Section 8 Rentals - What are Your Tenant Standards?

Question

HAPPY FRIDAY BP!!! I am under contract on my 1st investment property in what looks to be a C class neighborhood. The court I'm buying on is fairly quiet, not as congested as the rest of the neighborhood and clean. The realtor I'm working with advised that she already has a Section 8 tenant for me, but I have yet to screen her. In looking at my numbers against area market rents, my CoCR would look something like 11% - 13% (depending on the work and if I can get max rent)! I'm hype about that, but know that my tenant standards will probably be different. I know Section 8 does not allow tenants with felonies into the program, but was wondering what standards you have in place when dealing with a Section 8 tenant? Any assistance you can provide is GREATLY appreciated!

Enjoy your day ... Cassandra

Brian Garlington · Answer

I have 2 Section 8 rentals in California and 2 in Cleveland.  If Delaware is like most places...you will potentially have multiple people lining up to rent your property that are on Section 8 if YOU advertise your criteria.

Here's what I did ....Find out what the market rents are for your area....you can get this from rentometer.com

Advertise your rental...with some pictures on GoSection8.com   and Craigslist. On Craigslist say in the headline you take Section8.    DO NOT advertise on zillow or hotpads because the people do not read the ad or even the headline..they get a notification on their phone a rental is available and a phone number and then they just call you or email you....

When you advertise on Section8.com and CL....I put in the very first line

No Felonies

No Evictions

No smokers of any kind ....not even cigarettes or MJ

You can have 1 pet but no dangerous breeds of pets, I.E. no pit bulls, no mastiffs, no snakes, etc

No illegal drug users.

For both my rentals where I got to screen the tenants I had the phone ringing off the hook. I never answered the calls initially............just let it go to voice mail. Then TEXT them and say thanks for calling about the rental at ........address...... We've had a lot of interest in the unit so do you mind if I verify a few things with you before we talk on the phone?   When they say yes....text them and ask, do you have a current section 8 voucher that covers (whatever the rent is you are asking).

Also ask....do you have any felonies, etc.

Also ask what kind of pets do you have. if they say none....great....if they say a dog...ask what kind ....if they don't know what kind of dog they have then move on....

Also ask HOW many people would potentially live at the property and how many are 18 or over.....

You can use this as a determining factor because if you have two candidates you like for your property and one candidate says it will be her, and her two year old living there vs.  someone who says her, and her husband, his brother, and their 2 kids then you can use common sense to know who will put less wear and tear on your rental

James Masotti · Answer

Their portion of the rent would differ. However if I remember correctly from a conversation I previously had with WHA it is 30% of their disposable income that they will pay. Their website isn't exactly useful...sometimes you can get lucky with the person you talk to on the phone...so it's very possible I'm remembering that percentage incorrectly, and what I definitely don't know is how WHA calculates the disposable income.

Also - you directed the question at Brian but I'll answer anyway...I use a Google Voice number for everything real estate related. It's very handy for being able to log all your calls, all your incoming voice mails, and all your text messages (tenants love to text these days). So you get a lot of CYA in that form, in addition to the great portability of being able to transfer a single number from one phone number to another. Maybe not a problem when you're only one person, but if you ever scale bigger you have the flexibility to forward the number to an on call service or something like that. Of course you'd have to remember to go into google and do this every day as it's not automated, but that's the difference between a free service like Google Voice and a paid service. Of course you have the flexibility on the "hours" you want it turned on as well, but I don't recommend turning it off. What you need is a clear lease (I haven't seen one in Delaware yet...so I'm going to try and make my own) that actually documents and outlines what is considered an emergency situation to contact the landlord outside business hours. When you inevitably get a call because they saw a GIANT spider at 2am and YOU have to come fix it. You casually remind them that their pet tarantula escaping from its cage is actually not considered an emergency according to their lease agreement and that they can contact you again during business hours to address it, but that they would be billed for this as it is not an owner covered expense under the lease agreement, and then you roll over and go back to bed and more than likely they don't call you back about the issue and it magically goes away. :-)

James Masotti · Answer

This

And - you should have the same tenant standards. You just change your income requirement to be the portion of the rent they're responsible for.

Ray Peslar · Answer

Hello @Cassandra Sifford go the house they are currently living in to Look over their housekeeping skills.... you can learn a lot from that visit. An application and a five min interview at your new rental won’t give you the REAL answer to that question. You can usually tell if they only cleaned up because you were coming by.

Cassandra Sifford · Answer

@James Masotti ... hahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa if any type of pest control issue arises, I personally CANNOT make it LOL  I'm not into bugs, rodents or any of the other species of non human.  I just can't deal LOL  Thank you for the information.  I do remember reading somewhere about the tenant being responsible for 30% of their disposable income.

In regards to the Google Voice #, thank you for your input as well.  I'll give it a try!  I'm always about CYA and probability of Murphy's Law at any instance.

@Nathan G. ... Thank you!  I'll keep it consistent across the board.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Standards for Section 8 Tenants should be the exact same as for any other Tenant.

Cassandra Sifford · Answer

@Brian Garlington ... do you have any experience with using a Google phone #?  I was given the advice previously to never give my phone number to a tenant as they could call all hours of the night and not be respectful of "normal business hours".

@Eric Armstrong ... Thank you for the information!  I checked and it looks like they only meet during the afternoon.  I'll have to take some time off of work to get there.

@James Masotti ... Thank you!  It does make sense to have the same standards.  Keep it consistent all across the board and there should be no confusion ;)  Wouldn't each Section 8 tenants portion of the rent differ?

Cassandra Sifford · Answer

@Ray Peslar ... Thank  you for your advise!  I didn't know you could request such a meeting at a potential tenants current residence.  I'll give it a shot :)

Cassandra Sifford · Answer

Hi @Brian Garlington ... Thank you for your advise!  Those are good standards to have for just about anybody.  I'm considering no pets as I'm putting in new vinyl plank downstairs and new carpet upstairs.  I've read a few of your comments on prior Section 8 topics and was hoping that you'd chime in LOL  My realtor is awesome and I know she's picky.  We vibe well so I know she's done some kind of screening for me.  I don't want to limit my pool, but am hopeful that this lone tenant will be the one for me.  She's coming from Philly and has wanted to move down to DE for some time.  Already checked with her local HA and they advised her voucher will transfer.  I'll do a more thorough check once the property is finished and I complete the application process with the HA.

Section 8 Rentals - What are Your Tenant Standards?

Most Popular Reply