Maintain or get rid of Section 8 eligiblility?

[Tommy Vincent]

I’m looking into a duplex property to purchase, and we found out it’s Section 8 qualified. This is not something we were targeting, and frankly, I don’t think we’re interested in using it.

Question is: Should we cancel the status? Or is section 8 qualification seen as an asset to the property because it gives the owner the option to leverage or not? Is there a cost to maintain?

Property is in Sacramento, CA.

[Patti Robertson]

There is no such thing as “Section 8 Qualified”. The true name of SEC 8 is the Housing Choice Voucher program.  Choice means tenant chooses.  Your house gets into the SEC 8 program when the tenant chooses your house and you accept them as a tenant.  When this happens, if your rent gets approved, they will inspect your house.  Once it passes you can sign the lease and move the tenant in.  In two months, something could easily happen that would cause a SEC 8 inspection to fail - a rip in a screen, drippy faucet, etc.  This doesn’t mean you become unqualified.  It just means you failed an inspection and need to make a repair.

[Dave Peterson]

I don't think there is a downside to having this. Sacramento requires an inspection either way and if you have Section 8 inspecting you can get a waiver on the city/county inspection.