Experience or thoughts on Homeroom?
Hello Everyone,
New to BP and real estate investing. Wondering if anyone has had any experience with https://livehomeroom.com ? If so, what was your experience like? They bring co-living to the Midwest and currently focused on Dallas, Austin, and Kansas City. They find homes, sell it to the investors, set up a lease with them with a set cash flow, and then lease rooms on behalf of their investors (100% turnkey during the lease, and free property management. Of course, repairs would come out of my pocket. It's an interesting model and considering it. Would love to hear your thoughts and experience, if any, with them. Thanks in advance!
Quote from @Drew Sygit:
It's a very interesting concept to address housing shortages in specific areas.
Concerns:
- What happens when they inevitably expand too quickly?
- What due diligence is performed to make sure a market will support their co-living concept and what percent of the rental market?
- 15% management fee covers specifically what? 2x gutter cleaning, lawn/snow maintenance, etc? Can't believe they would be profitable including those!
- How does their "generous liability insurance and requiring renters insurance" specifically benefit owners?
- What exactly is their, "strict tenant screening & matching process"? Sounds great, but what's behing the curtain?
- What insurance do they have to back up their 65% gross rents guarantee for 3 years? Have NEVER seen any company deliver on rent guarantees!
Too many newbies "buy" what's being sold without reading or demanding to be given the "fine print". Makes it very easy to take advantage them:(
Hi @Drew Sygit,
My apologies - I'm a bit late to the party here but wanted to address your bullet point concerns:
-We use internal models to forecast the total tenant roommate demand per zip code - and are mindful to not oversaturate a given area. Investor returns over the long term are very important to us - and crucial to our long-term success and growth. Your success as an investor benefits us too - because happy investors buy more properties :)
-We collect monthly service fees from the tenants to cover external yard care - including lawn, gutters etc. This also includes monthly maid service.
-The liability insurance acts as a shield between owners and tenants - creating a legal barrier that doesn't typically exist in rental properties since tenant agreement with with HomeRoom and not the owner.
-We use Transunion premium for all screenings and do calls with all tenants (and they are also screened by the current roommates for fit)
-We have delivered on 100% of our guaranteed rent since inception (2018) - but we no longer offer that product to investors
We're here to help both new and experienced investors make the best single-family home investment of their lives.
Quote from @Richard Helppie-Schmieder:
@Eric Inigo I think their concept can be effective if there are enough people to fill their vacancy. As long as you are getting market rent or better and have great options to terminate contracts as needed in case they fill with bad tenants, poor management of your property, etc. it seems like a viable option for passive investing. You can most definitely make more by doing on your own, but their model of getting room mates together in a house who don't know each other seems like a management horror story to me. Do you have a specific property in mind that you own and are referring to for their services? Maybe I can add some insight if you do on the specific area and my investment strategy.
Richard how I'm curious how you would do better as I have a hard time beating their rental rates since it seems renting out to 5 small parties brings in more cash than 1 party. Are you saying if you rehab and manage the property yourself and did what they did? To me as OOS investor, it's been hard to find properties that cash flow well
Quote from @Stephen Brown:
Hello Eric. There are many teams across the midwest that do this business. I would ask the company to provide you with their buyer's contact information and see what they say. You also don't need to start off with straight turnkey companies, there are companies that will help you find properties on the MLS, fix them up and rent them out.
Hi Stephen, can you provide example of said non-TK companies that help you find properties, fix them up, and rent them out?
Quote from @Josiah Jenison:
Some good points on here. While it's true that you could do what HomeRoom does yourself, it would take a lot of time, effort and a moderate level of market by market expertise, especially if you're an out of state investor like me. I live in California so buying investment property here is pretty much out of the question right now. I have researched HomeRoom and talked with the founder Johnny a lot. The reason I am planning to invest with HomeRoom is the upside / value for the OOS investor like me. From what I can tell, they have the same/similar returns as turnkey, with a higher tenant class in better neighborhoods and almost no stresses of management. They can pay you market rents because of the co-living (renting room by room) approach. This yields upwards of 70% more than market. Of course, it may not make sense for all investors, but for an OOS investor like me who's looking for truly passive investments (or close to it) it seems like a win-win. Just my 2 cents. I'll be happy to share more from my actual experience once I get my first property with them.
