The parent company of realtor.com announced Tuesday it is going to take a bigger role in the rental market with the acquisition of Avail, a company that helps landlords across the country manage their rental properties.
Avail supports landlords by assisting them to create and market rental listings, screen applicants, process payments, track maintenance requests and more. It also helps renters complete rental applications, sign leases, pay rent and submit maintenance requests.
“This acquisition is a key part of our strategy to make finding a home easier and more rewarding,” said David Doctorow, CEO of realtor.com. “We believe that Avail is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of the DIY landlords and tenants in a large, growing and underserved market. By combining Avail’s rentals listing content and easy-to-use tools with realtor.com’s large audience, consumer experience platform and insights, we believe we can deliver more value to DIY landlords and tenants.”
Terms of the deal between Move, Inc. – which operates realtor.com, and Avail were not released. Avail CEO Ryan Coon, co-founder Laurence Jankelow and the company’s 30 person team will join Move, Inc.
“We are excited about joining the team at realtor.com and see this acquisition as a tremendous opportunity for our customers,” Coon said. “Leveraging realtor.com’s industry expertise and scale will allow us to expand our platform capabilities and offerings so we can continue to deliver high-quality services, tools and education to even more landlords and tenants.”