Check out some similar questions!

egreeneceo · Aug 11, 2007, 05:35 AM

How do you or where do you start to become a Section 8 LandLord?

excon · Aug 11, 2007, 07:14 AM

Hello e:

I would start at the HUD website. I haven't been there so I don't even know if there is one, but I'd try that first.

excon

shygrneyzs · Aug 11, 2007, 08:33 AM

From the HUD website:

Landlords

People who receive Section 8 vouchers go find their own rental housing and use the vouchers they receive from their housing agency to help pay the rent. Basically, the voucher means that the Federal Government will pay a specific amount of the rent.

If you wish to rent to Section 8 Voucher holders, you should inform the local Housing Authority of the availability of your property and also indicate in your advertising that you welcome Section 8 Voucher holders. Ultimately, it is the voucher holder's decision whether to rent your property. Of course, as the landlord,you would screen the Section 8 voucher holder just as you would any other prospective tenant.

Landlords - HUD

This from HAP:
HAP - Section 8 - Landlord Benefits

Contact your local Housing Authority and state your desire to become a section 8 landlord. There are trainings you would attend. Good luck.

shygrneyzs · Aug 11, 2007, 08:36 AM

LOL. Noooooooooooo, I am not either, excon. I just have a better day now and then. But they are getting more infrequent too.

rockinmommy · Aug 11, 2007, 04:07 PM

I actually have several HUD tenants now. It's tricky to find all of the info to get started. Hopefully you'll be luckier than we were with your local HUD office. Ours might as well have manequins working there for as much help as they were.

The process basically isn't that difficult - pretty much what was described in the prev. post.
When you have a place available for rent you just put it out there that you are willing to rent to someone who's on HUD. I put 'HUD ok' on my signs and/or in ads. Then when you get a tenant who you want to rent to who is on HUD (go through your normal screening process) they will bring you a packet of paperwork that needs to be filled out. That will then get turned into their case worker and someone will contact you to schedule an inspection. Once the property passes inspection the caseworker will have you sign some more paperwork, you and the tenant will sign the lease and turn a copy of that in, and they can move in and you'll start getting paid.

The inspection process is probably the trickiest and vaguest aspect of the whole thing. Once you've been through a couple and you know what to expect it's not so bad. HUD has some picky, strange regulations and quite a lot is open to the inspector's judgement. For example we had a house fail an inspection because a plastic cover on an outlet was cracked. They won't sit there and wait for my maintenance guy to run out to the truck and grab a spare one to change it out. (OK, I understand that - they have to draw the line or people would have them waiting around while they rewired an entire house.) So the inspection fails specifically because of the plug-in cover. When they come back to re-inspect some days later (the soonest we could get back on the schedule) it was a different inspector. He passed the plug-in cover but failed us for something else (something about the hot water heater drain pan depth or something). The 1st guy had looked at the H2O heater and not said a word. So we failed again, and it turned out that the drain pan we had was fine because of some other aspect of how the thing was set up. It can just get really frustrating like that. And they only inspect properties once a tenant wants it and is ready to move in. That's one thing we were confused about.

Once you get a property set up and running and actually have a case worker you know it's a little smoother. You can get questions answered, etc. If the caseworker likes you they'll even frequently check to see what you have available and/or refer tenants to you. They work with so many creepy landlords that they love people who actually take care of their properties.

Hope that helped some. Feel free to ask if there's anything else you want to know.

Oh yeah, we actually have 2 local HUD offices. Our city has an office and then there's also a regional community services organization that manages HUD tenants. One is WAY easier to deal with than the other and their inspections are easier and they pay a little better.

Karla in TX

Fr_Chuck · Aug 11, 2007, 04:19 PM

Yes, I tried to get a couple of my property on HUD but the inspector wanted so many changes, I could not afford to do them. But many do.

landlord advocate · Aug 11, 2007, 06:18 PM

Rockinmommy's answer was excellent. I would like to add the following: (1) HUD has a lease that they expect you to use. (2) If for any reason, you feel it is necessary to evict your HUD tenant, it is not as easy as other evictions. The reason will be for something other than non-payment, which is harder to prove. (3) The HUD inspector may tell you that your property should rent for less than you expect. Do not expect or agree to allow the tenant to pay additional money unless HUD agrees. This sometimes happens when the tenant has employment. If HUD is expecting to pay the full amount of the rent and you accept additional money from the tenant, you are breaking the law. We've had excellent luck with HUD tenants, and we have had disasters. Screen your tenant as always. Talk to past landlords before you make your decision. While waiting for the inspector, continue to show your property. Follow every road until it ends.

rockinmommy · Aug 11, 2007, 07:38 PM

Landlord Advocate,

Mind if I ask where you're located? There must be some differences from office to office. We expected to have to use HUD's lease, but at both of our local offices they actually have you use your own lease.

I've only ever had one HUD tenant who didn't pay anything. The rest have had to pay a small portion of their rent themselves. Anywhere from $18.00 a month up to a couple hundred. We can evict for non-payment if they don't pay their portion - no matter how small.

