Rental Property - Section 8 Navigation & Pre-screening question

[Dustin Letourneau]

Hello everyone,

We just listed our FIRST (woohoo!) rental unit on the market for rent.  We have quite a few interested in the property but one we scenario I'm not sure how to navigate is Section 8 housing.  Looking at the laws within Louisville, what I have understood is that Section 8 cannot be denied as a qualification.  My questions from this are the following that I'm hoping someone can lend their experience (note:  I have a call in with a law firm to discuss this from a legal entity but unsure when I will hear back from them).

1. It is my understanding that, in order to partake in the Section 8 program, we as the owner of the property have to contact the housing authority to 'sign' up to partake.  We have not done this, nor know the steps at this point.  For parties contacting us asking if we accept Section 8 - how do you all respond?  Do I tell them that the house is not yet approved as a Section 8 house but they are more than welcome to fill out an application that we can review?  We are looking to fill the vacancy as quick as we can and worried section 8 would likely drag the process out.

2. We also have your typical pre-qualification questions.  One of them being income requirement of 3x that of the rent.  For section 8, should one include the voucher amount + the amount of income they bring in when looking at total income?  I ask this, as without the Section 8 voucher, this person would not qualify.

3. Also in regards to pre-qualifications outside of section 8.  We are doing the pre-screen process to limit the number of showings we have to do - trying to get only those that have a high chance of qualifying.  If a person does not meet one of the stipulations found in the pre-qualification how do you handle the conversation of showing. I have read that one should never tell someone not to apply so I'm hesitant on how other have navigated this.  My thoughts was a response such as "Based on our pre-qualification questionnaire there is one or more items that do not meet minimum qualification.  You are more than welcome to fill our a formal application for review."

Thanks in advance for your time.