Roofstock
The Oakland marketplace that made tenant-occupied single-family homes a tradable asset class — a $1.9B valuation in 2022, then two rounds of layoffs within a year.
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- Location
- Oakland, California, United States
- Country
- United States
- Founded
- c. 2015 (four years old as of January 2020)
- Co-founders
- Gary Beasley and Gregor Watson
- Business
- Online marketplace for buying and selling single-family rental homes
- Peak valuation
- $1.9B (March 2022, $240M round)
- Scale at peak
- $5B+ in transaction volume
Overview
Roofstock is an Oakland, California-based online marketplace where buyers and sellers trade single-family rental homes in dozens of U.S. markets — often with tenants still residing in them (TechCrunch). The company was founded around 2015 — it was described as “four-year-old” in January 2020 — by Gary Beasley, who serves as CEO, and Gregor Watson, its co-founder and chairman (TechCrunch; TechCrunch).
Turning occupied homes into tradable assets
Roofstock’s structural innovation was making tenant-occupied homes listable: both institutional and retail investors can buy and sell homes without forcing renters to leave, and buyers generate rental income from day one — something TechCrunch noted was “difficult to do through traditional channels” (TechCrunch). The company makes money per transaction — 2.5% from sellers and 0.5% from buyers — and layers on data tools (comparable sales, neighborhood ratings, valuation estimates built partly on CoreLogic, HouseCanary, and Zillow data) to help sellers price listings (TechCrunch).
By January 2020 the model had traction: a $50 million Series D led by SVB Capital brought total funding to $133 million, the marketplace spanned more than 70 U.S. markets with over $2 billion in transactions, and a run rate of about 500 home transactions per month (TechCrunch). Its users skewed young and new to the asset class — 75% were first-time real estate investors and more than half were under 35 (TechCrunch).
The $1.9 billion peak and the layoffs that followed
In March 2022 Roofstock raised $240 million at a $1.9 billion valuation — described by TechCrunch as an online marketplace for investing in leased single-family rental homes (TechCrunch). Within a year the cycle had turned: after a first cut of about 20% of staff, the company laid off roughly another 27% — about 140 employees — in March 2023, with Beasley saying the reduction was “in response to the challenging macro environment” and needed to “reduce cash burn rate” and preserve “adequate capital runway until the market eventually turns” (Business Standard).
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not assert a precise founding month or day — the read sources establish only that the company was four years old in January 2020. Transaction-volume figures ($2B, then $5B+) are the company’s reported numbers as covered by independent press, not audited totals. The Series E lead investor is not named, because it appears only in company-release reproductions that the no-first-party rule excludes. Roofstock’s business status after the 2023 layoffs was not verified from fully-read independent sources and is not stated.
Timeline
- 2015
- Roofstock is founded in Oakland by Gary Beasley and Gregor Watson as an online marketplace where buyers and sellers trade rental homes — often with tenants still in them.
- 2020
- Roofstock raises a $50M Series D led by SVB Capital, bringing total funding to $133M, after facilitating more than $2B in transactions across 70+ U.S. markets.
- 2022
- Roofstock raises $240M at a $1.9B valuation, having surpassed $5B in cumulative transaction volume.
- 2023
- Roofstock lays off about 27% of its workforce — roughly 140 employees — five months after a 20% cut, citing the challenging macro environment.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- The $5B transaction-volume figure came from the company's statements as reported; it is presented as reported, not independently audited.
- The Series E raise is dated March 2022 via TechCrunch's May 2022 reporting; the lead investor is named only in company-release reproductions and is not asserted here.
- Roofstock's status after the 2023 layoffs was not verified from fully-read independent sources and is not stated.
Sources
3 sources (1 tier 1, 2 tier 2), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
Built entirely from independent sources fetched and read in full: TechCrunch (tier2) for the business model, Series D, and Series E, and Business Standard via IANS (tier1) for the 2023 layoffs. No first-party sources were used, per the standing editorial rule. Wikipedia was used only as a lead index and is not cited.
- Supports: 27% layoffs (second round), earlier 20% cut, ~140 affected, Beasley's macro-environment quote, tenant-in-place premise Open original source
- Supports: Tenant-in-place model, 70+ markets, $50M Series D, $133M total raised, $2B transactions, Beasley CEO/co-founder, 2.5%/0.5% fees, user stats, top markets Open original source
- Supports: Gregor Watson as co-founder/chairman, March 2022 $240M raise at $1.9B valuation, marketplace description Open original source
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