Section 8 housing in Baltimore

[Lakshmi Maddali]

A little about me: I currently rent out and manage a couple of properties to conventional tenants in Maryland. These are mostly in the nicer suburbs.

I'm currently looking into buying properties for 100k< and renting them out to section 8 voucher tenants. I'm only looking at turnkey properties. I do plan on being a respectful and responsive landlord who does not plan on taking advantage of tenants. Does anyone have any advice for me?

1) What areas in Baltimore are the best to focus on?

2) is Baltimore overly tenant friendly?

3) What laws should I watch out for (for example am I allowed to have the water/electricity be under the tenant's name)

4) How hard is it to get the property section 8 approved in Baltimore?

[Joe Norman]

1) What areas in Baltimore are the best to focus on? - There are plenty of good neighborhoods for this strategy in Baltimore, too many to list. I would look for neighborhoods that do not have an abundance of vacant board ups. 

2) is Baltimore overly tenant friendly? - Yes, but its really Maryland as a whole. If you're familiar with land lording in the "nicer suburbs" pretty much the same tenant/landlord laws apply. There are some differences for sure but I don't think they are substantial.

3) What laws should I watch out for (for example am I allowed to have the water/electricity be under the tenant's name) - You can put all utilities in the tenant's name, but I would advise keeping water in your name since that utility is a lien on the house itself. We pay all the water bills and then bill the tenant.

4) How hard is it to get the property section 8 approved in Baltimore? - Its cumbersome and frustrating dealing with some of the programs and their inspectors, but not necessarily hard. Just know that they are going to nit pick you on stupid little things.