DHA Comp Website

[Amy E.]

Hey,

Anyone in GA being affected by the new mandate by DHA to use their internal website for comparison houses to justify rents?  I live in a rural area and only do 4 bedroom houses and they could not find comps in my zip code (plenty in the county, just none in that zip code).  I ended up going with another renter, but Section 8 housing is my bread in butter.  

I only have one data point, but when I asked the case worker how houses were added into the system, she didn't know.  None of my houses that I already had rented (two section 8, one not) were in the system for comparisons.  She was not allowed to use my other houses since they weren't in the system.  I asked if I could have access to the system and she said no.  I asked if there was a way to add my other houses in as comps and she wasn't sure.

I emailed the state asking for clarification on how comparison houses were selected and added to this new system.  All I received is an automated response saying that they would get in touch (they never did).  I called the state, and the person who answered referred me back to the email address I had already used.

I'm concerned about the transparency of this new website.  If I can't even get my other houses added as comps, what's to stop the state from only loading the cheapest houses?  And where are these comps coming from anyway.  My realtor said that there is no database for currently rented homes (like there is for taxes and sale prices with the county).

Anyone have a POC at DHA that can explain or assist?

Like I said, I had no problem renting to a non-DHA tenant.  But I've found its bunches easier to go with DHA if at all possible.