section 8 from a landlords point of view?

1 - none really. Part of the rent is paid, but you are not allowed to charge fair market rent, so you take a loss even if you had a miracle tenant.

2 - poor renters. People not paying their way in life tend to be very destructive. 90% of the will be bad

3 - yes, in all states except MA

4 - no, inspections are basis stuff, no problems other then repairs.

5 - never, section 8 has computers sending out the checks.

6 - it is almost impossible. section 8 does provide them attornies when you try to evict them

I do rent to section 8 tenants. ONLY seniors though, no more families. The last family caused more then 30k in damages, and as you know insurance does not cover tenant damage.

One thing I do now is ask to inspect where they live now. 2 have allowed this and I rented to both. The ones that don't want me seeing what they have done to the last landlords property are people to be avoided anyway. Also be super careful when talking to their last landlord, make absolutely sure that is who you are talking to, not some friend. While lots of people are dishonest the section 8 renters seem to be overly so.

I am a Sec 8 tenant in a senior building which is the only way I would recommend to any landlord to rent. Under the state mandate, all cities had to have affordable housing. The owners of my building made it a senior building to avoid having to rent to deadbeat Sec 8 people and bring down the surrounding property values.

One person is issued a voucher for a studio or 1 bdrm. only so if your place has more bedrooms a family would rent that. In some areas there are only 2-bdrm. rentals and a single tenant could get special dispensation. If a couple has medical equipment, they are allowed to rent a 2-bdrm.

1. You get a regular consistent payment for most of the rent from the county or city every month.

2. That the tenants may stop working, not pay rent, and you have to evict, then they wreck your property. Another major problem is moving in unauthorized people or felons into the apartment even though the voucher has perhaps 1 or 2 names on it. Then you get more wear and tear and likely damages. This is less likely to happen when you rent to a senior but even a senior may sneak a grandchild in.

3. You dont have to rent to someone on Sec 8 but if you agree to accept a Sec 8 tenant, you cannot discriminate among those applicants who are Sec 8 except by credit, employment, criminal history.

4. You must have the property inspected annually and initially for safety and health hazards.

5. Yes, landlords do have trouble collecting even the small tenant portion of the rent when a tenant is not working or goes to jail. You can evict for non payment.

6. I cant answer since I am not a landlord but I can imagine the damages they might incur.

I dont understand LINKUS comment that landlord can charge above normal rent since to my knowledge a landlord can charge Housing Authority only 80% of the market rent.

1. Accepting section 8 often can allow a landlord to charge more than the going rate for their property simply because section 8 allows for it. Another advantage is that a section 8 tenant is more reliable for paying their rent than the average renter because they know if they screw up, they will lose the benefit.

2. The biggest disadvantage is that HUD doesn't pay their share on the due date. The will never short you, but you do have to have patience. Another is that your section 8 tenants can make your property less appealing to non section 8 tenants simply because they can be a lesser "class" of people (no offense).

3. Absolutely OK to say you don't accept section 8. But as a landlord your should know the details of the fair housing act.

4. The inspection is the easiest part.

5. See Question 2

6. No problems with terminating section 8 tenants, but they don't default on leases so it is rare to need to terminate.

Bottom line renting to section 8 is awesome if you can rent the entire property to section 8 tenants. But problematic when only renting a fraction of units simply because it is difficult finding quality tenants who want to be neighbors of section 8 tenants.

Far more trouble than its worth. The people you get are not worth a c--p. They are nasty, lazy, often into drugs and crime. The only advantage is once you are approved and get the tenant you get the rent on a regular and timely. Forgot to mention tenants make constant complaints about the property triggering numerous inspections and usually costly repairs. Also it is virtually impossible to terminate the tenant (about like trying to fire a government employee). Good luck don't say nobody warned you.

Tenant pays no more than 1/3 of income

Requires inspection, paperwork

I state that we've never been approved for section 8-- never applied, don't want to

Personally I find many people don't value what they don't pay for, many don't take care of property

Many with vouchers live on the edge, slightest problem messes up finances, most have multiple people on voucher, move in and out

That said, there are good ones, but you have to pick and choose and must have defensible criteria and it's a pain

Many with vouchers have lousy credit which indicates a pattern of poor financial management

The rent you collect won't compensate for the damage and headaches caused by section 8 tenants. Remember. You the landlord are held responsible for any fines due to noise ordinances and trash.