All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Donley

Welcome!  I’m a buy and hold investor in St Louis, with a portfolio of a section 8 properties (the best niche there is IMO!). I also teach other investors to succeed with Section 8 rentals.

We have a bunch of very active investor pages on Facebook and there are also a lot of REAIs here, most of which have some sort of virtual feature now. A few to check out are FasterHouse Buyers Club, Southside Investment Club and Master Investors Tribe.  Meetup is a good place to find these and a bunch more.

Let me know if I can help and welcome to REI in StL!

Hi Abed, I'm a Section 8 landlord in the St. Louis area.  We have 2 PHAs that we deal with here so I will share my experience.  I've found that the offices operate quite differently when it comes to rent increases.  One gives them easily and the other is difficult to get them through.  So what I did with the second one is say to the person who denied the first one I ever submitted - "Thank you for the response.  I appreciate your help.  Can you let me know what the process is to appeal the decision?"  Then I followed the process they gave me, which included sending in comps. I followed up, followed the process and kept following up until I got an increase. Good luck.

This is a common issue in houses I buy.  Check with some local sewer repair companies to see if a lining system will work, they will need to see the video of the lateral to determine. 

Hi! I have a portfolio of Section 8 in the St Louis area.  I have wonderful tenants who take great care of my houses and are easy to work with.  I am owed $0 in rent bc my tenants all pay their portion without issue.  Everything I do is about attracting and retain The key is to have a decent quality house, screen meticulously and set clear guidelines in your lease.  I advertise my properties on gosection8.com and nowhere else because I get plenty of interest there.  We always meet the inspector because often the issues are small and can be taken care of easily.  Get to know the guidelines and processes of your local PHA including setting rents, getting increases, violations or issues and move outs.  Knowing those processes will help you succeed.  This niche can be one of the most stable and profitable when done right.  

@Tony Gaultney I live in Wentzville and own 26 rental doors in mostly B-/C neighborhoods in North County. Spanish Lake, Dellwood, Bellefontaine Neighbors, Ferguson. I focus entirely on the Section 8 niche and we have wonderful tenants. My team and I have spent a lot of time trying to perfect our systems to be able to have great tenants and we have few issues. Feel free to reach out to me directly with questions. I can give you a lot of info on neighborhoods. Also, you might look into the BRRRR method of buying - it's a way to buy and refinance out without having to put money down. It's a harder route to go because you have to rehab the house but I've found that the end results are much better. When I've bought tenant-occupied properties, the tenant vetting from the prior owner wasn't as good as I would've done.