Hello, long-time lurker here..first post. I have 8 (out of 50) units filled with section-8 tenants, I think I got the first one in 2012.. property came with this tenant. Overall, my experience has been slightly positive.
A few comments (answering questions from other comments) and then I have a question myself.
* how much rent? Around here, section8 is managed on county level. They have fixed numbers depending on the numbers of bedrooms. E.g. a 2-BR rents for $1897. One of our 2BR units is out in the sticks, and we only charge $1350. Now, if we had a 3000sqft SFR on the ocean front, S8 would want to pay the same $1897.. possibly and extra $100, but that is it.
Which explains why the least desirable areas have the highest % of section tenants.
* Annual inspections. Yes, we always get dinged about something. Half the time it's stuff that takes 15 minutes to fix like black stuff on the shower's ceiling (wipe off with bleach, etc). Only once we received an upsetting request. The "electrical panel was not save". Well, yes, it was 50+ years old with melting fuses (instead of tripping breakers). We took care of it and raised the rent by $200 (still below their own limits).
* how much does S8 pay, how much does the tenant pay? Around here, the formula is: tenant pays 30% of their income, S8 pays the rest up to the S8 limit. E.g. tenant does not work, gets $600 a month in unemployment. $180 of that go towards rent. S8 pays the remainder.
* nature of S8 tenants.. around here (in Santa Cruz County), the waiting list for section 8 used to be 5 years. Most recently, I heard that they have no vouchers left and one would have to wait even longer. A common trick was to move temporarily to another county (e.g. Fresno, less desirable than coastal Santa Cruz), get the voucher there within 2 weeks, keep the voucher in Fresno for 6 months, then get the voucher transferred to Santa Cruz. With the recent shortage of available vouchers, even this does not work any more (so I was told).
What does this mean? If someone has a S8 voucher, they will work very hard to keep it. I see tenants playing all kinds of gams with the government. 1 tenant supposedly makes under $500 (her portion is something like $150). For appointments with S8, she drives the old beater Camry. They also have a newer ML 350, a corvette, large RV, small RV, larger motorboat, smaller boat (not sure), and some early 2000s Acura.
The sad thing is, that it is a major risk for these tenants to accept a better paying job (or any job that does legitimate payroll) or just get married .. because then, they lose the voucher. The job or spouse can go poof.. the voucher will not come back.
On the upside, I will repeat it, they will work harder than other tenants to stay in your place.
Now, here comes my question. I was approached recently by a listing agent who had a client with interest in some of our smaller complexes. She asked if any of them had S8 tenants. I answered "yes.. is that a problem?". I learnt then that her client does not work with S8 vouchers because they (the S8 "housing authority") have a right to review the landlord's books. I will admit that I did not fully read the S8 rental contract.
Has anyone heard of this?
I suppose the Housing Authority might want to review a landlord's books to verify that they do not overpay or that the landlord does not accept payment on the side by the tenant?
