[5] Between 2010 and 2011, it bought 1,000 distressed houses in Phoenix, Arizona, a city heavily impacted by foreclosures caused by the subprime mortgage crisis[2] and one of the first areas where private equity investor purchases of homes for rent took place after the Great Recession.

[9] In 2013, Invitation Homes created an asset class of single-family rental securities (SFR) to raise money for purchasing and restoring houses.

[9] The decision received criticism from more than 25 affordable-housing advocate groups, who believed Fannie Mae wasn't following its principle of protecting home owners.

[14] Wall Street companies in the rent industry, especially Invitation Homes, have garnered strong backlash from real estate experts and affordable-housing activists for taking advantage of tenants to fulfill investors' pockets; the primary argument is that the corporations are incentivized to keep repair costs low and fees and rent prices high in order to increase bond sales that determine their scale.

[9] Complaints and horror stories from Invitation Homes' customers have been covered on publications and news stations such as WGCL-TV,[17] CBS Sacramento,[18] The Arizona Republic,[6] and WTVF.

[19] Mold, sewage, and water leakage;[9] nails poking out;[18] infestation of vermin such as spiders, cockroaches, and ants;[9] broken appliances such as garage doors, heating systems, stoves, and microwaves;[9] and unfulfilled repair requests are frequent issues.

[9] There have been three protests at Blackstone's California offices by Invitation Homes tenants organized by ACCE, such as one in October 2017 at Blackstone's Santa Monica headquarters, which involved the tenants placing letters on the desks to hold a meeting with the corporation's executives and stop practices of excessive rent prices, fees, and poor maintenance; the company never got back to them.

[6] In May 2018, tenants filed a class action against the corporation in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, with a rationale of excessive rent price increases and fees; they reported being charged $95 if even a minute late on a rent payment, regardless if the company's online payment system is broken, and filing eviction notices that added more "unfair" legal costs, fees, and penalties for them to bear.

[9] Staff of Invitation Homes has responded to the criticisms, including chief operating officer Charles Young who in July 2018 stated the company had an average rating of 4.32 stars out of five from tenant surveys it ran.