Section 8

[Tyler Turpin]

How do you determine how much Section 8 will pay towards your rent in your unit? Is it based on a percentage? Anyone have any luck with it in San Pedro/ LA area? Any horror stories?

[Marc C.]

First off, HUD's 2017 Fair Market Rents have been posted at: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/F.... That will tell you the max rents that the local housing authority can choose to pay INCLUDING UTILITIES. If you don't include utilities in your rental, then you need the Payment Standards or Utility Allowance from your local housing authoirity in order to tell how much you can really charge. 

Secondly, you must advertise the same rents to Section 8 tenants as everyone else. 

Thirdly, you must screen the tenants the same as any other. 

Story: When I saw a prospective Section 8 tenant's application, there was only one source of income: Welfare for 2 of the residents, out of 8 total planned residents (mostly children). Just where were these folks going to get the money to pay renter's insurance and utilities? I rejected their application based on income (not 3X the rent, as I require; I included their Section 8 voucher in the income calc.) and the fact that they didn't fill out the app completely.