Can you share your experience has been?
Quote from @Brian Siu:
As an investor in HomeRoom, it has been a poor experience. Overall, I regret my decision to invest with them as there is too much risk to the investor (down payment, rehab costs, repairs, vacancy etc.)
Their model is based on taking single family homes and rehabbing them to expand the amount of bedrooms, from say 4 to 7, then renting each bedroom out separately, thereby increasing the available rent.
You pay for the construction costs, labor, and repairs. In my example there were repairs needed and walls to be put in, smart tech, new locks etc.
Rehab cost = 45k
My PITI is $2000 @3.75% interest and estimated rental projection for 7 rooms was $3600 (~$520 per room). Homeroom has 2 payout models, on their revenue share model (85/15) takes 15%, so they estimated I would make $3000 or $1000 net gross per month. In addition, they charge each roommate $140 for utilities, maid service etc. Their guaranteed model was a 65/15 split with guaranteed payments of $2300 total per month.
As what happened with user JosephSpear, HomeRoom reduced the rents without telling me. Their projected is now $3385 gross and they have only been able to fill 5/7 rooms in 3 months, meaning I am barely breaking even, since 85% of 5 rooms (some rooms are lower rent) nets me around $2012.
Worse yet, they continue to on board new houses, currently there are 20+ houses in the Dallas market with open rooms. They have zero incentive to fill every room in a house. To them 100 houses with 1 renter each is the same as 14 full houses in terms of profit. In fact, it spreads out their risk to have more renters spread between multiple houses than concentrated in less houses. Remember, HomeRoom profits off the individual renters, construction and fees. Therefore it is in their best interest to grow as fast as possible at the detriment on investors.
Even worse, if I want to back out, I now need to pay a contractor to remove 3 walls that homeroom installed along with the fees in breaking their lease. I am essentially stuck with this company with the hope that the rooms start to fill up.
So far, I'm down the rehab cost and barely breaking even on PITI. It may be several more months before it starts to turn a profit, with full rental room estimates ($3385 - 2000 PITI) it will take 3-4 years to break even on the rehab cost.
Hi @Brian Siu
This is Johnny Wolff, CEO and founder of HomeRoom. Thank you for your honest review. I am so sorry to hear that you are having a negative experience, and I really appreciate you bringing this to my attention. Your experience with HomeRoom is something that I (and the entire team) do not take lightly, and we are extremely disappointed to have let you down. Your feedback helps us do better. We are pushing hard to make this right for you, and are actively working to improve the situation promptly and accurately. I’ve messaged you directly to set up a 1-1 conversation so that I can address all of your concerns and let you know exactly what our team is doing right now to turn your experience into a positive one. Investor and tenant satisfaction is our number one priority, and we won’t stop till you’re a happy HomeRoom investor.
Sincerely,
Johnny
Quote from @Jacky Lei:
Quote from @Richard Helppie-Schmieder:
@Eric Inigo I think their concept can be effective if there are enough people to fill their vacancy. As long as you are getting market rent or better and have great options to terminate contracts as needed in case they fill with bad tenants, poor management of your property, etc. it seems like a viable option for passive investing. You can most definitely make more by doing on your own, but their model of getting room mates together in a house who don't know each other seems like a management horror story to me. Do you have a specific property in mind that you own and are referring to for their services? Maybe I can add some insight if you do on the specific area and my investment strategy.
Richard how I'm curious how you would do better as I have a hard time beating their rental rates since it seems renting out to 5 small parties brings in more cash than 1 party. Are you saying if you rehab and manage the property yourself and did what they did? To me as OOS investor, it's been hard to find properties that cash flow well
Short-term rental would increase cash-flow for instance without the headaches. I have had the opportunity to manage properties with 5 random individuals that do no know each other, and it typically leads to disagreements in the house and people moving out early. Alot of times, the price point is at a point where the tenant pool is less than desierable. For me, I value my time and stress over a few hundred dollars a month in cash flow, because then I can focus on buying more rentals. I am sure it could work well in a student setting where everyone is attending a nearby university, but other than that, I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze.
