I think you are making a mistake in switching over to Section 8 if you are successful with what you have/had now. You are excluding possibly the majority of available tenants to focus on the most difficult to manage and the ones who are most likely to leave your property heavily worn and damaged, all other things being equal. I don't know your area, so I can only write to my experiences in PA.
You don't really convert your property to Section 8 (S8), but rather sign a lease with a tenant who happens to be funded by S8. S8 goes with the tenant, not the property. All of the lease signing and tenant vetting is the same as a normal lease. The S8 process begins with the tenant sending the signed lease to the housing authority along with your application.
Regarding rent, don't expect to get the published FMR. You may get it, but the table shows the maximum they will pay. They are far more likely to pay around market rent regardless of what the table says. As mentioned above, have good comps.
Take a look at the S8 list of available properties so you have an idea of what your prospects are coming from. You can get that from your local S8 office. In my experience which was a while ago, it was a list filled with pits of despair. Those places were awful and barely habitable, but it is what S8 prospects are being offered. It is a very low bar for you to meet, but keep in mind that is also the level of upkeep some S8 tenants might have in mind. Landlord beware.
S8 will schedule an inspection for your property. You need to pass the inspection to get paid by S8. In my area, they actually require a little more than the local municipality and lately have been especially strict on cracked paint because they were recently sued and lost. You can get a checklist of what they look for from your local S8 office. Total turnaround time can be within the same month if you start at the beginning of the month, but don't be surprised if it continues into the next month.
S8 in my area outsources the inspections. They can be very thorough or not even superficial. The first one is likely to be rigorous. After that, it may depend more on the workload of the inspector. In my area, the inspectors are massively overloaded and often skip through a nice house quickly while telling me the last house they were in set them back 2 hours because there were so many violations. Lesson: Keep a nice house and inspect before the inspector.
Inspections then occur annually and you don't get paid if your property fails until you pass again. Try to avoid scheduling inspections for the last 10 days of the month as you will need time to fix the defects and get another inspection. They probably won't hustle out just because it's the end of the month and you won't get paid. In that case, you don't get the next month's rent until the following month assuming you pass in the next month.
Upon approval, S8 will tell you and your tenant what S8 pays and the tenant's responsibility. They have a formula based on the property and its features as well as the tenant's income and expenses. The S8 portion will very likely arrive like clockwork on the 1st of the month.
One strong motivation for the tenant to pay is they lose their voucher if they are evicted or leave owing you a balance. So, threatening that means the tenant could lose something they waited years for and is very valuable too them. They are very likely to respond, but keep in mind you can't get dollars from a turnip.
My experience is wear and damage are higher with some S8 tenants and not at all with others, just like regular tenants. Some of my S8 tenants keep the best houses and my worst tenant is a regular tenant. The S8 group as a whole has a reputation for greater wear and damage, so don't be surprised. Vetting your prospects well helps, just like with a regular tenant. Some landlords have the mistaken impression S8 is responsible for damage expenses. They are not.
I recommend you pursue the best tenant for your properties and disregard how they pay your rent. Just like regular tenants, try to avoid S8 tenants who can barely afford your place. Regular tenants may have more of a support system when they have bad financial luck. S8 tenants often have less of a support system as family members might be in the same situation.
