Have you ever driven through a "rough" neighborhood and wondered how the neighborhood got in such poor condition? Well, you're not alone and at PadCrush, we asked ourselves some of the same questions. After doing a deep dive into the problem we quickly discovered many reasons but decided not to focus so much on the "why" and focused more on the "how" -- as in how do we fix the problem.   

Looking at the problem as a whole can be daunting so we decided to narrow it down to two smaller parts that we decided to directly tackle:

Problem One- Abandoned & Vacant Homes. There are over 17 million vacant/abandoned homes in the US and a majority of these home are found in in these "rough" neighborhoods. Additionally many other problems stem from these vacant properties. Problems such as squatters or people with bad intent might find their way inside. Vacant homes also bring an aesthetic cost such as broken windows, garbage dumping and overgrown lawns. Vacant properties are not only seen as eyesores, they also act like a cancer to other surrounding areas. They have a devastating effect on the financial condition of the entire neighborhood. They generate no substantial revenue for the city further devaluing neighboring properties. We decided to focus on a solution that would fix up and rehab these deteriating properties and fill them with qualified renters/owners.

Problem Two- Lack of Affordable Homes. For many, owning a home represents stability and financial success. As we all know, homeownership has long been associated with the idea of the American Dream. So in a nutshell, PadCrush helps renters (who typically already live in these neighborhoods) become homeowners. We feel we can significantly turn our neighborhoods around while creating homeowners.

How do we plan to accomplish all of this?

As barriers of homeownership contiinue to be relevent, it's important for startup companies such as PadCrush to embrace new technologies to handle the increase in volume all while providing a more convenient process for customers.

At PadCrush, we are at the forefront of this growing tech trend. This means that we utilize technology to submit, process and finalize applications, all of which simplifies the process for our renters and expedites the process. Additionally, our tech helps us stay flexible and nimble whether performing a construction process, property management task or onboarding a new tenant. In other words, thanks to our technology, our tenants can be settled in their new home much sooner!

Step Two - Eliminate the difficulty in savings for a down payment.   

We let our renters move in and get ready to own it all while their rental payment has built in savings for building up their down payment. The upfront costs of purchasing a home, including down payments and closing costs are commonly rated by renters as the primary obstacle to owning their own home. At PadCrush, we pay for our tenant's future home in cash and cover the future home down payment and closing costs. We take the difficulty of saving for a down payment out of the equation. Imagine saving for a deposit all while doing what they're already doing...paying rent.

Solution Three- Clean up our neighborhoods

Hypervacancy is defined as a neighborhood that has deteriorated to the point where a given property is just as likely to be abandoned than occupied. One thing that makes PadCrush different is that we focus on neighborhoods that some might see as "rough". These neighborhoods have sufficient inventory and viable renters/potential homeowners but the barriers to homeownership has resulted in these areas continually to decline.

Solution Four - Create jobs and training

A major goal of PadCrush is not only to provide affordable homes but is to build a viable company that also offers employment to the residents of the neighborhoods we're fixing up. Our goal if to train thousands of new carpenters, electrians, plumbers, landscapers, business owners in the future years.