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we are trying to determine to see if we should join the party. Our friends who have rental properties all tell us to not rent to section 8 tenants because of the high risks. Is this true?
Of the seven section 8 tenants I've rented to over the years, only 3 of them were "acceptable". One of them is still my tenant but he pays his rent late every once in a while. One didn't stay in the program for long, she got a good job and bought herself her own place after 1 year as my tenant. The 3rd one left saying she didn't like how the neighborhood was becoming. Never had issues with maintenance for any of those 3.
The other 4 were nightmares.
One flooded a 2400+ sqft property. The property was built in 2005 and the flood occurred at 2009. One of her kids left the bath tub on and the overflow isn't meant to handle an extended period of overflowing from the bathtub. Had to refloor and repaint after she left. Was about to evict her as she demanded her deposit back even after flooding my place. I was worried she would trash the place even worse, so I gave her her deposit in a cash for keys deal. The only reason I didn't take a bath on that year was my insurance covered the damage of the flood and lost rent.
The second one, I had to evict because they lost their voucher and couldn't afford the place anymore. Left their junk and I had to spend the entire deposit on just cleaning the property.
The third just stopped paying and after eviction, I had to refloor/repaint after they were locked out.
The final one; after the 1st month of tenancy the disrespect began. They'd pay rent late always, claiming the payment system was difficult(as if going to a local Wells Fargo and depositing cash in a checking account is difficult). I offered to pick up the rent at the property, and they always played games by making me wait even though I would have a set appointment with them.
I foolishly at the time accepted a split security deposit, which they never fully paid.
At the end when I was evicting them for non payment of rent, the wife called me at night and left a bizarre voicemail saying that, "I see you in my back yard, you're in trouble now, I'm calling the cops". I guess she got some advice from friends to claim that I am a peeping Tom to try and scare me off.
The court compelled them to pay their rent. When I was to get the key from them on their last day of tenancy they never showed up. They told me to come at MIDNIGHT, so like an idiot I went in the middle of the damn night. When there was no answer at the door I called them asking what's up. They said, "Oh we're gone, do whatever you gotta do". To that I responded, "What?! How am I supposed to gain entry, you changed the locks!" The husband said, "F*** you motherf***er, not my problem".
When I went the next morning with a locksmith, they left the house with a toilet full of feces and a bath tub full of water and dog hair(no they weren't allowed to have a dog). Junk was left and I had to pay someone to haul away. Didn't have to remodel the place or change out appliances.
After that last one I had enough. Over the next few weeks I had found out this tenant even forged my signature on a housing authority letter. Instead of giving me the letter, which I would've happily signed, she forged my signature.
I wrote a letter to the head of Southern Nevada housing authority explaining the forgery, the disrespect and the state the house was returned to me. They didn't do anything. They responded, "Sue them, it has nothing to do with us". Which is fair enough, but my damages didn't exceed even the minimal deposit they had left with me so I let sleeping dogs lie.
Anyhow, I don't rent to section 8 anymore. Bunch of rude and entitled people. The old dude that still resides in my 1 bdrm condo will be my last one, after he's gone that's it for me.
Of the seven section 8 tenants I've rented to over the years, only 3 of them were "acceptable". One of them is still my tenant but he pays his rent late every once in a while. One didn't stay in the program for long, she got a good job and bought herself her own place after 1 year as my tenant. The 3rd one left saying she didn't like how the neighborhood was becoming. Never had issues with maintenance for any of those 3.
The other 4 were nightmares.
I wrote a letter to the head of Southern Nevada housing authority explaining the forgery, the disrespect and the state the house was returned to me. They didn't do anything. They responded, "Sue them, it has nothing to do with us". Which is fair enough, but my damages didn't exceed even the minimal deposit they had left with me so I let sleeping dogs lie.
Anyhow, I don't rent to section 8 anymore. Bunch of rude and entitled people. The old dude that still resides in my 1 bdrm condo will be my last one, after he's gone that's it for me.
Did you adequately and sufficiently screen all of them just as you would a non-S8 tenant? I would think that if you had it would have resulted in most of these S8 tenants not qualifying and you would have saved yourself a lot of these headaches.
Did you adequately and sufficiently screen all of them just as you would a non-S8 tenant? I would think that if you had it would have resulted in most of these S8 tenants not qualifying and you would have saved yourself a lot of these headaches.
Yes, but my screening process was not as rigorous as it is today. I learned a lot from those nightmare tenants. If you're going to rent to anyone the first question you should be asking them is, "Why are you moving from your previous place?"
For example the last tenant I discussed in the previous reply was living in a 5 bdrm house about 1 mile away from my own rental which was also 5 bdrm. Their landlord wasn't selling the place and when I called their management company they said, "Other than not doing the landscaping, we don't have problems from them". Obviously they were trying to cover up the bigger lie that these guys were unscrupulous with this smaller lie of being lazy at yard work. So already their reason for moving doesn't make sense and their shown to be lazy. Those are now immediate red flags.
I also now inspect an applicant's current rental. If their rental is trashed, I'm obviously not going to rent to them.
I'm also getting more strict about my credit score requirements. I can now demand a higher credit score from applicant's but for the longest time everyone had foreclosures and short sells messing up their scores so I couldn't just use the credit score as a metric.
Often times I've accepted someone who had unpaid medical bills and it didn't cause me trouble. It's when someone has creditors from unpaid phone bills and utility companies that really is a warning sign. If I want tenants with great credit scores my rentals would stay empty for several months and that doesn't make sense, so I tried my best to navigate those issues during the recession.
Yes, but my screening process was not as rigorous as it is today. I learned a lot from those nightmare tenants.
So, as suspected, this really wasn't necessarily a Sec8 problem but moreso it was a problem with your overall screening process when any of this occurred. Got it.
So, as suspected, this really wasn't necessarily a Sec8 problem but moreso it was a problem with your overall screening process when any of this occurred. Got it.
And back you go on my ignore list.
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