Keosha

How PadSplit Helped Keosha Buy Her First Home

Keosha grew up in Ft. Lauderdale but moved around the southeast in her younger years. With nine aunts and uncles on her mother’s side, her grandparents’ home was always the gathering place for her large family.

“We celebrated everything there — birthdays, holidays, just-because dinners.” But she says after her grandfather’s death, things changed. “Because we sold the house, we just didn’t see one another as often. It was a turning point in our family.”

Keosha knew she wanted a place for her family to come together. “I wanted to set an example for my younger cousins that homeownership was possible.”

She moved to Atlanta four years ago, and although Keosha quickly found a roommate on Airbnb, she felt like an intruder living in a stranger’s home. “I wanted a bit more privacy, so I started looking for other options.”

That’s when she found PadSplit. Keosha was completing her Masters of Arts in Teaching with the hopes of one day opening a school, and with her dream in mind, she set her eyes on a new goal: buying her first home.

“I knew I would need a space to fulfill my dream, and PadSplit gives you a leg up. Finding a fully-furnished place in the city at this price point is near impossible. What you get with PadSplit — fully-furnished, all utilities, laundry — can’t be beaten. It allowed me to save money.”

Keosha moved into her third PadSplit in August — and her Host happened to be a former PadSplit Member-turned PadSplit Host: Jean.

“By the time I moved into Jean’s PadSplit, I was equipped with a vision and knew what to do: I’d fixed my credit, found a lender, and I was working two jobs to save money for a down payment. All I had to do was execute. And Jean checked in on me throughout the whole process.”

Landing in Jean’s home was serendipitous. Keosha says she’s learned more than the ins-and-outs of home-buying from Jean — they connected over their upbringings as well.

“My Host/PadMate is amazing. We’re both Haitian and have similar upbringings. We even cook the same foods. I feel like I found a friend for life.”

Keosha’s hard work and perseverance paid off. Two months later after moving into Jean’s PadSplit, she closed on her very first home and grabbed the keys to her next chapter — which happened to be a similar layout to her PadSplit with Jean.

Before Keosha moved out, Jean presented her with a wrapped gift: an inscribed book about the Haitian Revolution and a card that said ‘you go girl’.

Today, Keosha keeps the card tucked inside the book. Every time she looks at the book, she says it serves as a reminder that this new chapter was hard-earned and worth every sacrifice she made along the way.

When asked if she’d recommend PadSplit to a friend, Keosha chuckles and says, “Are you kidding? I recommended it to another friend just last week! PadSplit is a fresh start at a fraction of the cost, and it helps build a foundation for financial stability. I now truly believe that anything is possible and that PadSplit helped me in ways I could have never imagined.”

Keosha’s journey to financial independence is one we hear a lot at PadSplit. Many Members see PadSplit as a way for them to gain control in other areas of their lives. With flexible, affordable, safe housing, they can focus on writing a new story — one room at a time.