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Experience renting to people on H-U-D or Section 8 ?

memyselfi

memyselfi
Full Member
Minuteman
Sep 17, 2011
841
3,743
Good Ole USA
Short version, does any one have any opinions / story's on leasing property through HUD ?

Edit to ask more specific questions
Getting payments 2 to 3 months delayed. HUD does not cover a damage deposit. Once you area affiliated with, can you cancel later on ? Property passing initial inspection, to later being informed that XYZ are not allowed, and need to be upgraded.

Basically any worse case scenarios. thanks
 
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Not ours, but our 1st house had rental next to it. For most of the 13 years we lived there, we had good neighbors. The last group was a section 8. Now these were small older houses and sorta close together. The traffic started showing up at all hours of the night, hummers, caddies, etc. The loud music and loud cussing were next. They then got a pit bull puppy, which stayed chained up inside a fenced in yard. Filmed a young girl dancing around whipping the puppy with a stick. Filmed it chained to the fence without shelter during a rainy night. Turned that tape over to animal control.
So no, I don't have a very favorable idea about those kinds of renters.
 
I used to live almost next door to a Section 8 renter. Her nephew or other relative stole my commute bike, it was outside for 10 minutes. Never had a problem until this guy showed up and was hanging around her house. 99% sure it was him, as after that every time he passed by he would look over at my house, as though looking for something else to steal. It was a super quiet one way street.

A friend live in a apartment building close by, lots of Section 8 renters. Theft problems, people riding those super noisy motorized scooters without a muffler, etc. Very noisy over there. People started moving out, then the manager rented to more Section 8, on and on until the place was a disaster.
 
Not as a landlord but the wife has experience with section 8. Her recommendation is stay as far away as possible.
 
"white flight". There are a few that aren't bad, but your more likely to win the lotto.
I believe with sect 8 you can't deny a tenet that is on it..
 
I managed a quadplex full of sec8 for an Iranian slumlord who kept them barely habitable and milked the government for a bunch of money (it was technically in a high dollar county so they paid well). The building had bad plumbing, stairs falling apart and carpenter ants yet the government kept paying anyways. Eventually he went back to Iran and I have no idea what happened to his property or his tenants.
 
Much appreciated for the replys. I have been looking through Reddit and Quora etc, and the consensus is NO
 
Short version, does any one have any opinions / story's on leasing property through HUD ?

Edit to ask more specific questions
Getting payments 2 to 3 months delayed. HUD does not cover a damage deposit. Once you area affiliated with, can you cancel later on ? Property passing initial inspection, to later being informed that XYZ are not allowed, and need to be upgraded.

Basically any worse case scenarios. thanks
I have a somewhat different experience with Section 8. My interaction was 20 years ago when I owned a property in Lynn, MA where I grew up. It was a well maintained property. Four floors of four apartments per floor.

12 of 16 units were section 8. My strategy was a bit different than some of my fellow landlords. I generally kept the place up and took an active role in the management of the property. I sacrificed one apartment to provide an on-site manager. He was an older handyman. He lived there for free and handled shit as it happened. Good deal for him and me.

7 of 12 section 8 apartments were old people and 5 of 12 were low income. The local Section 8 office always appreciated my lack of issues for inspections whenever a new tenant moved in and during audits. They loved the on-site manager.

Section 8 paid 80% of the contract rent which was at the high end of market. if the tenant didn't pay the remaining 20%, you were still ahead and most tenants paid because they didn't live in a shithole. A benefit of keeping up the building.

If I had a problem with a tenant, Section 8 would solve it pretty quickly.

YMMV
 
Don’t do it. In my experienc: About a third of section 8 folks are awesome people just getting by and paying their bills on time. They keep it clean and you don’t have any problems. Sometimes for years. Then one day they lose their job. Or their neice comes to live with them. Or they get a new girlfriend/boyfriend. Then the trouble starts. The other 2/3s are constant trouble. Treat the property like trash. Late w payments. Intimidate their neighbors etc. The worst part of all is when it comes to charging late fees, penalties or eviction they have a shit ton of resources. It’s you the landlord against every pro bono lawyer, every nonprofit, the city itself. So no. Don’t do it.
 
I was a cop for a few minutes and section 8 is where we went for the real work. Didn't look like much of a HOA at the ones I saw.

If you have the option not to, why would you? What's the upside to doing it?
 
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