Scholastic Capital uses BoomScreen to increase leasing velocity and move families into the best school districts
This case study is based on an interview with Sean O'Dowd, Managing Partner at Scholastic Capital. All quotes are attributed to him unless stated otherwise.
Scholastic Capital at a glance
Key Points:
- Single-family homes across the ~500 elite school districts in the country
- Long-term leases (3+ years) at a premium
- Asset type: single-family rentals
- Private equity fund model with a fiduciary duty to investors
- Uses BoomScreen, with bank-linked income verification
Company: Scholastic Capital is a private equity fund that invests in single-family homes in elite school districts and rents them to families on 3+ year leases.
Asset type: Single-family rentals
BoomScreen user since: May 2024
About Scholastic Capital
Before Sean O'Dowd founded Scholastic Capital, he and his wife began buying homes in neighborhoods with 90%+ owner-occupancy rates and excellent academic appeal.
"The idea is simple — we buy homes in really high-end school districts, and then we rent them to tenants on long-term leases for a premium."
After a couple of years putting the thesis to the test, it was validated, and Sean began receiving inbound interest from prospective investors. Now, as a private equity fund, Scholastic Capital is on a mission to deliver worthwhile returns for their investors — which makes getting screening right a fiduciary responsibility.
Protecting their investors' years
"It takes the average person years of their life to work and save enough money to invest in Scholastic. If we lose our investors' money, we're losing them years of their life they spent making it. If we rent a home to a tenant who stops paying rent, trashes the place, whatever it might be, that's us losing their years. And the fact that Boom is, at least from my view, top of the line in tenant screening, it's a no-brainer to work with the software that's going to protect our investors' years."
The fund's investment strategy, in Sean's own words:
- Focus on one zip code only
- Ensure that zip code has a great high school
- Buy single-family homes
- Put it on the market the day you buy it
- Lease it for 3+ years
- Repeat
"One of the biggest advantages of BoomScreen is being able to view in-progress applications. If I see that an applicant has completed the income verification portion and has met our criteria, I can start prepping the lease. It allows us to get leases out much faster."
Screening that had to be thorough, trustworthy, and adaptable
Due to their niche market, the majority of screenings happen during the summer as families transition to new homes ahead of the school year. That limited window means high leasing velocity is essential to move families in swiftly. To expedite approvals, Scholastic's screening process needed to be thorough, trustworthy, and adaptable — all solved through BoomScreen's bank linking for income verification.
"The fact that Boom has bank linking made it a no-brainer to move forward. It gives a really strong level of conviction to what the actual income level truly is."
The advantages of BoomScreen's income verification
No more pay stubs required
"Fake pay stubs are increasingly a problem."
With BoomScreen, property managers don't have to rely on physical documents to verify income — applicants can connect their bank, link their payroll provider, or upload documents for parsing and verification directly within the application workflow.
A more accurate financial picture
"We have tenants who are landlords themselves. One of our tenants works full time at a hospital, gets a monthly pension from the government, and owns property. Other screening providers wouldn't give us visibility into their income outside of their full-time role."
Time saved by eliminating manual workflows
Before BoomScreen, the Scholastic team spent extra time on due diligence — a half hour per application — to confirm income.
"Because of our tenant base, they tend to have high-end white-collar jobs. Previously, we would Google their name, find their title on LinkedIn, and look up the salary on Glassdoor."
Pricing was a big differentiating factor
After narrowing their options to two potential providers, the decision to proceed with Boom was validated by the difference in cost.
"The other screening provider's pricing was nuts. Their argument was that if it prevents one eviction, it pays for itself, but it didn't feel like a responsible use of my investors' capital."
A fast, intuitive setup
Quick setup and onboarding
"It was really fast. Setup probably took an hour or so, and each new property only takes about three minutes to set live."
Team reachability
"The Boom team has been great — we're all in a Slack channel together, which is extremely helpful. In the few instances we've seen something weird, I can shoot the team a message and get an answer back almost immediately."
Simple user experience
"We brought someone in mid-summer to help with our leasing workflow and didn't have time to train her. We threw her in and she figured out Boom by herself in no time whatsoever."
Residents have noticed the increase in leasing velocity
BoomScreen returns screening results in record time, so property managers can make decisions quickly. For Scholastic Capital's residents, the turnaround has been noticeable.
"Tenants actually really like this. We've been able to say, 'Take 15–20 minutes to complete the application, and we can have a lease out to you tonight.' Our tenants want to move fast, so their response is, 'Wow, that's fantastic.' In some cases, we're able to get a lease signed within six hours of them seeing the home for the first time."
The results
Since adopting BoomScreen, Scholastic Capital has sped up leasing while protecting investor capital:
- Leases out in hours, not days — in some cases signed within six hours of a first showing
- Bank-linked income verification that gives real conviction in an applicant's true income
- Visibility into in-progress applications so the team can start prepping leases early
- A more complete financial picture for tenants with non-traditional income
- ~30 minutes saved per application by eliminating manual income research
- Responsible cost versus higher-priced competitors
- Fast, ~3-minute new-property setup and near-instant team support
About Scholastic Capital
Scholastic Capital was founded by Sean O'Dowd. The private equity fund invests in single-family homes in elite school districts and rents them to families on 3+ year leases. Geographic selection is critical to finding homes with the highest premium value — Scholastic Capital evaluates the ~500 elite school districts in the country alongside key metrics (owner-occupancy rates, rental application activity, and more) to determine the best homes for investment.
About Boom
Boom is the financial services infrastructure powering modern rental operations. Boom provides property managers across multifamily, single-family, and manufactured housing with BoomScreen (configurable tenant screening and underwriting with fraud detection and income verification) and BoomReport (automated rent reporting to all three credit bureaus). The Boom Platform integrates with major property management systems to help reduce fraud, increase leasing velocity, drive on-time payments, and grow revenue, while serving renters through the Boom App to build credit and improve financial health.
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