Padsplit pros and cons

[Travis Schmidt]

I'm a new investor looking for ways to find cash flow in this challenging market. I was recently introduced to the rent by room Medium Term Rental platform Padsplit.com. It looks like a less labor intensive way to increase cash flow over the STR route but also includes structural changes to a single family home (additional setup costs) and dealing with low income tenants. I haven't seen any posts about this option and was very curious to see if any investors would be willing to share their thoughts or experiences. Thanks in advance!

[David Edwards]

PadSplit host in Houston here and I have had a pretty good experience thus far. I would echo the statments made by others that things are more management intensive than a si gle family rental, but not 10x for intensive even though I make 10x the cashflow of a single family rental with the same financing. 

I have 3 homes up on Platform and manage another 2 homes. The homes I own total to 24 bedrooms, 8 bedrooms per home (1 master and 7 shared bath bedrooms). The ones I manage total to 20 bedrooms.

These rooms rent for between $125 to $225 per week depending on room size and amenities in the room (beyond basic amenities may include: Desk, Tv, private entry, tenant controlled AC, additional storage).

This month after padsplit takes their 14.25% cut of the revenue I am recieving, from the units I own, $15,230 from 3 homes. After all PITI, utility, and services (lawncare and cleaning) costs I have $7,225.

I set aside 25% of this for my maintenance fund.

The remainder funds my lifestyle, wife has a Tesla, and quarterly vacations as well as business growth.

In 2023 I am tracking to build 4 duplex units designed as room rentals funded in part from a recent land sale. With this I will have an additional 8 units bringing in $20k+ in after expenses revenue.