Section 8 Investing - HUD FMR

[Emran Saleem]

Hello everyone,

I hope all is well.

This is my first post and am really grateful for biggerpockets. It is an excellent resource.

I plan on purchasing homes in Ohio, mainly Cleveland, Akron and Toledo, and renting them out to section 8 tenants.

I have over $100,000 to invest. I purchased section 8 courses, completed them and still feel like I don't have all the answers I am looking for.

One question which I have that I cannot wrap my head around deals with the amount of rent the housing authority will pay me (I need this number or at least an estimate in order to determine my monthly casflow - Mortgage amount less expenses)

For example, in Cleveland, the housing authoritiy's website shows 2 amounts for a 3 bedroom home - HUD's Fair Market Rent : $1,296 and CHMA's Payment Standard: $1,555.

Some people say you should use 90% of HUD's FMR as an estimate. While others say it depends on the zipcode. Additionally, others say it depends on the tenants income.

The owner of the course I purchased says to call the HUD. When I call them, they just direct me to the website.

I am so lost. I really want start investing but this is stopping me.

Any insights would be much appreciated and help me out tremendously in my section 8 real estate journey.

Thanks in advance
 

[Brendan Taylor]

Use the housing authorities FMR. I own in Akron so I use AMHA FMR. They will have 2023 numbers on site based on zip codes. A big mistake people make is that the FMR is the amount for rent AND utilities. So you will need to subtract the utility allowances (also should be on site) from FMR to determine the rent they will approve. Assuming you have tenants paying utilities which you should.