Quote from @Richard Helppie-Schmieder:
Quote from @Jacky Lei:
Quote from @Richard Helppie-Schmieder:
@Eric Inigo I think their concept can be effective if there are enough people to fill their vacancy. As long as you are getting market rent or better and have great options to terminate contracts as needed in case they fill with bad tenants, poor management of your property, etc. it seems like a viable option for passive investing. You can most definitely make more by doing on your own, but their model of getting room mates together in a house who don't know each other seems like a management horror story to me. Do you have a specific property in mind that you own and are referring to for their services? Maybe I can add some insight if you do on the specific area and my investment strategy.
Richard how I'm curious how you would do better as I have a hard time beating their rental rates since it seems renting out to 5 small parties brings in more cash than 1 party. Are you saying if you rehab and manage the property yourself and did what they did? To me as OOS investor, it's been hard to find properties that cash flow well
Short-term rental would increase cash-flow for instance without the headaches. I have had the opportunity to manage properties with 5 random individuals that do no know each other, and it typically leads to disagreements in the house and people moving out early. Alot of times, the price point is at a point where the tenant pool is less than desierable. For me, I value my time and stress over a few hundred dollars a month in cash flow, because then I can focus on buying more rentals. I am sure it could work well in a student setting where everyone is attending a nearby university, but other than that, I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze.
Hi @Richard Helppie-Schmieder
Definitely agree - doing your own property management and renting by the room isn't for the faint of heart. I did it myself for a number of years - good rents for sure but never easy.
We have found if you buy in the right areas you can have really high-quality people renting by the room though (our average credit score was >700 for a long time).
Do think short-term rentals are equally (or more) challenging in my experience.
Regardless of the model, I think it's a great call to offload the thinking and stress by partnering with an operator who does the heavy lifting. I nearly always regret doing my own property management...its annoying to pay that $, but it's even more annoying when an AC goes out and you're using your lunch break to call every vendor in town with no luck.
-Johnny
Quote from @Josiah Jenison:Hi- did you ever wind up using them?
Some good points on here. While it's true that you could do what HomeRoom does yourself, it would take a lot of time, effort and a moderate level of market by market expertise, especially if you're an out of state investor like me. I live in California so buying investment property here is pretty much out of the question right now. I have researched HomeRoom and talked with the founder Johnny a lot. The reason I am planning to invest with HomeRoom is the upside / value for the OOS investor like me. From what I can tell, they have the same/similar returns as turnkey, with a higher tenant class in better neighborhoods and almost no stresses of management. They can pay you market rents because of the co-living (renting room by room) approach. This yields upwards of 70% more than market. Of course, it may not make sense for all investors, but for an OOS investor like me who's looking for truly passive investments (or close to it) it seems like a win-win. Just my 2 cents. I'll be happy to share more from my actual experience once I get my first property with them.
@Joseph Spear any updates on you experience with Homeroom?
Update: Since my initial post my experience with HomeRoom has improved. I was contacted several times by their management team. My main concern was how long it was taking to reach full occupancy. I expressed this concern via email and was essentially brushed off saying we have 90%+ occupancy, it will take time. It took about 5-6 months to reach full occupancy; payments are always on time. I've sent a few emails to ask for statements/updates on small repairs that have gone unanswered, so their Customer Service needs improvement.
Homeroom seems to be very astute that this model of business is being shut down by many cities, which is I suppose their biggest reason for not being downtown and instead focusing on suburbs 20-30 min. away in a different township.
Although I am finally cashflowing and have recouped the cost of the initial 5-6 months of low occupancy, my concerns regarding expensive construction/rehab still remain. 45k for rehab is ridiculously expensive. Of this 20k is furniture/smart tech upgrades eg: $540 for 15 smoke detectors, $1650 for 15 blinds not bad but $1100 for a used fridge? I can literally buy a new fridge for that price. The funny part is these are cost estimates, so if it costs less do they just pocket the difference?
It's not like bathrooms or the kitchen were completely renovated either, roof was repaired not replaced. Also, Homeroom charging lower than agreed upon rents without informing me is bad business.
I give them about a 6/10, okay but not good. They really need to work on their communication, even between departments.
I have other investments in long-term (30 day) rentals and airbnbs that generate less reliable but higher cash flow with less headache/up front costs. I would consider investing with them again but as my contract is for 3 years we'll see how things continue.
