Fernando & Amaris Corona

Three years ago, Fernando and his wife, Amaris, decided they wanted to get into real estate investing. They had friends who tried AirBnb and were seeing healthy returns, but the Coronas didn’t love how much ongoing work was required to be successful AirBnb property owners.

“Our friends were doing really well with their AirBnb properties, but they also had to put a lot into it, with constant turnover and guest communication,” said Fernando.

They studied the various asset opportunities within real estate and ran multiple deal flow models. As investors, of course they desired a healthy return, but they also wanted an approach that would enable them to be more hands-off. Because they lived in California, where real estate is far more expensive, they wanted to purchase a property out of state.

They began working with an agent in metro Atlanta and learned about PadSplit through him. When they dove into the financial and property management aspects of PadSplit’s model, they were sold on the idea.

Fernando and Amaris purchased their first home in 2020. It underwent two months of rehab and went live in March of 2021.

PadSplit exceeded all of their expectations

As first-time real estate investors, the Coronas planned to give the experience 6-7 months to see how it would work out. This time period was the height of Covid, so they expected that it may require more of their time than they had originally bargained for and feared the possibility of multiple evictions.

But several months in, PadSplit was exceeding their expectations, in every way.

The property saw strong monthly returns, with little turnover. (PadSplit members have an average tenure of 8-9 months). The Coronas worked with a local property manager, who handled any issues that would arise. But the truth was that there were very few hiccups along the way. Their first PadSplit home was a big success, enabling them to take a hands-off approach while delivering positive cash flow.

Furthemore, the Coronas felt PadSplit enabled them to become “activist entrepreneurs” – a byproduct they didn’t expect to achieve as they gained more financial freedom through investing.

“The affordable housing crisis is a huge problem,” said Fernando. “People don’t have enough options, and many of today’s policies don’t make it any easier to create affordable options for people who need a quality place to live.”

PadSplit talks about these barriers to impact often, Fernando notes. He’s particularly fond of this article from PadSplit’s founder outlining how many legal minds believe that restrictions limiting how many unrelated people can live together should be unconstitutional.

“A lot of these regulations, they just don’t make any sense,” adds Fernando. “We love that we can make a social impact while generating strong returns.”

From one PadSplit home to four, even with market headwinds

Like the vast majority of PadSplit Hosts, the Coronas decided to purchase more homes to grow their inventory on the marketplace.

Fernando and Amaris purchased three other homes in 2021, one that went live earlier this year and cash flows well and the other two they plan to list through PadSplit, once renovations are complete.

Even with higher borrowing rates, more expensive down payment costs and the resulting increases in taxes and interest payments, the deals will still generate strong monthly returns.

“There are a lot of market headwinds occurring right now, but PadSplit’s financials still make sense.”

The Coronas are also active about sharing their experience – the opportunities and the risks – with others.

“We’ve told others in the real estate community about our experience with PadSplit,” says Fernando. It’s important to us that we share about every detail, from the financials to the positive social impact. I’m also really up front about the risks and how PadSplit is a new company in uncharted territory.”

“PadSplit has been very supportive throughout our experience,” adds Amaris. “We appreciate how they’re advocating for us as hosts and that they advocate for our members. We truly believe that affordable housing options like PadSplit are the future.”