Section 8 tenant demand in memphis

[Randy Kendle]

Hello, new investor here. I know this is pretty niche but I was curious if anyone knows what the tenant demand is like for section 8 tenants in Memphis? On the TN housing search website I see there are 200 or so properties listed for HUD tenants, is this indicative of low demand? I tried to call the local housing authority to ask about outstanding vouchers but they aren't very responsive. Anyone have experience here?

[Caleb Parr]

Hi Randy- There is a ton of demand here but the issue is with the housing authority and their inspection process. They take forever to go out and do the inspection, then when they "fail" the property you have to reschedule to have them go back out and re-inspect. I can probably count on one hand how many times I've seen an inspection pass on the first time. Each inspector looks at properties different, which isn't right. The good thing is that once there's a tenant in place, they tend to  stay for quite awhile. The other issue with MHA is that trying to get rental increases is almost impossible. We've had 4 requests to increase rent with them since January of this year and have not had a response back yet, and we follow up with them weekly. MHA in Memphis is broken. Just my 2 cents.