This has got to be the worst experience ever.
1. Didn’t get the room offer and still paying for the master bed room which other properties came with and still charged $890 NO BATHROOM BUT OTHERS HAD
2. Well off the bat major problems house had leak in the downstairs took 2 months to fix. Also cost me 1500.00 Er trip which they insulted me cause the dry wall got in my eyes since their idiot workers did not put plastic up, and they told me were sorry about your allergies. Not only that the two dummies who were doing the work left the house garage open all day. I personally couldnt return to lock the garage. On top of that they left the key box open and all the keys to everyone’s room were left in the open and the person who does door to door sales told us there’s lots of keys right next to the garage. Including the front door keys that no one knows who has them no joke.
3.maintenance well it took 2 months for above we going on 4 for foundations and cracks and lets not forget rain in our rooms im not joking. Each time i entered a work order oh get ready one was 308.00 charged to me. I wasn’t paying that by myself THERES 7 people in the house so when rent was due i had to dispute on top of that since it took for ever and past the 1st .additional $25 and the next day after was $5 dollars a day it took them like a week to fix. So my work orders were put in months only to find out they were cancelled so no washer, dryer, microwave or air conditioner for a month
4. Well dont argue or even blame the jerks ooooops they will send a letter that they have the right to terminate the lease cause i insulted them. Trust me they are ********
5 they say they provide maid service well add this up cause i know they def dont pay the maids this 7 tennants times 89.00 yes not kidding they also demand that you either replace the air filters for the house lolololol. 7 tenants times 20 for filter no joke 140.00 for 2 air filters so how much do they cost at Lowe’s or Home Depot hmmmm for one less than 10.00 they demand you send a pic to them of you changing them if not they send the property manager of 500 names they call her runner,maintenance person ,lock changer , key holder, put up sign person 5 min later on floor, for any of those services well thats a charge of 65.00. SINCE NO ONE IN THE HOUSE WANT TO DEAL WITH THEM THEY DONT PUT ANY WORK ORDERS IN SO EVERY MONTH IS A FIGHT AND ARGUMENT AND HARASSMENT AND THREATEN OF EVICTION
6 dealing with the ******** for a year im done . But since they hire amazing…. Impeccable maintenance personnel the first thing that happen when i moved in is fricKIN happening again no joke. THEY HIRE CHEAP CHEAP PEOPLE TO REPAIR.
DO NOT INVEST THEY WILL RUIN YOUR HOUSES TENNANTS DONT CARE IF YOU NEED PICS WELL THE SLAB OF CEMENT IN THE BACK IS WHERE THEIR CREWS THROW BUSHES SHRUBS AND SO ON. THE FUNNY THING IS THE MAINTENANCE WORKERS ARE STRAIGHT OUT OF CRAIGSLIST NOT JOKING. THIS LAST ONE LOOKS LIKE A THIEF. THEIR WORK TRUCK FALLING APART.
YOU CAN CONTACT ME AT ANY TIME TO SHOW PROOF OF EVERYTHING I SAID AS IM TRYING TO GET OUT OF MY LAST MONTH BUT THE CHARGE TO BREAK IT IS TWO MONTHS RENT. ONE OF THE PAST TENANT TOLD US AND SHOWED US A RECEIPT OF PAINTING HIS ROOM 1200.00 (WHICH WAS NEVER PAINTED)
RODOLFO SCARBOROUGH CELL 7038685312
THE HOUSE OF HORROR
302 MILTON COVE
PFLUGERVILLE ,TX 78660
Quote from @Rodolfo Scarborough:That sounds like a terrible experience but I'm not really sure what the context is.. Were you a tenant in a homeroom property? Or an investor who owned one of the houses they rehabbed and sold? Sounds like the former..
This has got to be the worst experience ever.
1. Didn’t get the room offer and still paying for the master bed room which other properties came with and still charged $890 NO BATHROOM BUT OTHERS HAD
2. Well off the bat major problems house had leak in the downstairs took 2 months to fix. Also cost me 1500.00 Er trip which they insulted me cause the dry wall got in my eyes since their idiot workers did not put plastic up, and they told me were sorry about your allergies. Not only that the two dummies who were doing the work left the house garage open all day. I personally couldnt return to lock the garage. On top of that they left the key box open and all the keys to everyone’s room were left in the open and the person who does door to door sales told us there’s lots of keys right next to the garage. Including the front door keys that no one knows who has them no joke.
