Houses on the block of S. Photo by Jeramey Jannene. All three began buying lots of Milwaukee houses in or , and they ended owning just shy of 1, homes in total. The largest, VineBrook Homes , bought over houses in Milwaukee last year, according to city property records. But all three companies mostly ceased buying houses by late , and in fact, two of the three have spent early selling houses. One of the companies, SFR3 , has made double the money it spent to buy those properties.
The other company, VineBrook, has actually lost money on these transactions. The different trajectories of these three companies give clues to their financial health, business strategy and potential consequences they may have on Milwaukee neighborhoods.
Both are private companies that raise money by selling securities to qualified investors. Over the past few years, each has bought thousands of cheap houses across cities in the Midwest and South. They mainly buy homes on the north side of the city โ either north of W.
Capitol Drive or west of N. VineBrook is much larger. At the end of , it owned about houses in Milwaukee and 27, across the country. Neither are primarily flippers; instead, they follow a buy-to-rent business model. SFR3 was more willing to flip their recent acquisitions, selling 14 in and 45 in Twenty of the houses were sold to an owner-occupier, according to transaction returns filed with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.
They only sold one of these properties to an owner-occupier. SFR3 made a profit in each comparable home sale, not counting any rehabilitation expenses. VineBrook, meanwhile, lost money on six sales. This appears to be the rare instance where two owner-occupiers made out well at the expense of a private equity firm. It appears that SFR3 is both a savvier buyer and a more patient seller than its larger rival.
