It’s official: Redfin has finalized its purchase of RentPath for $608 million in cash, expanding the brokerage’s presence in the rental market.
The acquisition gives Redfin control of RentPath’s subsidiaries, including Apartment Guide, Rentals.com and Rents.com, Inman reported. Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said that listings from those platforms will appear on the brokerage’s website by 2022, according to the report. The deal closed in 42 days rather than the anticipated 90.
“[W]e can’t wait to tell RentPath’s property-management customers, who were once uncertain about the company’s future, about our big plans to double our audience of people seeking a home to rent,” Kelman said, according to Inman.
The deal will expand Redfin’s audience significantly. Its platform had 39 million average monthly visitors in 2020, while RentPath said it had 16 million monthly viewers combined.
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The deal ends an otherwise tumultuous 14 months for RentPath. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late February 2020. That same month, CoStar founder and CEO Andrew Florance announced his firm’s plan to purchase RentPath for $587.5 million. But the deal drew scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, which sued to block it late last year on the grounds of unfair competition.
In December, RentPath pulled out of the agreement, prompting a standoff between the two companies over a $60 million break-up fee. In March, a Delaware bankruptcy court ruled that CoStar would have to pay $52 million of that fee.
[Inman] — Keith Larsen