3.maintenance well it took 2 months for above we going on 4 for foundations and cracks and lets not forget rain in our rooms im not joking. Each time i entered a work order oh get ready one was 308.00 charged to me. I wasn’t paying that by myself THERES 7 people in the house so when rent was due i had to dispute on top of that since it took for ever and past the 1st .additional $25 and the next day after was $5 dollars a day it took them like a week to fix. So my work orders were put in months only to find out they were cancelled so no washer, dryer, microwave or air conditioner for a month
4. Well dont argue or even blame the jerks ooooops they will send a letter that they have the right to terminate the lease cause i insulted them. Trust me they are ********
5 they say they provide maid service well add this up cause i know they def dont pay the maids this 7 tennants times 89.00 yes not kidding they also demand that you either replace the air filters for the house lolololol. 7 tenants times 20 for filter no joke 140.00 for 2 air filters so how much do they cost at Lowe’s or Home Depot hmmmm for one less than 10.00 they demand you send a pic to them of you changing them if not they send the property manager of 500 names they call her runner,maintenance person ,lock changer , key holder, put up sign person 5 min later on floor, for any of those services well thats a charge of 65.00. SINCE NO ONE IN THE HOUSE WANT TO DEAL WITH THEM THEY DONT PUT ANY WORK ORDERS IN SO EVERY MONTH IS A FIGHT AND ARGUMENT AND HARASSMENT AND THREATEN OF EVICTION
6 dealing with the ******** for a year im done . But since they hire amazing…. Impeccable maintenance personnel the first thing that happen when i moved in is fricKIN happening again no joke. THEY HIRE CHEAP CHEAP PEOPLE TO REPAIR.
DO NOT INVEST THEY WILL RUIN YOUR HOUSES TENNANTS DONT CARE IF YOU NEED PICS WELL THE SLAB OF CEMENT IN THE BACK IS WHERE THEIR CREWS THROW BUSHES SHRUBS AND SO ON. THE FUNNY THING IS THE MAINTENANCE WORKERS ARE STRAIGHT OUT OF CRAIGSLIST NOT JOKING. THIS LAST ONE LOOKS LIKE A THIEF. THEIR WORK TRUCK FALLING APART.
YOU CAN CONTACT ME AT ANY TIME TO SHOW PROOF OF EVERYTHING I SAID AS IM TRYING TO GET OUT OF MY LAST MONTH BUT THE CHARGE TO BREAK IT IS TWO MONTHS RENT. ONE OF THE PAST TENANT TOLD US AND SHOWED US A RECEIPT OF PAINTING HIS ROOM 1200.00 (WHICH WAS NEVER PAINTED)
RODOLFO SCARBOROUGH CELL 7038685312
THE HOUSE OF HORROR
302 MILTON COVE
PFLUGERVILLE ,TX 78660
Quote from @Vikram Singh:
Quote from @Rodolfo Scarborough:That sounds like a terrible experience but I'm not really sure what the context is.. Were you a tenant in a homeroom property? Or an investor who owned one of the houses they rehabbed and sold? Sounds like the former..
This has got to be the worst experience ever.
1. Didn’t get the room offer and still paying for the master bed room which other properties came with and still charged $890 NO BATHROOM BUT OTHERS HAD
2. Well off the bat major problems house had leak in the downstairs took 2 months to fix. Also cost me 1500.00 Er trip which they insulted me cause the dry wall got in my eyes since their idiot workers did not put plastic up, and they told me were sorry about your allergies. Not only that the two dummies who were doing the work left the house garage open all day. I personally couldnt return to lock the garage. On top of that they left the key box open and all the keys to everyone’s room were left in the open and the person who does door to door sales told us there’s lots of keys right next to the garage. Including the front door keys that no one knows who has them no joke.
