Property management firm buys Irvine-based HomeUnion

During the depths of the housing slowdown a decade ago, two Orange County entrepreneurs founded an online startup seeking to be a matchmaker for investors and rental houses.
Irvine-based HomeUnion helped mom-and-pop landlords from California, New York and elsewhere buy houses sight-unseen in cities like Atlanta, Austin and Tampa, where prices are low but rent is relatively high. Their plan was to broker deals that give investors a greater “cash-on-cash” return than they can get