He’s Turning Single-Family Homes Into 30%+ Cash-on-Cash Returns

From Wall Street to PadSplit

Jonah started his career in M&A at a Wall Street bank, covering data centers and telecom. From there, he jumped into crypto infrastructure and eventually stumbled into real estate through creative finance deals.

He started sourcing subject-to and seller-financed deals for investors, but noticed something strange. The best ones weren’t flipping or holding. They were converting to co-living.

As Airbnb cash flow declined and interest rates rose, these investors started earning 30 to 50 percent more rent per unit by renting by the room.

Jonah saw the trend and doubled down.

The Play: Convert Big Homes Into Co-Living Rentals, Build the Deal Flow Engine

Today, Jonah’s team has supported more than 50 investors and managed over 100 placements across markets like Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Kansas City.

He now runs two businesses:

• Co-Living Concierge: a done-for-you platform to help investors buy, convert, and manage high-yield co-living homes

• Co-Living Investor Hub: a DIY deal discovery and underwriting platform similar to AirDNA, but built for co-living

His thesis is simple. Co-living is where Airbnb was in 2015. Before the data. Before the tools. Before the flood of capital. That’s the opportunity.

Why This Works

1. The market is starving for affordable housing
A shortage of more than 5 million units has made traditional housing unaffordable. Co-living offers 30 to 50 percent cheaper rent for tenants and 15 to 30 percent higher returns for investors.

2. There’s still no Zillow for co-living
Jonah built his own dashboard to track room-level demand, occupancy, and pricing, the same way Airbnb investors use AirDNA.

3. Regulation and financing are catching up
Major cities are relaxing zoning laws. Lenders are finally underwriting co-living income using PadSplit data. It’s getting easier, not harder, to invest.

The Risks (And How He Manages Them)

Operational complexity:
Managing 8 roommates in one home isn’t easy. Jonah recommends strict rules, en-suite bathrooms, and proactive layouts to reduce friction and turnover.

Financing friction:
Until recently, most loans were underwritten as long-term rentals. Jonah now works with lenders using actual co-living data to unlock better terms.

Data blindspots:
You can’t invest in what you can’t underwrite. That’s why his team built the Co-Living Investor Hub to solve the deal discovery problem for others.

What You Can Learn (and Steal)

1. Look where others aren’t
Jonah didn’t chase Class A multifamily. He looked for underused single-family homes in low-competition markets and created outsized yield.

2. Use layout as your moat
The best operators win by design. Larger rooms, more bathrooms, and smart conversions reduce turnover and increase NOI.

3. Ride the regulatory wave
The rules are changing fast. Investors who move now, before co-living goes mainstream, will have the best assets, best teams, and best returns.

Listen to the full episode

🎙 Groundbreakers with Jonah Platovsky

In it, we cover:

• Jonah’s Wall Street to real estate journey

• The co-living opportunity (and how it compares to Airbnb)

• How he helps investors convert homes into 15 to 30 percent cash-on-cash returns

• What markets he’s betting on now

• His 5-year plan to bring 100,000 co-living units to market