3.maintenance well it took 2 months for above we going on 4 for foundations and cracks and lets not forget rain in our rooms im not joking. Each time i entered a work order oh get ready one was 308.00 charged to me. I wasn’t paying that by myself THERES 7 people in the house so when rent was due i had to dispute on top of that since it took for ever and past the 1st .additional $25 and the next day after was $5 dollars a day it took them like a week to fix. So my work orders were put in months only to find out they were cancelled so no washer, dryer, microwave or air conditioner for a month
4. Well dont argue or even blame the jerks ooooops they will send a letter that they have the right to terminate the lease cause i insulted them. Trust me they are ********
5 they say they provide maid service well add this up cause i know they def dont pay the maids this 7 tennants times 89.00 yes not kidding they also demand that you either replace the air filters for the house lolololol. 7 tenants times 20 for filter no joke 140.00 for 2 air filters so how much do they cost at Lowe’s or Home Depot hmmmm for one less than 10.00 they demand you send a pic to them of you changing them if not they send the property manager of 500 names they call her runner,maintenance person ,lock changer , key holder, put up sign person 5 min later on floor, for any of those services well thats a charge of 65.00. SINCE NO ONE IN THE HOUSE WANT TO DEAL WITH THEM THEY DONT PUT ANY WORK ORDERS IN SO EVERY MONTH IS A FIGHT AND ARGUMENT AND HARASSMENT AND THREATEN OF EVICTION
6 dealing with the ******** for a year im done . But since they hire amazing…. Impeccable maintenance personnel the first thing that happen when i moved in is fricKIN happening again no joke. THEY HIRE CHEAP CHEAP PEOPLE TO REPAIR.
DO NOT INVEST THEY WILL RUIN YOUR HOUSES TENNANTS DONT CARE IF YOU NEED PICS WELL THE SLAB OF CEMENT IN THE BACK IS WHERE THEIR CREWS THROW BUSHES SHRUBS AND SO ON. THE FUNNY THING IS THE MAINTENANCE WORKERS ARE STRAIGHT OUT OF CRAIGSLIST NOT JOKING. THIS LAST ONE LOOKS LIKE A THIEF. THEIR WORK TRUCK FALLING APART.
YOU CAN CONTACT ME AT ANY TIME TO SHOW PROOF OF EVERYTHING I SAID AS IM TRYING TO GET OUT OF MY LAST MONTH BUT THE CHARGE TO BREAK IT IS TWO MONTHS RENT. ONE OF THE PAST TENANT TOLD US AND SHOWED US A RECEIPT OF PAINTING HIS ROOM 1200.00 (WHICH WAS NEVER PAINTED)
RODOLFO SCARBOROUGH CELL 7038685312
THE HOUSE OF HORROR
302 MILTON COVE
PFLUGERVILLE ,TX 78660
This is 100% a tenant
I'm Johnny, CEO of HomeRoom. I just recently saw this post and wanted to say that on behalf of HomeRoom, we're sorry you didn't have a better experience during your stay with us. As the founder of HomeRoom, I can't even tell you how many days and nights I've spent trying to develop the optimal experience for our roommates. HomeRoom roommates are the people who allow me and my team to show up to work every day and without our roommates, we wouldn't be able to keep the lights on.
Indeed, keeping the lights on is a big job, given that we are responsible for the well-being of over 1,600 roommates on a daily basis!
We get this right far, far more than we fall short.
In regards to your review, I dug into particulars and of course, there are three sides to every story. It seems like there were missed opportunities where we could have done better here. Without diminishing your experience, perhaps we all could have been more solution-oriented. Roommate living is exponentially more complex than living alone, and for it to be a success, everyone needs to be on the same team.
One thing I've learned from doing this roommate living thing for over 6 years is that not everyone is right for this type of living experience. That's no one's fault. But the sooner we recognize that the better it is for everyone involved. It's why I empower the HomeRoom team to offer a cash-for-keys program (at no cost to owners) that helps roommates who are not fit for roommate living to transition to an alternative living arrangement that's better for them.
I'd like to make it known here that in this instance we offered cash-for-keys three different times, and the offer was repeatedly turned down.
I wish you had a better experience at HomeRoom and I truly wish you the best of luck in the future.
-Johnny
Johnny I would like to thank you for your response, just knowing that complaints get addressed and try to get resolved make me feel better about my investment.
