Considering making one of my rentals into Section 8

[Stephen Reyes]

I have a rental and the current tenant (has rented for 2 years) is moving so will not be renewing the lease. The house is in very good condition but it is an older block home in a neighborhood that has some challenging houses.  I am considering Section 8 for this property as kind of a test.  Anyone who has done this and has advice I would love to hear it.  The property is in Pensacola so if you have experience with the process in Pensacola specifically, I would be even more interested.  Thanks for any tips!

[Matt Jones]

I have worked with section 8 tenants and the local housing authority in both Escambia(Pensacola) and Santa Rosa county(Gulf Breeze, Milton, Pace) when I was managing properties for others and took over management of section 8 units.  Both were relatively easy to work with and were good experiences overall.  I think it’s important that you still screen your tenants well because, like any tenants, quality of section 8 tenants vary. You’ll also have to keep your property up to their minimum standards but I didn’t find that hard to do.  There seems to be a shortage of housing here that is willing to accept section 8/vouchers and I received calls on almost every rental listing that I posted asking if we accepted vouchers so it will likely increase the demand for your rental.