For the record, the (most important) “right question” is, “What is the HUD-determined Fair Market Rent (FMR) for a unit with ‘X’ bedrooms in my area?” The answers are available here—if the applicant wants to pay more than the FMR, they’ll have to make up the difference, and either way, they’ll pay 30% of their monthly income as rent, with Section 8 paying the difference between that amount and the FMR.
But! There’s a hitch. Because FMR isn’t intended to cover “rent,” it’s intended to cover “total costs of housing (TCH),” which includes electricity, gas, water, sewer, garbage, and recycling costs. So if the FMR for a 2-bedroom is, say, $911 (which it is in the Metro Detroit area for 2017), and the tenant has $281 in utility bills and is paying $750 in actual rent, the TCH for them comes to $1,031. But because Section 8 only covers 70% of the TCH up to $911 , the most it can contribute is $638, meaning that regardless of their income, the tenant must pay the remaining $393. Of course, because your tenant is virtually guaranteed not to understand that, it’s up to you to either explain it to them up front or risk having the tenant vanish on you when they fail to pay (because failure to pay means they’re booted off of Section 8).
I’m thinking to buy a cheap apartment somewhere such as Stockton, then accept all the section 8 tenants who are rejected by Bay Area. That should solve the housing crisis for many and reduce your rent control fears
What’s the point to complain? Tenant portion is so low that nobody would care. Also you don’t want to have a conflict with section 8 tenant, what if they become a threat to you? I would feel really scared if you make your tenant lose her voucher. Losing a voucher is to lose million dollar lifetime guarantee, you don’t want to be so cruel.
I think a higher income tenant is more risk since you lose more when they don’t pay.
San Jose will force landlord to accept section 8 tenants. You won’t have an option anymore. But I guess many section 8 tenant may not have a good credit score to qualify for many places
And, I hope you forgive my French, but I hope you are not the POS landlord renting the other house from hell in my hood. We got rid of one last year, one more to come. That last landlord, a dumb landlord indeed, sold the house at a loss. He put $100K < > to fix it, and sold it in the mids $700Ks when he could have had it rented for many years with nice, respectable tenants and sold it for $850K without them many repairs.
This other house has been a nuisance for many years. Their tenants are not white so you get my racist tirade. But even though they are in the list of endangered species like me, they dared to call me “spic”. Funny, isn’t it?
It took the city 2 fuxing years! Yes, 2 frigging years to make them move their garbage and recycling bins where they are supposed to be, not on the street 24/7. Last time, a month ago, they left the recycling bin on the sidewalk as any other day. Yes! On the sidewalk and they didn’t give a damn about a poor Filipino old man walking by in order to do some exercise after a heart attack. The poor guy as I saw it last time had to struggle to get on the street and challenge the idiots driving like if they were at the racing tracks.
Sec 8 tenants come in all shapes and sizes just like non Sec 8 ones. I had some at my prior Oakland apt building. Some were fine, hard working and maybe a single parent, so needed some assistance. Rent was always on time, which was key in the early goings as I too was a working stiff and didn’t necessarily need the hassles of too much turnover to deal with. That stability of rent over the years helped me immensely as I then was able to save for my other properties.
I agree, I can’t judge them all as bad, but my personal experience tells me 100% I can’t have a favorable opinion of those living in my hood. I think you were lucky then!
5 out of 8 families I’ve met in that program, 2 in my hood, no good! The other 3 were fingered by friends living in different locations. It’s almost the same contempt for respecting the hood. The rest I knew them for being good, you wouldn’t even tell they were in section 8.
The house from hell in my hood, had as a final result of so much red tape to evict that family, in the owner selling the house at a discount, even putting $100K < > from his pocket to list it on the market.
I think he lost a huge chunk of the equity right there.