Hi @Brian Siu
This is Johnny, I'm the CEO and Founder of HomeRoom. I'm happy to hear that you're interested in purchasing a second property!
I look at every single review on here to make sure our owners feel like we are living up to the expectations we set in the beginning.
In general, HomeRoom owners are happy owners. I know that from the dozens of positive posts on here and from talking to owners regularly. When someone is less than satisfied, my team and I use it as a learning opportunity in order to improve the experience of all owners.
For example, we no longer offer used refrigerators, because we are now able to provide quality new refrigerators with a year-warranty for a similar price. Some of this is just due to scale and the fact that we can now demand better pricing from our vendors.
I've reached out several times and would love the opportunity to connect and learn more about how we can improve your experience and that of other owners.
-Johnny
Quote from @Frank Salgado:
Johnny I would like to thank you for your response, just knowing that complaints get addressed and try to get resolved make me feel better about my investment.
Hi @Frank Salgado
Appreciate the kind feedback. The team and I are working around the clock to continuously improve the experience for both our tenants and our owners. When you've housed thousands of people things do go wrong, but looking at those challenging occurrences, learning from them, and improving, is something we're committed to.Thanks again, and if you have any questions or issues please feel free to reach out directly.
I have been a HomeRoom investor for two years and I can honestly say that their team is top notch. I have several other properties with different property managers and no team has been more involved and helpful as the HomeRoom team.
One of their
differentiating attributes is that they will work with you to determine how to
best handle your property. The property I purchased was having some capital
expenditure issues (not HomeRoom's fault at all) and the team did a phenomenal
job helping me navigate through it.
Also, whenever I
have had an issue with how things are handled, they are responsive and
attentive to my concerns. Johnny and the team he has hired have done a great
job establishing a culture of teaming up with their investors.
@Johnny Wolff
I have owned a Homeroom house in the KC area for almost 2 years now and have had repeated issues with vacancy, I am averaging 70% occupancy at best over the past two years, and that is with significantly reduced rents from what I was initially told. I have negative cash flow for both YTD and all time, negative return for this year and a just barely positive return last year. I think I have paid my full mortgage with the money paid out by Homeroom twice in total, every other month I have to pay out of pocket.
Similarly to another poster I had both the laundry machines provided by Homeroom break on me, then on the second one when I asked why they both broke so quickly they indignantly replied that it's 12 years old you know, these things usually only last for 5 years or so, meaning that Homeroom sold me an 11 year old washing machine and then blamed me for that. I have been charged twice for the same repair, had repairs done that I did not authorize, had them fail to actually do repairs I did authorize in a timely manner and then blame me for it, had people just forget to respond to me, all kinds of problems.
No one has been able to provide a solution so far other than repeatedly suggesting I rent as a SFH which will not cover my mortgage never mind all the costly repairs I have had (which I have told them multiple times), to sell it and take a significant up front loss since I spent $23000 renovating for Homeroom, or that I take over management myself, which is a nonsensical suggestion because they know I live out of state.
This is very frustrating because Homeroom has made every decision and yet keeps trying to tell me I am responsible for the losses and I need to be the one to come up with a plan when I have no real control over anything, I did not select this house or do the estimates. This is my first real estate investment and I went with Homeroom because it was supposed to be an all in one, passive solution but it has been anything but that for me. I am so disappointed with what has been happening and I don't feel that my concerns have been taken seriously, it often takes more than a week to get a response to an email and nothing has improved this entire year, despite repeatedly telling me it would get better I am currently 50% vacant.
Can you help me?
I've had a rough time with Homeroom, to be honest. It's been more than two years, and it's just been a headache. I'm gonna dig through all the numbers and a ton of emails, and I'll post a detailed rundown later. But for now, I'd say keep away from them.
I feel bad too, because I got a colleague involved with Homeroom. I really wish I hadn't.
Quote from @Avinash Venna:
I've had a rough time with Homeroom, to be honest. It's been more than two years, and it's just been a headache. I'm gonna dig through all the numbers and a ton of emails, and I'll post a detailed rundown later. But for now, I'd say keep away from them.
I feel bad too, because I got a colleague involved with Homeroom. I really wish I hadn't.
Sorry to hear that. So far I'm glad I haven't invested with them. Would you mind sharing a more detailed rundown?