All Forum Posts by: Xela Batchelder

 Thank you!!!

Nice!  Thank you! 

Yes, I certainly will not give it out.

But what is the language you would use to tell them that?

"I'd be fired if I told you that."

"It is my job to be the go between."

"They hired me to not have to hear from you."

"They wouldn't have hired a property manager if they wanted to deal with tenants."

Something else?

Is there something you definitely wouldn't say when explaining this?  Something legally problematic?

Originally she asked so she could convince them (since I said no) to let a rottweiler in a no pet property (that she already got without asking).  Now, I think she is just annoyed I didn't answer that particular part of her last email.  But I'm sure she just wants to counter my no's or have other people to ask for all the stuff she wants.  But honestly not sure why she needs it now, because she finally said she got rid of the rottweiler.  

Have any of you had a tenant demanding information about the owner (when you are the property manager)?  I assume because they think they can get what they want if they can harass the owner too.  How do you handle that?  

I am trying to figure out how the numbers work for the Housing Authority. At my local city, there is an overall base number, but on the national page done zip code by zip code, there is a different number. I am also confused on exactly how the utilities work into the numbers. The national FMR doesn't seem to have as many details on that, but I may be missing something. (Or is there a video or post I should be reading on how this all works???) I want to make sure the rent I am charging isn't over what tenants who have Section 8 are allowed to pay. Seems all the guides to calculating rent are from the tenant's perspective (how much they qualify for) as opposed to what we should charge. (FYI: I am looking at a 3 bedroom, and prefer to have tenants pay the utilities, but debating water. And this is all for 2021 numbers.)

HERE is what I see in the national FMR page - the link is below, and then screenshot of the rental's zip code for the 3 bedroom. $1,190.

Nationwide FMR (Fair Market Rents) page: https://www.huduser.gov/portal...

Then we have the local Housing Authorities documentation.  It isn't by zip code, but city-wide and may be suggestive (since it is an everywhere documentation).

The numbers don't match up much, so I'm not sure what numbers to use.

Also, there is the following document by HUD for our city. About how the allowances work they get for each utility. But I'm not exactly sure how this works. The guy who owned this property previously didn't provide appliances, which seemed weird to me, but reading this, do the tenants get a higher allowance if they provide their own stove and such? Would the tenants then prefer getting their own appliances? (Assuming they can source the cheaply or fix the up, and get a higher allowance every month for it?)

If anyone has insights, I would love to understand all this better!  Or have links or books on understanding this.  At the basic, I just want to know what I CAN charge, so I make sure we don't go over, but ideally not too far under either!  More elaborately I would love to know how all the utilities work in, as some videos online say they do better providing all the utilities for Section 8, and some don't provide it.  And I don't even know what the pros and cons are.  Thanks for any help!

That was very helpful!  Thank you!!!

I found this information for depreciation: https://support.waveapps.com/h...

I was trying to figure out how to enter a house purchase, and ran into that instead.

Yes, I just came across this today while researching HUD. For each bedroom, there was a minimum and maximum number of people in a HUD house. I was thinking of Joe Asamoah's 5 bedroom section 8 houses and happened to remember a 5 bedroom needed a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 10.

Found it again:

"Here is a reference table used by Housing Authorities across the US to determine how many people can live in a unit. Also, the table has both minimum and maximum guidelines for occupancy, which are set forth to avoid cases of fraud."

https://section8facts.com/sect...

Also ran across this trying to refind that chart above:

What Is IPMC?

IPMC, also known as the International Property Maintenance Code, includes a set of more specific occupancy rules. These rules are used whenever state and local laws do not give enough regulation to occupancy or when the state and local rules do not apply because of the Fair Housing Act.

The rules set out by IPMC are more specific that many other regulations:

• All bedrooms with one person should have at least 70 square feet.
• Shared bedrooms must have at least 50 square feet per person.
• Kitchens and other non-habitable rooms cannot be used as a bedroom.
• Every unit should have an overall occupant limitation based on its overall size:
  • 1-2 occupants: must have at least 120 square feet living room
  • 3-5 occupants: must have at least 120 square feet living room and 80 square feet dining room
  • 6 or more occupants: must have at least 150 square feet living room and 100 square feet dining room

https://rentprep.com/tenant-sc...

Do applicants have something when applying to a house to show they are accepted in the Housing Voucher Progam?  For instance, if I had income verification on my application usually, would they have something that proves they are accepted when applying?  Learning and thinking about accepting this, and can't find the answer to this anywhere.  Thanks!