There was a notice on the garage door and the front door stating something to the effect of "this house has been deemed to be empty and reported."

Here in Kansas City the waiting list to get a Section 8 voucher / Public Housing unit is 3 years, it’s definitely not an overnight process, while they do grant emergency vouchers under certain provisions, ex: displacements, death, etc, another good place to market properties to find Section 8 tenants is www.socialserve.com , I usually take flyers downtown to the Housing Authority (Section 8 office) and that actually has been most effective.

Bill Gulley So if the quit claim goes through, I can still obtain title coverage, and that would effectively confer on me the same benefits as a warranty deed (grant deed here in CA) would have?

Sometimes it's at a lawyers office...depends.

You could even tell them your spouse was destroying the bills or something to that effect.

As was pointed out, the effective rents will be well below $550, the maintenance and vacancies will be high, and the numbers don't work even if it is really cheap.

I've considered using a manager but for one property it never seemed cost-effective.

My only suggestion is that it shouldn't have taken you a month to confirm whether the price drop had taken effect.

Harder way is going through a lawyer, but normal people would not make troubles with agreement they have signed up on.This way you have a paper on it.

Even if your lawyer (or someone on BP) tells you that you are not breaking the law, you still might be accused of abusing the system.They also hint at the tricky ways they will nail you.