Institutional SFR Tracking Expands: Three New Operators in Parcl Labs API
Executive Summary
- Parcl Labs is expanding its API true entity coverage to include three significant institutional single-family rental (SFR) operators: Vinebrook Homes (21,933 units), Maymont Homes (previously Conrex, 9,750 units), and SFR3 (8,973 units).
- Our true entity tracking capabilities, recently featured in The Wall Street Journal, link institutional owners to property-level market activity. This linkage enabled us to first identify Vinebrook's accelerated sales in 2023 through concentrated for-sale listings, demonstrating how our data can surface market-moving shifts before they become widely known.
- With these new operators now accessible via our API, we analyzed their footprints and strategies to help users understand this distinct segment of institutional SFR:
- Geographic Strategy: While traditional institutional SFR concentrates in sunbelt metros, these operators target more affordable tertiary housing markets. Ohio emerges as their epicenter, with 8,267 homes across Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton.
- Portfolio Dynamics: Higher interest rates are driving portfolio reductions in 2024. Maymont and SFR3 show year-over-year inventory declines (-19% and -8% respectively), while Vinebrook shows slight growth (+4%), partly reflecting delayed transfers from a 2021 portfolio acquisition.
- Rental Strategy: These operators' median national rents reveal distinct market positioning. For Vinebrook ($1,375) and SFR3 ($1,211), lower price points align with their workforce housing focus, sitting well below traditional institutional SFR firm Invitation Homes ($1,850). Maymont ($1,495) trends toward conventional positioning.
- Want to track these entities? Institutional operators like these players can move markets, especially in smaller cities - just look at Vinebrook's impact last year. Access our API to stay ahead.
Background
At Parcl Labs, our API tracks the complex web of investor property ownership across the US housing market. Our true owner entity tracking, recently featured in The Wall Street Journal, maps thousands of obscure LLCs to their parent companies, providing unprecedented visibility into institutional strategies.
Today, we're expanding our coverage with three new Single Family Rental (SFR) operators: Vinebrook Homes, Maymont Homes (formerly Conrex), and SFR3. These operators have developed distinct strategies from traditional institutional players like Invitation Homes and AMH. While the largest SFR operators focus predominantly on suburban sunbelt markets like Phoenix, Atlanta, and Dallas, this cohort has built significant presence in secondary and tertiary markets, particularly in metros historically overlooked by institutional capital.
The timing of this expansion is particularly relevant. After Parcl Labs first reported Vinebrook's portfolio sales amid liquidity pressures last year, market participants increasingly recognized the importance of tracking these operators' strategies. Our analysis today explores their current market positioning and operational dynamics, backed by true entity data now available through our API. For transparency, we've open-sourced the code used in this analysis, allowing users to track these dynamics in real-time.
Geographic Distribution: A Different Playbook
Traditional institutional SFR operators concentrate their portfolios in a handful of major sunbelt markets - Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Tampa, and Charlotte. Our newest additions to the API reveal a markedly different geographic strategy.
Together, these three operators control 40,656 single-family rentals nationwide: Vinebrook Homes leads with 21,933 units, followed by Maymont Homes (9,750) and SFR3 (8,973). Their footprint centers on secondary markets across the Midwest and Southeast, with particular concentration in:
- Cincinnati: 3,871 units
- Dayton: 2,603 units
- St. Louis: 2,437 units
- Columbus: 1,793 units
- Indianapolis: 1,999 units
This geographic focus mirrors their strategic emphasis on workforce housing markets, where home values and rents typically fall below institutional SFR averages. Ohio emerges as the epicenter of this strategy, where the three operators collectively control 8,267 homes across Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton - with Cincinnati alone accounting for nearly 4,000 units.
The table below represent inventory counts of the top 10 markets where all 3 of these operators have a presence.
Top 10 Markets: Shared Presence and Scale - Vinebrook, Maymont, and SFR3
Portfolio Dynamics: Recent Strategy
Higher interest rates and limited for sale inventory have constrained institutional SFR acquisitions in 2024. Our data shows this holding true for these operators, with two of the three being net disposers year-over-year. At the national level, only Vinebrook shows positive growth (+4%), while Maymont and SFR3 reduced their portfolios by 19% and 8% respectively.
National Inventory Over Time - Vinebrook, Maymont, and SFR3
However, these figures warrant important context. Vinebrook and Maymont (previously Conrex) executed a large portfolio deal in 2021. Some of these homes are only now officially transferring between LLCs, contributing to Vinebrook's apparent slight growth (+4%) and Maymont's more dramatic decline (-19%) at the aggregated level. Our API tracks these transfer types at the individual property level, providing granular visibility into portfolio reshuffling versus true market transactions. This capability allows users to include or exclude these inter-portfolio transfers in their analysis, depending on their specific use case.
Example Property Event Data: Inter-Portfolio Transfer Between Operators
This distinction between portfolio trades and market sales is important. Through our property-level tracking of for-sale listings, we can identify when operators list properties on the open market. This capability enabled us to be first to report Vinebrook's accelerated sales activity last year, where concentrated listing activity and aggressive price reductions in certain zip codes indicated motivated selling. The ability to distinguish between strategic portfolio transactions and potentially distressed sales provides critical market intelligence for investors and analysts monitoring the SFR sector.
Rent Rates: The Workforce Housing Strategy in Action
Vinebrook and SFR3's business model centers on acquiring homes at lower price points in secondary/tertiary markets, enabling them to achieve target yields while maintaining below-market rents.
National Median Rental Rates Over Time - Vinebrook, Maymont, and SFR3
To illustrate this workforce housing strategy, we include Invitation Homes as a benchmark - their national median rent of $1,850 reflects the traditional institutional SFR approach, compared to Vinebrook ($1,375) and SFR3 ($1,211). Maymont, with median rents of $1,495, has shifted toward more traditional SFR positioning.
National Current Rent Rates and YoY Changes by Market and Operator
Tracking Market Dynamics and Implementation
Just this week, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel highlighted ongoing concerns about Vinebrook's portfolio strategy and potential additional property sales. Our API's property-level transaction and listing tracking capabilities enable users to monitor these market-moving portfolio shifts in real-time - insights that are increasingly critical for understanding the impact of institutional owners on local housing markets.
The addition of these workforce housing operators enables analysis of an important segment in institutional SFR. As housing affordability challenges persist, understanding these operators' strategies becomes increasingly vital for market participants.
Ready to access the data? Access these entities through our API via:
property/searchproperty/event_history
Entity identifiers:
MAYMONT_HOMESSFR3VINEBROOK_HOMES
For implementation examples and analysis templates, refer to the Investor Analysis section of our Parcl Labs Cookbook. There you'll find sample code for tracking portfolio changes, analyzing market concentration, and monitoring operator strategies.
