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Thanks Tworent and others. The reason I am considering this as doable venture is twofold. One my buddy from BoyScout days is an attorney and is going to go in with me 50/50. He will handle all legal matters and I will handle operations/finance. He already handles evictions in his current job so he knows what he is doing in that regard. Secondly I have been reading forums like these and speaking with friends who are LL's and think that Im more than up to par. I am a business man and a handy man.
Thanks Tworent and others. The reason I am considering this as doable venture is twofold. One my buddy from BoyScout days is an attorney and is going to go in with me 50/50. He will handle all legal matters and I will handle operations/finance. He already handles evictions in his current job so he knows what he is doing in that regard. Secondly I have been reading forums like these and speaking with friends who are LL's and think that Im more than up to par. I am a business man and a handy man.
Find a LL club in your area and talk to people doing it in your part of the world, what works for for me in my town might not work in yours.
Units must meet Housing Quality Standards and be rent reasonable as defined by the local Housing Authority.
Also, you will need to find someone with a Voucher acceptable to you and willing to rent your unit. My experience is you will need whatever is the norm in your area because there is no incentive for Voucher Holders to accept less since there is no benefit not finding a unit for the maximum allowed rent.
I find Section 8 requires much more in the way of management... both administrative and repairs.
One of my legacy units just failed a callback inspection... meaning it failed twice!
The only issues... locks the tenant replaced... changed out two bedroom door knob to key and the back door to a double deadbolt...
Tenant, per housing was responsible to change back...
Tenant refused maintenance entry and left a message stating the locks had been changed back...
On day of second inspection... locks were still there and tenant said they had "Lost" my locks so they could not put them back after leaving a message they were changed...
It is this kind of non-sense that just wastes time... by the way, tenant has been in this single family home over 20 years... her daughter had a bad breakup with boyfriend and now the family is scared.
20% of my rentals are Section 8 and they really take 80% of my time... have not had a new Section 8 rental in years.... ever since Housing no longer accepts damage claims...
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 11-19-2013 at 12:30 AM..
Section 8 is not a good choice for a first rental. Not only do you have to deal with the tenants, you also haveto meet alall of the requirements of the program and deal with inspectors that may just love to find things wrong. You will probably be better served to go conventional for the first unit and then ease into Section 8.
Central A/C would not be required. I would suggest installing AC and having it be a plug-in AC, that way it falls under the electricity bill that the tenant pays for. At least where I live, this is standard in any apt.
Central A/C would not be required. I would suggest installing AC and having it be a plug-in AC, that way it falls under the electricity bill that the tenant pays for. At least where I live, this is standard in any apt.
And just how do you think central AC works? By osmosis? All AC units, ducted and non ducted, run on electric.
And no, I wouldn't install AC unless the housing authority required it. You can put a clause in your lease giving your tenant the right to put in their own window unit, at their expense with full responsibility of damages.
Actually, I'd dump the whole sec 8 business..it's not worth it.
Well the reasoning behind section 8 was the guaranteed portion of the rent check each month. In Jax the impoverished areas, from what I understand, will come with the same headaches as section 8.
And just how do you think central AC works? By osmosis? All AC units, ducted and non ducted, run on electric.
Thanks for a morning laugh.
PS: I was imagining an army of little gnomes huddled inside the unit puffing out cold air from mouths filled with ice cubes, with another group of gnomes lined up passing buckets of ice to them from the gas-run freezer ...
PS: I was imagining an army of little gnomes huddled inside the unit puffing out cold air from mouths filled with ice cubes, with another group of gnomes lined up passing buckets of ice to them from the gas-run freezer ...
Be aware that you will have a difficult time keeping an AC unit in the "hood". The AC units contain copper pipe and your meth head neighbors, or even your own tenant, will tear up or steal a $5,000 AC unit just to get $5 worth of copper.
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All AC units, ducted and non ducted, run on electric. 
