Section 8: Should I or Not??

[floogiesgirl]

Hello All,

Thinking of becoming a landlord on the Section 8 program. Any experiences with this (positve or negative) would be helpful. TIA

 

[skizzle]

Hello All,

Thinking of becoming a landlord on the Section 8 program. Any experiences with this (positve or negative) would be helpful. TIA

I think Section 8 is great for helping people get on their feet so applaud yourself for wanting to help. I would advise that you do a detailed check on anyone you would let rent from you. Not saying everyone is bad, section 8 or not, but you want to make sure your property is going to be taken care of also. You get your portion of the rent from both tenant and social services. Social services will have to inspect your property to make sure its up to their code. And, well thats about all I know with it. Good Luck with your choice.

 

[vraiblonde]

If it's a nice property, forget it. If it's a craphole, go for it.

My Dad rents a few of his properties to Section 8. The plus side is, you always get paid. The negative is, the tenant will destroy the house/apartment. The other negative is that if you need to evict them for any reason, good luck with that.

I, personally, would never subject anything I owned to a Section 8 tenant.

 

[skizzle]

If it's a nice property, forget it. If it's a craphole, go for it.

My Dad rents a few of his properties to Section 8. The plus side is, you always get paid. The negative is, the tenant will destroy the house/apartment. The other negative is that if you need to evict them for any reason, good luck with that.

I, personally, would never subject anything I owned to a Section 8 tenant.

Not all tenants are like that. I am sure with a investigative interview process, you can sort out the bad weeds.

 

[vraiblonde]

Not all tenants are like that. I am sure with a investigative interview process, you can sort out the bad weeds.

The vast majority of them are, and they're most likely a bad weed if they're getting Section 8.

Sorry. That's the way it is. My Dad has been doing this for 20 years, so I know just a smidge about it.

 

[skizzle]

The vast majority of them are, and they're most likely a bad weed if they're getting Section 8.

Sorry. That's the way it is. My Dad has been doing this for 20 years, so I know just a smidge about it.

Ok, well what about a mother who has just divorced and became a single mother? She has a job, takes care of her kids and responsibilities, but the housing market and/or apartments are just too expensive to afford. So someone like that is a bad weed in seeking assistance to help provide a home for her children? I can definitely understand people that abuse the system and there are many; however, there are many people that are actually good. Also, with anything, you always take a chance at someone tearing up your property when renting to them, section 8 or not.

 

[BadGirl]

If you do decide to rent out your property - whether it be to a Section 8 or just regular folk - make sure that you file court paperwork for Non-Payment of Rent the day after the rent is due. DO NOT WAIT. Do not give the tenants more time because "they'll have the rent to you tomorror", or because you're feeling generous.

The sooner you file paperwork, the sooner that you can evict, if necessary, and get in someone who WILL pay the rent on time.

 

[Sonsie]

If it's a nice property, forget it. If it's a craphole, go for it.

My Dad rents a few of his properties to Section 8. The plus side is, you always get paid. The negative is, the tenant will destroy the house/apartment. The other negative is that if you need to evict them for any reason, good luck with that.
I, personally, would never subject anything I owned to a Section 8 tenant.

Even non-sec 8 renters trash homes, having these shiftless bums in your property just about gaurantees you'll have to burn it to the ground to get them out and get enough money to rebuild again.

You'll get some baby momma in there with 4 kids by 3 guys who "seemed so nice" during the interview. The unsupervised kids will tear up the place while a string of druggy boyfriends and their buddies will be camping out in the place, dogs will dig up the lawn, chew up the woodwork and infest the place with fleas and it will be about impossible to evict them even after 40 visits by the cops for numerous complaints and arrests.

Also by bringing bums into the neighborhood you are actually decreasing your homes value overall in the long run.

 

[itsbob]

Not all tenants are like that. I am sure with a investigative interview process, you can sort out the bad weeds.

if you rent to Section 8, do you have a SAY who rents it??

I mean this is Maryland, I'm sure you can't deny anyone a rental because the last 6 places they were evicted from were uninhabitable.

 

[vannawhite]

I think it's easier to be a landlord when you don't have an attachment to the place. If it's your first home, grandmother's house where you spent many summers, or anything sentimental to that, it could be hard to relax with a tenant. That's something to think on too because even good tenants break things or constantly complain about things that are broken or not up to par and after a while it could become personal if you're attached to that home emotionally.

