Understanding Housing Authority FMRs (Section 8)

[Xela Batchelder]

I am trying to figure out how the numbers work for the Housing Authority. At my local city, there is an overall base number, but on the national page done zip code by zip code, there is a different number. I am also confused on exactly how the utilities work into the numbers. The national FMR doesn't seem to have as many details on that, but I may be missing something. (Or is there a video or post I should be reading on how this all works???) I want to make sure the rent I am charging isn't over what tenants who have Section 8 are allowed to pay. Seems all the guides to calculating rent are from the tenant's perspective (how much they qualify for) as opposed to what we should charge. (FYI: I am looking at a 3 bedroom, and prefer to have tenants pay the utilities, but debating water. And this is all for 2021 numbers.)

HERE is what I see in the national FMR page - the link is below, and then screenshot of the rental's zip code for the 3 bedroom. $1,190.

Nationwide FMR (Fair Market Rents) page: https://www.huduser.gov/portal...

Then we have the local Housing Authorities documentation.  It isn't by zip code, but city-wide and may be suggestive (since it is an everywhere documentation).

The numbers don't match up much, so I'm not sure what numbers to use.

Also, there is the following document by HUD for our city. About how the allowances work they get for each utility. But I'm not exactly sure how this works. The guy who owned this property previously didn't provide appliances, which seemed weird to me, but reading this, do the tenants get a higher allowance if they provide their own stove and such? Would the tenants then prefer getting their own appliances? (Assuming they can source the cheaply or fix the up, and get a higher allowance every month for it?)

If anyone has insights, I would love to understand all this better!  Or have links or books on understanding this.  At the basic, I just want to know what I CAN charge, so I make sure we don't go over, but ideally not too far under either!  More elaborately I would love to know how all the utilities work in, as some videos online say they do better providing all the utilities for Section 8, and some don't provide it.  And I don't even know what the pros and cons are.  Thanks for any help!