Categories
Fintech Lifestyle

Think Twice Before Using PadSplit

For over a year, I was a dedicated host on PadSplit, excited about the company’s promise as a competitor to Airbnb for affordable housing. However, my experience took a drastic turn when PadSplit abruptly canceled all stays for the 17 residents living in my properties—without warning. Not only did this leave me without rental income, but they also unfairly charged all the residents cancellation fees in the hundreds of dollars, even though the app forced them to cancel.

If you’re considering buying property to list on PadSplit, be warned: you could receive a sudden termination notice like this one at any moment, with no recourse options.

Sudden Cancellations & Unfair Fees

The guest whose complaint (about her lock not working and her unit being smaller than expected) allegedly triggered these mass cancellations retracted their statement and even left a five-star review. In fact, all 19 residents wanted to stay. To make things right, I personally reimbursed them for the unfair cancellation fees that PadSplit imposed upon forcing them to cancel their stays and leaving them without a home.

This situation made me rethink my entire relationship with the platform. Initially, I was enthusiastic and even hired an architect to design new home builds specifically for PadSplit. But that vision quickly crumbled when I realized that PadSplit’s priorities were not aligned with mine.

Host Pressures & Questionable Policies

The real reason PadSplit cut ties with me was that I was slow to bring my long-term tenants onto the platform. At first, they agreed that my existing tenants—who had been renting adjacent properties for years—could be grandfathered in, since they were on fixed incomes from Social Security and could not afford PadSplit’s additional fees. But as time went on, PadSplit pressured me to convert every resident to their system.

This led me to ask a critical question: besides bringing me tenants, what does PadSplit actually do for me?

No Protection for Hosts

One of the biggest issues with PadSplit is the lack of security for hosts. When a guest destroyed one of my units, PadSplit told me I was on my own unless the tenant decided to pay for the damages. They provide no insurance, no deposit protections, and no real recourse for hosts dealing with destructive or non-paying tenants.

To make matters worse, the quality of tenants on the platform has declined over time. PadSplit claims they want all tenants under their umbrella for liability and screening purposes, but in reality, they do little to screen their members. The last tenant they sent me turned out to be a crazy rapist—who first hinted at it by discussing rape in writing as if he were the victim. Then I background checked him. His messages were highly concerning to my property manager, who was a survivor herself.

He sent these texts on his first day:



And finally, at the time of my ejection from the platform, I was in the process of formally evicting FOUR former Padsplit guests whom Padsplit “terminated” effectively washing their hands of the nonpaying tenant problem.

So…What are you paying Padsplit for?

The One Benefit of PadSplit

If there’s one positive aspect of the platform, it’s that they report to credit bureaus when guests fail to pay rent. This means that non-paying tenants eventually see their credit scores drop until they settle their debts. However, this single benefit does not outweigh the risks and mismanagement issues that hosts face.

Final Thoughts

PadSplit is a great concept but suffers from poor execution. The platform fails to support its hosts, lacks proper tenant screening, and does not provide financial security. While I once envisioned expanding my business with PadSplit, I now strongly caution others against relying on them for rental income.

Dealing with housing the lowest-income segment of Americans is not an easy task. They come with drama, criminal records, and financial challenges, all of which make them a huge legal liability for platforms like Padsplit and Airbnb.

You also cannot control how roommates behave. If one roommate fights another, it now becomes a complaint against the host or a lawsuit against Padsplit. Too much liability!

Its an evolving company and I do believe the staff care. They just don’t have the processes in place to handle all the different scenarios that can happen or qualify the legitimacy and biases in negative feedback because of the constant threat of litigation in an industry like housing.

Ultimately — I blame the lawyers.

Still, if you are going to have a business in this arena, then you need to find a way to protect your hosts and also treat your guests like humans.

I sincerely hope that PadSplit improves its operations and starts valuing the hosts who make their business possible. Until then, I urge landlords to think twice before committing their properties to this platform.

  • Mark, 13 year affordable housing provider
Categories
Fintech Lifestyle

El PuertoGringo

Experience-based advice on navigating the island of riches

You have landed in San Juan, with a suitcase (okay, BlockWallet) full of money. You smell the opportunity in the humid air entering through the doors. Scenic houses, perfect beaches and exotic people from all over. A 6 month vacation, financially justified by the dramatic savings in federal income tax.

Mountains and warm beaches in the New York time zone? Unheard of.

But wait… do you know how where to find that property, or a realtor competent enough to sell it to you? Do you know where to get a car? Can you feed yourself? If this is your first time at SJU, chances are you won’t be getting out of the airport without some knowhow and a PCR test.

Guess what:

You cannot buy ANY food after 8pm (9 in San Juan), the rental car outlets have week stretches without a single available vehicle, realtors exist only for the seller, Zillow information is worthless, and spoiler alert, that bribery thing that got you by in Mexico won’t work here. Oh and keep your mask handy because they have a stronger than expected stigma about that.

None of these things stopped me from falling in love with the California-ish west coast including Rincon, the New Orleans-ish southern coastal city of Ponce (pronounced pon-si), the beautiful and untouched mountains near Utado, or the up-and-coming east coast from San Juan to Luquillo to Las Palmas. YES, there is more here than Dorado! It is basically a micro-mainland in terms of locale-culture.

NOLA? NO, PR

Lets cover a few quick things:

For real estate, follow Diane Cohn. Her article is 7 years old as of this writing but is still right on. Things do not change quickly in the tropics.

For taxation, make sure you know what you stand to gain by making the move. You will need to spend 5 months and 1 day on-island, and a maximum of 1 additional month internationally, plus buy a property within 2 years to take advantage of ACT-22.

In my case, any capital gains would now be taxed at a total-tax rate of 4% and income would be taxed at a new total-tax rate of 14%. Not bad! But again, unless you are a very stealthy sailor, you will be on that island for a minimum of 5 months kicking it with Jake Paul, Joel Comm and the other self-exiled millionaires.

Every day is a Luquillo Saturday for Joel and Travis, co-hosts of BadCrypto

Where are things going?

My guess is that tourist attractions and entertainment will develop in the mountains and cities like Ponce. Many people will want entertainment and supply will rise to meet the occasion.

Real estate will become more scarce as there isn’t any construction happening right now.

Then again, the potential for PR to become a state in a few years does put a pivot risk on the tax situation, so be ever agile and let your life plans never be so concrete as an island casa.

More coming soon!

Categories
Fintech

What Ethereum Contract will you write?

Migrating Solidity files on Truffle is difficult without knowledge of Java but it is possible.

Ethereum code is all hexidecimal so to write contracts within the Eth framework, one must use a compiler language, one such called solidity, a language similar to Java.

To be continued.

Categories
Fintech

Of choices of go to doomsday securities, gold is short sighted.

During the election, the ASX and Nikkei dropped (particularly in exporting firm shares) as Trump’s victory came closer, but the post election trading is even more interesting. Gold prices following the 2016 presidential election dropped, meanwhile the DIA has been actively climbing, also firearm producers took a dive and private prisons (CMX)  are up 6%. Meanwhile, Cleartrade housing commodity futures still have no volume and certain side-market marijuana stocks are stalling, such as VAPE.

Also, @JoshHealey tells me trade kings is doing a special on commissions for any new buyers so look for that.

That is all!

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