 

[jetmonkey]

pollyanna

Ok, well what about a mother who has just divorced and became a single mother? She has a job, takes care of her kids and responsibilities, but the housing market and/or apartments are just too expensive to afford. So someone like that is a bad weed in seeking assistance to help provide a home for her children? I can definitely understand people that abuse the system and there are many; however, there are many people that are actually good. Also, with anything, you always take a chance at someone tearing up your property when renting to them, section 8 or not.

 

[skizzle]

if you rent to Section 8, do you have a SAY who rents it??

I mean this is Maryland, I'm sure you can't deny anyone a rental because the last 6 places they were evicted from were uninhabitable.

If section 8 becomes involved with rental properties, it then becomes an agreement between all 3 parties, the landlord, tenant, & housing assistance. So, basically the housing authority will always know the name of the person unless they are abusing the assistance. And I am pretty sure you can deny anyone a rental. If you feel they are unfit, you don't have to let them live there. Credit checks, job references, previous rentals, and personal references can all give insights to a person.

 

[vraiblonde]

Even non-sec 8 renters trash homes,

Boy, ain't that the truth.

Nice Moms who are recently divorced and trying to get on their feet are few and far between when it comes to Section 8. Most of those people are professional welfare recipients who don't know how to act. Especially, I hate to say it, around here.

 

[skizzle]

Boy, ain't that the truth.

Nice Moms who are recently divorced and trying to get on their feet are few and far between when it comes to Section 8. Most of those people are professional welfare recipients who don't know how to act. Especially, I hate to say it, around here.

I was just going by what you said about the vast majority of them. I just know there is the good, bad and that each person/tenant should be an individual instead of being lumped up IMO.

BTW, don't you just love seeing someone waiting in line with food stamps talking on a cell with their nails done all fancy, hair done and nice clothes. If they can afford nails, they can definitely afford cheese.

 

[godsbutterfly]

My best friend's mother rented her house Section 8 by going thru the City Government. She couldn't dictate who moved in but anybody not meeting their part of the bargain (by "abusing the property") she could report to the City and they would get them out of there. That was in VA though so I'm not positive if you can do that here.

 

[skizzle]

My best friend's mother rented her house Section 8 by going thru the City Government. She couldn't dictate who moved in but anybody not meeting their part of the bargain (by "abusing the property") she could report to the City and they would get them out of there. That was in VA though so I'm not positive if you can do that here.

I am sure MD is different, at least in this county. All tenants have to apply to rentals the same way as if they weren't on section 8. They all go through the application process. The tenant initiates with the housing authority and when the waiting list is up or they are approved, the tenant will be given a voucher. They then have 60 days I believe to find a suitable rental. When they are accepted to move in, then they report that to the housing assistance to get the process moving.

 

[Mousebaby]

If it were me I sure wouldn't. One of the guys that owns a house on my street rented to section 8 and in less then a year they did 15,000.00 in damages to the house he had just gutted and remodeled. They are usually bad seeds planted in the middle of decent neighborhoods too. All of us on this street wanted that family gone so bad it wasn't funny. We were all scared to let our kids play anywhere near that house due to the constant violence that went on there. It's all up to you, but if you ask me it isn't worth it in the long run!

 

[crabcake]

If you're hard up to rent a place, try advertising it only on the base (e.g., the base housing office, base newspaper, etc.). While there's no guarantee a military person/family won't trash your house, you generally have some recourse (eg., threatening to get their commander involved if they fudge it up or don't pay rent) whereas you have a lot less with some random deadbeat or even normal tenant situation. When we rented our house in AZ for 5 years, that's what we did, and we never had a problem. The only damage was a small fire in the kitche, which the active duty tenant promptly paid to have fixed/repaired.

 

[amotley]

Hello All,

Thinking of becoming a landlord on the Section 8 program. Any experiences with this (positve or negative) would be helpful. TIA

my sister has a few section 8 rentals in st marys she gets the money on time monthly and they inspect the homes every few months the tenant has to fix certain things and the landlord has things that have to be kept up, then they come back out and check it again. she has had others and says if she does it again it will be section 8.

 

[jetmonkey]

I lived in a development that included a section 8 rental. You could tell exactly which one it was, too.