How Roofstock Manages Marketplace Liquidity Across Markets

16 Jul 2023 · 2 min

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This content was created by Max Brun. This content was uploaded by Max Brun. This is an excerpt from a YouTube video titled "How Roofstock Manages Marketplace Liquidity Across Markets" (posted 2023-07-16). The clip is a short interview/discussion between two speakers (labeled SPEAKER A and SPEAKER B) about operational strategies for managing marketplace liquidity and scale across real-estate markets. SPEAKER A asks about managing liquidity and organizational approach; SPEAKER B describes using a variable cost structure (contractors for low-volume markets), centralizing functions (leasing centralized in Dallas), virtual showings with access codes and automated texts, and outsourcing where scale is insufficient to improve efficiency and customer experience.

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So, you know, if the markets are kind of so nuanced, you know, how do you think about, you know, managing liquidity, you know, across them? And then, you know, maybe even I would say from like a kind of team and like, you know, org level kind of think about that.
So yeah, it's one of the challenges is like what we wanted to do was have broad coverage, but not all markets had a lot of liquidity. And so we had to keep our infield infrastructure very light. And so we did. In fact, we did what we chose to do was we didn't have on the marketplace side, we really didn't have infield employees. They were all contractors that we could sort of spin up and down to do inspections and, you know, drive the houses, do that kind of stuff. So I think having a really variable cost structure allowed us to be in markets where we didn't have a lot of volume. And now in the property management business, we sort of do the same thing, but we will have infield staff where we have scale and where we don't, we outsource. And so it's just a matter of, you know, you got to get to a critical mass and try to manage it as efficiently as possible. And then we also try to do things centrally where we can. For example, in our leasing, we don't have field leasing agents. They're all centralized in Dallas and all of our showings are virtual. So when residents who are renting homes that we manage go to the homes, they get a code, they could go in the home, they immediately get a text from us when they leave. We ask 'em for their feedback if they'd like to apply. And that allows us to have leasing agents be a lot more efficient. Not spend days and days driving around with people. And by the way, people don't even want to have a leasing agent with them normally. They just want to go look at houses. They sort of know what they want. And so it's a way to sort of create a lot more efficiency. And I actually think it creates a more empowered customer experience because they could just go on their own and look at what they want. So I think it's a combination of having a variable cost structure, centralizing things as much as you can, Being able to flex helps when you don't have scale in certain markets.