I have never rented to a section 8 before.
Recent development could head to a section 8 tenant, but I am resisting as everyone here had suggested NOT to. My intent is to rent out an un-updated 3 bed 2 bath home.
I’d just want to know what entails a section 8 inspection. I have the following issues with the house I bought:
Electrical - not all receptacles are grounded. None of them are child proof, this is an old 60's house. There is some exposed Romex wire, I will cover them up.
Plumbing - Some of the pipes are galvanized, they are not leaking. I will fix all the sinks, fixtures and toilets
Floor Covering, I will replace the old carpet with new but some bed rooms has linoleum tiles.
Printing- Obviously the painting is old and tired and some rooms have beat up wall papers.
You are completely at the whim of the inspector. They could fail you for literally anything.
I failed one because the inspector didn’t like that the bathroom sink had a drum trap instead of a P trap. I failed another because there was asbestos insulation in a locked basement where tenants weren’t allowed to go. Failed another because they didn’t like the heating system. Like I’m going to put in a brand new system just to get a section 8 rental! They could fail you because one plug is two-prong instead of 3-prong. Peeling paint. Anything.
Our rents are higher than the section 8 limits for our area, but in general they are more trouble than the guaranteed rent is worth. I won’t rent my valuable properties to people who are irresponsible and just don’t give a darn. Plus the sense of entitlement just blows me away sometimes. Yes I am painting with a broad brush, but DW deals with a lot of section 8 tenants and some of the stories are unbelievable.
At the very least expect one or more people who you didn’t know about and aren’t on the lease to move in soon after the tenant moves in.
Well, thank you and I won’t rent it to the section 8 no matter what… This house will need a complete update before I can pass those inspectors. Gee wiz…
Yes, it can get very messy. And if you are in a tenant-friendly area, it can be hard to near impossible to get them out, especially if there are kids. Judges don’t want to put kids out on the street and will accept any kind of sob story.
You can put anything you want in a lease. Enforcing it is another matter. Some will own up to it, some won’t. In a section 8 situation they can’t admit it, because it would affect their certificate. So if the tenant says “oh he doesn’t live here, he is just a visitor” then what to you do? Hire a PI and go to court? You can rat them out to the PHA that has their certificate, they may or may not do anything.
We make it clear in the lease that only the people on the lease can live there, and there can be no long term guests without our permission. We’ve had rentals where it has been a roommate situation, and specified that if one moves out and the other brings in a new roommate, the new person has to fill out an application and pass a screening. It’s worked out, but then we are choosy about our tenants.
We have one apartment rented by a very large religious group. They originally had two people in there, and then asked us if they could move in two more. We said “sure but the rent will go up $X” and they were fine with that. (World’s best tenants by the way - it’s four single guys, but they don’t drink, smoke, party, have girlfriends, play loud music or video games, or even have a TV. And they are relatively clean.)
Speaking loud music, I have this family had a Live Bend in this 22,000 sf downtown yard, playing amplified music. The neighbor half a block away had to call police to quiet it down… But they pay the rent…
Strongly suggest you do what ever necessary to NOT rent to section 8. We managed a 50 unit place. The two section 8 units gave us more headaches than the other 48 combined.
You can get request and get the inspection. A good way to find out what is considered “wrong” with your place. If it’s too much trouble, you don’t have to get the stuff fixed and you don’t have to rent to Section 8 tenants.
Though most everyone I know who rents, has nothing good to say about getting so involved, I do have one person who does so rent. The place is in an area where getting renters is difficult and the Seciton 8 crowd does pay the rent. They’ve managed the balance between making the money and keeping the place to standard. But it’s close, and they are looking to unload it.
Yes, @dietz99, I’d also like to read about the headaches. And you, too, @notrichenough.(“Plus the sense of entitlement just blows me away sometimes. Yes I am painting with a broad brush, but DW deals with a lot of section 8 tenants and some of the stories are unbelievable.”)
The first big problem we had was that two tenants were managed out of different HUD offices. We needed to transfer payments to the new management account. One was easily accomplished. The other…well the other…let’s just say every stereotypical ‘gubernment bureaucracy’ you can think of came into play.
Sorry…not my department… let me reroute you
Sorry…you need to initiate that from the tenant end (wrong)
And then my favorite…well I dun did me job, sorry if it’s not working.
After several months of this back and forth I routed myself to the head of the HUD division for the county. It solved the problem. The individual who had ‘dun did her job’ was irate at the nerve I had to go to her boss.
Then, there were the tenants. One had a mentally disabled adult child living with her. She put padlocks on the inside of her bedroom door. This is illegal. The problem is we couldn’t just go in and randomly inspect. But ahh…wait HUD/section 8 can. They determined WE were out of compliance because of the padlocks and the rent would be abated until WE fixed the problem.
Another tenant used the dishwasher for storage. After a year of non use it would not leak (seals had dried out). Yup, HUD said WE had to fix it (a problem which was never reported because the tenant didn’t even know) and the rent would be abated until WE fixed the problem.
Rents were increased on all the other tenants, HUD said, nope…market doesn’t support the raise and they would not comply.
I will never let a mentally disabled/challenged rent my place.
I bought a house from a bank really cheap, like half price, the only thing was, not knowing beforehand, the house had a mentally challenged tenant who is the son of the previous owner who had passed away. I went in and paid him good money to have him move out, at the end, he had no where to go but did not contest. He ended up in a storage shack in his “friends” back yard. It took that guy TWO YEARs to get him out of that shack. They have to help him first to apply for medicaid, then section 8, then find him a place where he can stay.