Section 8? Never again.

[Ross Bernard]

My first rental property had an existing section 8 tenant when I bought it. I was naïve and attracted to the 'guaranteed' rent. I'd rate the tenant a 2/5, as she didn't completely destroy the property and paid rent eventually. I finally got fed up with her after about three years and evicted her over nonpayment of rent. The crappiness of the tenant aside, this is why I would not do section 8 again:

The tenant doesn't have enough money to cover the rent on their own, which means they will not be spending a single dollar on keeping up the property. She let a small roach problem become hundreds if not thousands of roaches, and did not let me know about it. You will have no leverage over the tenant if (when) things go bad, as they really have nothing to lose. Even an eviction will not necessarily hamper the tenant's ability to receive housing assistance. While working on the water heater, I noticed a letter from the section 8 housing authority showing that she owed the previous landlord over $11,000 and had stolen the fridge from the property. The tenant simply changed her first name after this and was able to receive section 8 again.

Dealing with our housing authority is a PITA. They never answer the phone, any time of day. They often take over a week to respond to emails. They will ding you on annual inspections for safety issues, which I think is reasonable. However, they will also ding you on petty things like not having screens in every window (who does?). If you do not fix everything to their liking, you will receive no money from them until you do (and the missed payments will be lost).

Want to increase your rent at the end of the lease? It's not nearly so simple as writing a new lease. You have to apply to the housing authority, listing multiple reasons why your rent increase is justified. But that's not the worst of it. You must get the TENANT (who has no money) to agree to the increase in rent. Good luck.

Basically, if  you deal with section 8 where I'm from, you forfeit much of the control you have over your own property.

I know there are people out there who make good profits in section 8, but I just can't imagine why they would put up with the hassle and risk if they didn't have to. I hope my experience has been valuable to someone.