<p>I put my 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house up for rent. Many applications for Sec. 8 tenants and many regulars.</p>
<p>Want your inputs for your experiences in Sec. 8 tenants. I have not had any Sec. 8 tenants before. Always rented to corporate types.</p>
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<p>If you decide to go Sec. 8 route you are in for a big change. </p>
<p>I am speaking from experience.</p>
<p>If this is a 4 bedroom house, it means this will be a family with many children (at least 4 to qualify for a 4 bedroom voucher). The kids most likely will not be closely supervised resulting in walls being used as a coloring board, things being thrown in a toilet, refrigerator shelves being broken and handles being torn of the doors. I can go on and on. These are the things I noticed consistently with my Section 8 renters with big families. </p>
<p>If you had a one-bedroom apartment and could get an older person/couple with Sec. 8 to rent, that would be different. But Sec. 8 families with many kids are very tough on the house.</p>
<p>The benefit of section 8 is that you are guaranteed rent payment by the government. That’s pretty much the only benefit.</p>
<p>The type of people on Section 8 are often a single mother with kids (likely from different fathers). The kids are poorly supervised and write on walks. You should make sure the lease has the name of every occupant you allow. After the lease is signed you should not be surprised to see others living in the house but assuring you that they don’t live there and are just staying for a few nights. After they move out, you will likely have to devote most of the deposit to fixing the house. Don’t expect any help from the government. </p>
<p>In short, chose you section 8 tenants wisely but remember housing laws benefit section 8 renters and if you take any action resembling discrimination, you will be in for a major legal hassle. </p>
<p>There are many landlords who have wonderful section 8 tenants, but they are hard to find.</p>
<p>And, yes, even if you avoid section 8 tenants, you may get a terrible tenant who tears up the house and does not pay the rent on time. </p>
<p>The best way to select tenants is to look at credit reports and obtain references from prior rentals if you can get them.</p>
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<p>If I reject all sect 8, is that discriminatory?</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be discriminatory to reject all section 8. In order to accept section 8, then you have to pass an inspection by a state inspector. All you have to say to section 8 applicants is that you can not accept section 8 at this time because you have not passed the inspection. Make it about you, not about them. They don’t have to know that you never called and asked for the inspector to come…</p>
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<p>How can they move out? Can you initiate the repossession, like end of lease and no renewal? 90 days notice? 30 day notice? Or can I sell the house in the lease?</p>
<p>Lets see, even if section 8 will guarantee rent, after they moved out if I have to repaint inside and out, buy all appliances and replace the flooring it will cost me more than $7000, that is about $600/mo on a yearly lease, I think it is not worth to get section 8 tenant. </p>
<p>How does everyone else justify a section 8 tenant?</p>
<p>My landlord clients rent section 8 because the payment is guaranteed. I’m also a landlord and would consider section 8, but haven’t done so yet (14 years). As I’ve mentioned in other threads, housing is very cheap in my locale. If a person is renting, there’s a reason why. A large majority of rental tenants here are accurately depicted by razorsharp. So…if that’s how tenants are, landlords figure they might as well get the guaranteed payment. Some pretty horrifying stories of the condition in which the house is left though.</p>
<p>I’ve also had some very demanding prospective sec. 8 tenants. They don’t want to make a down payment, want the utilities in landlord name, don’t want a credit check, don’t want a lease, etc. Ummm, just no. I’ll admit I’ve known more than a few able bodied 20-40 year olds on housing with this attitude and it fries my cookies. I think lerkin is right. OP will notice a big change if he is changing from corporate types. </p>
<p>Artloversplus–you won’t just be painting inside. You may very well also be repairing walls and doors. Kids, especially unsupervised ones, are soooo hard on a house.</p>
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<p>They move out the same way other tenants move out - according to their lease.</p>
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<p>No, participation in this program is voluntary. You don’t have to justify why you don’t want to participate in the program.</p>
