All Forum Posts by: Elise Bickel Tauber

@Sonya Brown can you send me the link. I have some investors who it may work for

I use to absolutely love section 8. Dependable income with tenants that, more often then not, stayed for a very long time. More recently, right before the pandemic, they really started to tighten up on requirements for the section 8 inspections. It use to be only safety issues but have now included cosmetic items as well. They have relaxed on some of those requirements in the last year or two but could come back if they choose to. Either way, my experience after managing hundreds of section 8 tenants is that they overall stay for longer (3-4 years on average) and take decent care of the properties they lease. Most section 8 tenants work really had to get onto the list and find a home so they want to stay there once they do.

As for rents, I agree with Miranda that they are often similar or even sometimes higher then market rents. Pay close attention to the price versus what utilities need paid. You get a different amount for the rent depending on what utilities you are including. You cannot bill for utilities, it must be separately metered or included with the rent. 

Always screen tenants the same as you would those without section 8. I usually just give full points for the income portion since that will be handled with the section 8 office. Areas, you can use sites like niche.com to check out the area ratings. 

And dont be shocked when the first month or twos rent is delayed in processing. Once you get rolling, you are good to go.

If you have any questions at all about section 8 please do not hesitate to reach out. I've been managing section 8 for 13+ years in the City of Pittsburgh and multiple surround counties.

Hey Doron,
I'll send you a DM!

Congrats on your real estate investment journey!
We manage a few out that way and they seem to do really well!

 Sure. I'll message you!

In Pittsburgh, if you advertise as a business, you must be registered as one with the state. If you only manage your own properties you just need to register the llc. if you start to manage for anyone else you must not only have a estate real estate license, but also a real estate brokerage license. They have been cracking down on it big time and you dont want to be on the wrong side of the real estate commission in PA.

Hi Bailey. Very familiar with the 203k loan and the process. A lot of my clients have gone that route. Just wanted to check, are you thinking about renovating a home for you to live in or did you need a loan option for a flip?

I have an opinion on wholesalers. One that may be unpopular (or maybe very popular). Wholesalers, are fantastic, motivated, and hard working individuals and have skills that a lot of real estate agents don't have. They are very determined to get "listings" and make the deal work. The problem (for home sellers) is that they have no fiduciary duty to the seller. Which means, a homeowner, who relies on information from their agent who listing their home, is often expecting that same loyalty from the wholesaler. It leaves a lot of homeowners feeling duped when the property finally closed. I've seen it happen many times. The seller sells a home to a wholesaler for $25,000 and then finds out the buyer who actually bought the house is buying that home for $45,000-$50,000 or more. If they had listed with an agent, they could have ended up with tens of thousands more. 

For investors who are selling homes to wholesalers, how do you feel about selling for a flat fee and the wholesaler making a large amount of profit on your home? Were you aware that many wholesalers have something called a "spread" which is often large to make a profit?

For the wholesalers out there, are you disclosing that you are only out for your best interest? Do you disclose your spread? Have you ever thought of getting your real estate license for whatever state you are located in, connecting with a real estate agent where you wholesale and getting a referral fee for all those listings? It would be a lot less then most wholesalers get in their spread but would also (often) require a whole lot less work since the agent would be the one showing, marketing, etc.

I would love to hear people's thoughts on this! Good, bad or indifferent!

So this is the big question we actually get a lot. Very rarely do i run into wholesalers who do the double close in Pittsburgh because of what you just said right there. The spread looks so good and then you realize you are paying the sellers fees, your purchase fees, your sale fees, and then lender fees, etc. The profit narrows really quickly. Most wholesalers do an assignment contract but you do have the careful how you do this because if you are representing real estate you don't own as if you are the owner, it is illegal. And if you represent real estate you don't own and act as a real estate agent without a license, it's illegal. But for those who do it correct with an assignment, they usually just have their hand money down (which they get back once the buyer puts down the hand money to go under contract) and then the sellers fees come out of your assignment fee on the deed. Hope that helps!

Looks like a great event!