations, we believe these conditions will continue to negatively impact our business and results of operations.
We are subject to regulatory proceedings and litigation (including class actions) and may become a target of legal demands and/or negative publicity from tenant and consumer advocacy organizations, which could directly limit and constrain our operations and may result in significant litigation expenses and reputational harm.
We are involved in a range of legal and regulatory proceedings, claims, actions, inquiries, and investigations in the ordinary course of business. These legal and regulatory proceedings may include, among others, eviction proceedings and other landlord-tenant disputes, challenges to title and ownership rights, Fair Housing or other discrimination claims, disputes arising over potential violations of HOA rules and regulations, issues with local housing officials arising from the condition or maintenance of the property, outside vendor disputes, and trademark infringement and other intellectual property claims. Additionally, we may attract attention and become a target of legal demands, litigation, and negative publicity from tenant and consumer advocacy organizations. Such organizations may lobby federal, state, and local legislatures to pass new laws and regulations to constrain or limit our business operations, adversely impact our business, or may generate negative publicity for our business and harm our reputation.
Our industry is under increasing political and regulatory scrutiny, resulting in governmental inquiries relating to the conduct of our business. These actions or inquiries may be costly to comply with, result in negative publicity and reputational damage, require significant management time and attention, and subject us to expenses and remedies that may harm our business, including fines or demands or orders that we modify or cease existing business practices.
Additionally, we may become subject to legal claims against us (including on a class action basis) for damages or injunctive relief and to seek to publicize our activities in a negative light. We cannot anticipate what form such legal actions might take or what remedies they may seek.