Also, if they violate anything in the lease and we turn them in they can loose their HUD benefits permanantly. It's a really strong motivator. Don't know if that varies from place-to-place.

It's interesting to see how it varies.
Karla

egreeneceo · Aug 14, 2007, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by rockinmommy

Landlord Advocate,

Mind if I ask where you're located? There must be some differences from office to office. We expected to have to use HUD's lease, but at both of our local offices they actually have you use your own lease.

I've only ever had one HUD tenant who didn't pay anything. The rest have had to pay a small portion of their rent themselves. Anywhere from $18.00 a month up to a couple hundred. We can evict for non-payment if they don't pay their portion - no matter how small.

Also, if they violate anything in the lease and we turn them in they can loose their HUD benefits permanantly. It's a really strong motivator. Don't know if that varies from place-to-place.

It's interesting to see how it varies.
Karla

Thank you so much for your help, it was refreshing and helpful.You guys are great! I live in the Philly area... suburbs, Delaware County.

jillianleab · Aug 14, 2007, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by rockinmommy

Landlord Advocate,

Mind if I ask where you're located? There must be some differences from office to office. We expected to have to use HUD's lease, but at both of our local offices they actually have you use your own lease.

I've only ever had one HUD tenant who didn't pay anything. The rest have had to pay a small portion of their rent themselves. Anywhere from $18.00 a month up to a couple hundred. We can evict for non-payment if they don't pay their portion - no matter how small.

Also, if they violate anything in the lease and we turn them in they can loose their HUD benefits permanantly. It's a really strong motivator. Don't know if that varies from place-to-place.

It's interesting to see how it varies.
Karla

I looked into Section 8 (briefly) and this is the same info I remember reading. I seem to remember you use your own lease but it is subject to approval by HUD, so if they tell you to change something, you must change it.

Some of the "horror stories" I read from section 8 landlords mentioned you can't evict for non-payment because if you receive and deposit the portion from section 8, you've "accepted" rent for the month. I don't know if that's true, if it's a regional thing, or what, but that among other stories (people having goats in the house, urinating out the windows, leaving buckets of human feces in the house upon moving out... ) turned me off. I do realize these stories could be made up, are probably not the norm, and also could be in part the fault of the landlord (for not reporting) but it scared me off anyway!

I'm sure there are plenty of great people on the section 8 program who will take excellent care of your property. Good luck, and I hope you find one!

rockinmommy · Aug 14, 2007, 08:28 PM

Originally Posted by jillianleab

Some of the "horror stories" I read from section 8 landlords mentioned you can't evict for non-payment because if you receive and deposit the portion from section 8, you've "accepted" rent for the month. I don't know if that's true, if it's a regional thing, or what, but that among other stories (people having goats in the house, urinating out the windows, leaving buckets of human feces in the house upon moving out...) turned me off. I do realize these stories could be made up, are probably not the norm, and also could be in part the fault of the landlord (for not reporting) but it scared me off anyway!

I know that before the voucher system that they use now came into existence the program was run quite differently. I think that's where a lot of the horror stories came from. I remember my dad owning a rental property when I was a kid that he received the rent from HUD for. It was a lot of what you mentioned above. He still thinks we're crazy for doing HUD rentals now.

What sold us on the program and has helped us out in a few situations is the fact that if the tenant violates the lease the landlord has the ability to "turn them in" and they'll lose their HUD benefits for life. For any of the tenants we've ever had that's a HUGE threat. Overall we've actually had good people anyway, but for a few who kind of started to slip a little at some point during their tenancy we were able to contact their case worker and they shaped up almost immediately.

I never thought in a million years that I'd do HUD, but it's working out really well (knock on wood.) ;)

nolongerarenter · Aug 17, 2007, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by egreeneceo

Thank you so much for your help, it was refreshing and helpful.You guys are great! I live in the Philly area...suburbs, Delaware County.

Where abouts? We have about 30 properties in Upper Darby and almost all are section 8. It's such a headache... we may end up selling a bunch!

nolongerarenter · Aug 17, 2007, 07:09 AM

Originally Posted by jillianleab

I looked into Section 8 (briefly) and this is the same info I remember reading. I seem to remember you use your own lease but it is subject to approval by HUD, so if they tell you to change something, you must change it.

Some of the "horror stories" I read from section 8 landlords mentioned you can't evict for non-payment because if you receive and deposit the portion from section 8, you've "accepted" rent for the month. I don't know if that's true, if it's a regional thing, or what, but that among other stories (people having goats in the house, urinating out the windows, leaving buckets of human feces in the house upon moving out...) turned me off. I do realize these stories could be made up, are probably not the norm, and also could be in part the fault of the landlord (for not reporting) but it scared me off anyway!

I'm sure there are plenty of great people on the section 8 program who will take excellent care of your property. Good luck, and I hope you find one!

These horror stories are true and not made up, I could go on and on.