Section 8 Housing

[Paul William Meade]

Hi, my name is Paul and I am a property mgt. I have an investor that would like me to find out more about section 8 rental candidates. Not sure why she wants to go down this road but I believe she likes the guaranteed govt. money Looking for someone who might be able to share the pro's and con's on this.

Also, the investor wanted to me to check out military candidates to rent her property. Again, if I could get the pros and cons of this...that would be great.

Thanks!

[Marcia Maynard]

I ditto the suggestion to "search the site"; type in "Section 8". Take some time to read up on this topic. Lots of good info here on BP. 

We are lucky enough to have a very efficient Housing Authority in our city that manages the Section 8 program quite well. We have not had trouble renting to Section 8 tenants and the case managers have been very responsive to our needs. I suggest you locate the administrator of the Section 8 program for your area and learn about how they manage the program. You may be able to meet some local landlords who are familiar with how it goes in your area as well. We are still able to use our own rental agreement and we are still able to properly screen our tenants. 

We do like the rent coming in on time and directly deposited into our bank account. Our Section 8 tenants are some of our longest term tenants (one at 26 years and counting), pay rent on time and abide by the terms of the rental agreement. If they don't, they have much more to lose than we do. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between our Section 8 tenants and our non-Section 8 tenants, neither would the neighbors. :-)

The qualifying process for Section 8 can happen prior or post move-in, but will only become effective after the tenant has been awarded the voucher, the landlord has agreed to accept the voucher and unit has passed inspection.  The landlord must agree to the Section 8 contract terms, which in our experience are reasonable and dove-tail nicely with our own rental agreement.