renting Section 8 property

[Dev Penna]

I plan to buy and qualify a SFH for Section 8 rental. Once the SFH qualifies for Section 8, can I still rent it out to non-Section 8 tenants? In other words, should Section 8 property only accept Section 8 tenant? Thanks.

[Jonathan Taylor Smith]

I market most of my units to both Section 8 and non... In my city there is an initial registration process for yourself / your entity as a Landlord in the system and then the property inspection happens after you've approved an applicant with a voucher for the home.

I have no problem finding an S8 tenant that qualifies in all other ways besides income and I've never had to evict an S8 tenant who knows they were lucky to find a place as nice as mine that accepts S8 vouchers. They are less likely to leave a nice place, so vacancy is low and my rents are all at matket rate. Just screen well and inspect quarterly or bi-annual at minimum.

Most of my tenant problems (such as late rent) are for the non-S8 tenants due to breakup or job loss - which are not often issues for Section 8 Tenants. I find them to be all around more stable and predictable and you have the potential hammer of voucher loss to discourage problems. I've had only 1 S8 tenant leave in 3 years and the agency first contacted me to get report of tenant in good standing before approving the move - great protection... I even find inspection process to be easy here, although I hear that's not true everywhere.

J.T.