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<p>I was referring to discrimination such as race, origin, gender, etc.</p>
<p>As a general rule landlords can discriminate against all section 8 renters by not renting to them. But it varies by state. Some states prohibit discrimination against renters who have section 8 vouchers. The best way to get rid of undesirable tenants is a credit check. Odds are that a section 8 renter will have little credit history of bad credit history.</p>
<p>With the above discussions, I think I will keep it with non-section 8 tenants. With one exception, I had good luck renting to the corporate types. Funny thing is that most of my rentals are in more expensive neighborhood and perhaps the high rent prevented section 8 tenants calling.</p>
<p>The current subject house has a lower rent, since it is close to Face Book, I hope to attract some FB employees by reduce the rent. Between FB employees and Section 8, the choice is clear.</p>
<p>^^ I can see why my other rentals did not receive any section 8 calls, the subject rental did. Because I was over the FMR limits in the other rentals and is just under the FMR for the subject unit.</p>
<p>[FY</a> $fmrtype$ Fair Market Rents Documentation System — Select Geography](<a href=“http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/FY2014_code/select_Geography.odn]FY”>http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/FY2014_code/select_Geography.odn)</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>And now you know how to avoid Sec. 8 renters without any questions asked.</p>
<p>^^ I have enough prospective regular renters at the asking price, I don’t need any sect. 8. The first person looked at it wants to move in already. I was going to rent to my cousin for $1000 less, if I cannot find good renters.</p>
<p>As personal representative for an estate that owned a dozen rental houses or condos, I ended up managing several with Section 8 tenants, and taking on some new S8 tenants during the several years we had the properties. Most of our experiences were fine – I found nothing wrong with renting to moms with kids (a few of our units were houses like you describe your property). Only had one that was an issue. The inspections are quite picky – one time my property manager replaced a cracked glass window with a clear plastic pain, and they made us put in glass before we passed. But we always got paid on time from the government, and our tenants in all cases but one were prompt with their rent as well. We had a lot of tenants who weren’t S8 as well, and there were some rotten ones in that group (worse than all of the S8s except the one problem S8 tenant). We didn’t need to keep any more of the security deposit for the S8 tenants than the non-S8 tenants.</p>
<p>Yes intparent, “most” tenants are good tenants. </p>
<p>We had a tenant rented one of our condos for 10 years, when they left, their kids draw pictures on the wall and the carpet was beyond cleaning. We did not mind that, because they were VERY good tenants, always paid on time and always accepted the rent increases.</p>
<p>OTOH, just one bad tenant could do a lot of harm financially. You just have to screen tenants carefully.</p>
<p>Yes, you don’t need to tell me that… I am a lot more wary of tenants with multiple large dogs now than Section 8 tenants.</p>
<p>You should be able to reject applicants with large dogs. If you follow the “Flip” thread, here is what I wrote:</p>
<p>"Home insurance exclusions are many, some are listed here:</p>
<p>[Common</a> Home Insurance Exclusions](<a href=“http://www.insweb.com/home-insurance/home-insurance-exclusions.html]Common”>http://www.insweb.com/home-insurance/home-insurance-exclusions.html)
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<p>We have experience with section 8 and would never take another tenant under this program. Also, if the rest of the neighborhood is not section 8, you might easily wind up with a tenant that causes issues resulting in calls to police. Yes, I speak from experience.</p>
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We found that there are no bad dogs, only bad owners. We rented my home to a couple with dogs. It was immaculate when they vacated. In fact, they had put in some improvements. D - a college senior - currently has 2 rabbits and her roomie has a dog. It is the cleanest living situation she’s had since she started college.</p>
<p>One of the applicant wants to put two families in the house, one couple and the other family of 4. I am thinking to ask for 4 applications and 4 credit reports and all 4 should be on the lease. The applicant with family of 4 think since the couple is their sibling and the applicant can carry the rent, so they want the couple’s name off the lease and be put on the “occupant” list.</p>
<p>This is not a S8 applicant.</p>