Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Because you will be reduced to being a slumlord if you hope to turn a profit on low quality tenants. If you are a small time landlord it not worth the hassle to deal with high maintenance tenants who have very little downside in creating trouble for you. NYC is a very tenant friendly place and evictions can take over year. A higher quality tenant has more going on in their life therefore won't create as much trouble for you as they can easily just leave if they are not happy with your terms.
Because you will be reduced to being a slumlord if you hope to turn a profit on low quality tenants. If you are a small time landlord it not worth the hassle to deal with high maintenance tenants who have very little downside in creating trouble for you. NYC is a very tenant friendly place and evictions can take over year. A higher quality tenant has more going on in their life therefore won't create as much trouble for you as they can easily just leave if they are not happy with your terms.
They are not all bad people to rent to. There are some good families who have the voucher.
The pro is that a portion of the rent is guaranteed every single month from the state. If the state is paying all the rent then you know you will get paid on time every single time.
The cons is that you risk getting a bad tenant who might feel entitled and end up causing damage to the apartment. You might have to screen your tenants before accepting them.
Yes there is a lot of rules and regs you must abide by as a landlord when accepting people on the program but that is no different from the rules and regs you must abide by for renting to someone without.
They are not all bad people to rent to. There are some good families who have the voucher.
The pro is that a portion of the rent is guaranteed every single month from the state. If the state is paying all the rent then you know you will get paid on time every single time.
The cons is that you risk getting a bad tenant who might feel entitled and end up causing damage to the apartment. You might have to screen your tenants before accepting them.
Yes there is a lot of rules and regs you must abide by as a landlord when accepting people on the program but that is no different from the rules and regs you must abide by for renting to someone without.
The so called "guaranteed rent" from Section 8 is a myth and the standard line prospective Section 8 tenants use to persuade landlords to rent to them. Don't fall for it.
If the apartment is in excellent condition and say for some reason an outlet is not working or you have a drip in your faucet, Section 8 will suspend their portion of the payment until it's fixed. You have to submit a bunch of paperwork and jump through all these hoops to certify the problem has been fixed. By the time you submit the paperwork and by the time Section 8 employees get around to your paperwork, several weeks if not a couple of months could go by that this so called "guaranteed rent" is not paid. So please don't listen to people who say the rent is "guaranteed". When dealing with the City/Gov't, there are no guarantees and there are always strings attached.
Also, assuming Section 8 makes their portion of the rent payment, there is absolutely no guarantee the Section 8 tenant's portion will be paid on time or paid at all. So for argument sake, if the full rent is $1,000 and Section 8's portion is $600 and the Section 8 tenant's portion is $400, there is no guarantee the Section 8 tenant will pay that $400 rent. Also keep in mind that beyond the financial issue, Section 8 tenants typically (not all) tend to be people with poor behavior and social issues who will not assimilate and without a doubt will negatively affect your property and/or neighborhood. Particularly here in NYC, the street culture is very prevalent in the Section 8 demographics. Do you really want those type of people as tenants in your property?
At the end of the day, I'd advise everyone to stay away from renting to Section 8 tenants and focus more on renting to regular working folks who make minimum 40x the monthly rent. Check their credit history, check their bank account to confirm they have reserves to live on and not just living paycheck to paycheck with $200 in their bank account.
Just ask for 800+ credit score, SPOTLESS criminal record and not even a parking violation. You will be ok.
and non-smoking
Parking violations are useless because most section 8 don't drive, and it doesn't mean anything. I'd be more concerned with unpaid violations and impounding/booting. I would qualify for your criteria except for those parking violations, which I always pay. No matter how careful you are, there's no way to avoid tickets. I get one every year or so. One of my family members who is a lawyer is such a spaz that she gets like 5 tickets each month
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
