When you stop and consider that under the best of circumstances renters can be a crapshoot, add in all the unfortunate circumstances with Section 8 renters, and the risk to reward ratio is skewed against you. I made that calculation when I was looking for an investment property and decided in a hurry that was not going to work. I also had a good friend who got conned into renting to professional scammers. They destroyed his property and never paid rent after the first check.

Anonymous wrote:All good until tenants get behind on rent, destroy the property, the government stops paying because of inspection fail and you get zero as the tenant squats for months or years.

Sums it up. Never rent to Section 8'ers.

[url]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Section 8 housing is a special animal, this is a very difficult group of people to manage, hard pass.

We had one on our block and it turned over every year. Each year it got trashed more and more. Each tenant was the same setup. An older woman by herself would move in and next thing you know it was multiple adults, aggressive dogs and multiple junker cars, constant commotion and noise. It’s a wonder it didn’t get noticed and drag down our property value when we sold. I’ll
Let you imagine what the inside looked like…

I’m the PP whose BF worked with these properties. It was shocking.

Pros: Above market rates in bad neighborhoods plus guaranteed payment

Cons: Inspection costs and a guaranteed trashing, without security deposit, whenever there is turnover. Sometimes you have to pay the utilities as well

Anonymous wrote:Section 8 housing is a special animal, this is a very difficult group of people to manage, hard pass.

We had one on our block and it turned over every year. Each year it got trashed more and more. Each tenant was the same setup. An older woman by herself would move in and next thing you know it was multiple adults, aggressive dogs and multiple junker cars, constant commotion and noise. It’s a wonder it didn’t get noticed and drag down our property value when we sold. I’ll
Let you imagine what the inside looked like…

Don’t do it. Seriously. Sure you will make money if you really go all in but unless this is your full time job and you can invest all your time and money making it work it’s simply not worth it. We tried it several years ago. I lasted one year. in that one year we had so many problems it was a nightmare. It’s such a time suck. I did not think people could treat someone else’s property so poorly. The last tenant randomly left the property because they couldn’t pay anymore. When we went into the property there were multiple large bleach stains on the brand new carpet put in just 2 months before. And multiple other things broken and damaged. That tenant had only lived there 3 months.

Anonymous wrote:My mom doesn’t have a section 8, but we do rent out a house in a very low income area, I think it is difficult to be a hands off landlord in these cases. My mom hand picked her current tenant (elderly woman and her special needs son) and we have never had a problem and we aren’t slumlords and we take good care of it so we maintain a good relationship. Not all poor people are bad tenants, but being hands off is how you end up being the landlord of a crack house.

Same poster, but I would simply be careful about owning homes in difficult areas like this, ours is inherited and we still have family in the area so we are able to get insider information on the people were are dealing and have some price flexibility since the house was paid off. I would not go into a random hood and buy a house, you have to know who you are dealing with.

I dated a guy who worked with Section 8 housing units. It was a significant amount of work. Far more than my rental units. Changing from one tenant to another took more time and elbow grease unless you contract all the cleaning/painting out. Of course not all Section 8 tenants are the same but it got far more gnarly with them than with my tenants now.

Anonymous wrote:Section 8 housing is a special animal, this is a very difficult group of people to manage, hard pass.

+1
And combined with liberal, anti-landlord policies in DC, it's a hellz no.

Section 8 housing is a special animal, this is a very difficult group of people to manage, hard pass.

My mom doesn’t have a section 8, but we do rent out a house in a very low income area, I think it is difficult to be a hands off landlord in these cases. My mom hand picked her current tenant (elderly woman and her special needs son) and we have never had a problem and we aren’t slumlords and we take good care of it so we maintain a good relationship. Not all poor people are bad tenants, but being hands off is how you end up being the landlord of a crack house.

Anonymous wrote:You kidding me! I don't even own a home because it's not an asset always. So many homes have problems like the three properties we once owned.
The same money in the market is snowballing.
My rent is paid from investments and money left over. Find the people who decided to not own anymore and have the money from selling their homes.

Now do 1970's.

Yeah, uh, maybe if there is an ETF that tracks section 8…but no you don’t want to be responsible as a small time landlord, in dc, for managing section 8 properties. You have no idea. Property destruction and dealing with evictions in the most tenant friendly locale in the US besides NY? I get you can get a huge check each month, but you are going grey.

Am I the only one who thinks it is sketchy to try to make money off poverty?

When I was a landlord some years back it was illegal to discriminate against section 8 applicants. I didnt get any, but everyone i talked to said it's extremely risky despite the supposed guaranteed government payouts.