About Us

Letter From the Founders:

HousingPanda founders Tom and John experienced firsthand how difficult it was to get housing for summer internships. After seeing friends fall for housing scams in NYC, they decided to create HousingPanda to make the world a friendlier place for students and interns to pursue their dreams worldwide.

We are passionate about creating a great experience of our users. We continue to improve HousingPanda.com with new and innovative features that will make the subletting process far easier and safer.

Tom DeRose's first rental in NYC

Tom DeRose's first rental in NYC was a scam that cost 2 months of rent, planting the seeds for what would eventually become HousingPanda. After seeing the need for a trusted intermediary between hosts and guests, he started working on HousingPanda full time. He spends his free time reading classics, or skiing.

John Rhodes's first internship in NYC

John Rhodes' first internship in NYC involved dodging housing scammers and living in make-shift shared warehouse space in Brooklyn. After graduate school in Europe, he built and sold his first company in California and has since been working in real estate development and early stage real estate tech ventures in Austin, Texas. His other pursuits include film production and aviation.

HousingPanda exists to support the world's growing medium-term housing needs. As professional careers become more fluid, and remote and hybrid work enables more mobile careers, HousingPanda is providing medium-term housing solutions to support our increasingly global village of dreamers and doers.