Peter Lohmann's Newsletter: Breaking News Special Edition

Evernest Has Acquired Poplar Homes

Evernest acquired Poplar homes in a stock-swap deal that closed on December 20th of last year, I recently learned.

Disclosure: Poplar has previously sponsored this newsletter. I have no business affiliation with Evernest.

Matthew Whitaker, CEO of Evernest, shared with me that the transaction involved approximately 9,000 doors, bringing Evernest’s total to just shy of 23,000. Coming on the heels of their pickup of Picket Homes’ retail doors last year, this new acquisition puts them firmly among the top three largest 3rd party residential managers in the country (reliable data on unit counts is hard to find, but Evernest is very likely now the 2nd largest). They now operate in 50+ total markets.

Matthew generously agreed to a recorded interview with me to discuss the acquisition:

Alongside this deal, Evernest raised $15M in additional funding which will allow them to resume acquiring local property management companies in existing markets, continue to build out their technology platform, and invest in organic growth. Private equity group LL Funds led the round (they had also backed Poplar). “We’re back on offense… we’re buying in-market and building density”, Matthew told me.

He remains extremely bullish on the future of Evernest and their ability to deliver great results for rental owners. Matthew described for me the three things this acquisition allows Evernest to do:

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1. Reach critical density in markets. This drives profitability, better execution, and drives down the cost-to-maintain for property owners (better NOI). In-house maintenance is a key part of this.

2. Continue to develop their in-house platform, known as Open. “The tech that we are building allows us to execute really well, and then communicate really well”, he told me. My own Harris Poll survey data from late last year heavily reinforces the need for great communication with property owners—we found that speed of communication was as top-3 concern, with 92% of owners expecting a response within 1 business day max.

3. Build on the company culture that Matthew believes has been a cornerstone of Evernest’s success thus far. “It’s a hard business and we recognize it’s a hard business. That level of empathy has created a unique culture.”

Poplar Homes’ portfolio has a large proportion of subscale multifamily, a new market for Evernest—and one the company is eager to grow. Also included was Poplar’s large back-office operation in the Philippines, Unorenta Business Solutions. The name harkens back to Poplar Homes’ original name, Onerent.

Poplar had raised a total of 131.9M (ranked third on my list of VC-backed PM companies), most recently a Series B in October 2022. The amount of the sale to Evernest was not disclosed.

Chuck Hattemer, Co-founder and CMO at Poplar, will remain on.

The deal represents something of a milestone for Evernest, bringing them within a key’s-width of their long-standing corporate goal of 25k doors under management. Amazingly, this goal was set all the way back in August of 2014, Matthew told me. The deadline he gave himself to accomplish it? December 31st, 2024.

-Peter

Other Industry News & Events

• Yesterday, Obie launched PolicyProof, a tool to help property managers track their rental owners insurance (important because of the requirement that owners add their management company as “additional insured.” More on that requirement here.) We ended up building a custom solution for this in Airtable years ago, but most property managers should probably just hit the easy button and check this out.

• Last chance to register for my live process-building workshop (tomorrow) with Madeline Vinson. We’re going to rebuild a lease-renewal process in real-time for one lucky volunteer. They will walk away with functional (and possibly automated) process. I’ll be talking through it as we go, mistakes and all.

• Don’t forget to register for the national property management broker/owner conference, hosted by NARPM, coming up in March. If you own a PM company and can only make one conference this year, I recommend this one. I will be on two panels.

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The content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this newsletter. Additionally, some of the links included in this newsletter are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.