Thinking of becoming a slum lord. Anybody rent to HUD/Section 8 people?

[thedarkwolf]

The kind of duplexes I can afford for now are not going to be the nicest places in the world so I'm probably going to be stuck with HUD/Section 8 renters and want to know how much of a PITA that is.

How hard is it to get a place a qualified? Judging from what I see HUD's inspection can't be too stringent.
The biggest worry I have with a HUD renter is them trashing the place. Is HUD going to cover that or am I responsible?

 

[OrByte]

Don't do it.

nothing but problems. It may seem like a good deal but the headaches from dealing with hoodrats is not worth it at all.

 

[drebo]

Unless you're in a place where you can evict for non-payment, don't do it.

I knew someone who rented a house to someone who got thrown in prison...no rent for the duration and couldn't evict. Fucked over real good.

 

[thedarkwolf]

ahhh renting to a HUDer I figured I would be guaranteed at least some of the rent every month from HUD. I have read in the wiki it takes judicial action to evict which doesn't sound fun but I doubt its fun to evict non HUDers either.

 

[thepd7]

Unless you're in a place where you can evict for non-payment, don't do it.

I knew someone who rented a house to someone who got thrown in prison...no rent for the duration and couldn't evict. Fucked over real good.

wow where can you not evict someone not paying rent? That sucks.

 

[Mike Gayner]

There are places where you can't evict someone for not paying rent?

 

[Bateluer]

There are places where you can't evict someone for not paying rent?

Quite a few places. They have to not pay rent for several months, trash the residence, and you have to show repeated proof of good faith, proper notices, you maintained proper maintenance, etc.

I'd only rent to an active duty military member, personally. If they fvck up, not pay rent, trash the place, etc, you can contact their officers who will actually take action.

 

[wiredspider]

Quite a few places. They have to not pay rent for several months, trash the residence, and you have to show repeated proof of good faith, proper notices, you maintained proper maintenance, etc.

I'd only rent to an active duty military member, personally. If they fvck up, not pay rent, trash the place, etc, you can contact their officers who will actually take action.

Think they have some protection from not paying through the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

 

[paperfist]

ahhh renting to a HUDer I figured I would be guaranteed at least some of the rent every month from HUD. I have read in the wiki it takes judicial action to evict which doesn't sound fun but I doubt its fun to evict non HUDers either.

You do get the rent sent right to you every month and HUD generally has a higher building standard then non-HUD. Place needs to be up to code, no holes in the wall, missing tiles, etc.

It's a huge process to evict them, since they are poor (at least in NY) they have access to free legal aid and so at the least their lawyer will get them extra stay time even if they owe for months.

Biggest thing with renting is to plan on missing a few months rent and add that into the expenses. Get an iron clad renters agreement (Nolo books has some good ones) so all your bases are covered.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Well luckily housing here is pretty cheap so as long as one side is rented I'll be ok. The rent from one unit will at least cover the house payment and I won't be hurting. Shouldn't have a problem making the house payments with no renters if it comes to it. Hope to find a building that is already setup with split utilities so I can make the renter pay the utilities especially gas. I don't want to pay the gas bill for somebody that wants their badly insulated old ass duplex to be 80f in the winter.

The big plan would to buy more duplexes over the years and then it won't be as big of a problem if a few screw me over. The first will be the hardest though. Once I get a couple buildings I think I'd bring a property management company to deal with everything for me.

 

[Train]

My brother did maintenance for a guy that owned section 8 housing. He basicaly had more money than he could spend. Was traveling the world 9 or 10 months a year.

Each tennant had to pony up $25 a month, the rest was paid by the gov, and probably a ridiculous rate for what was a basically a cinder block cell with plumbing.

When the 5 year welfare limit kicked in and they actually had to evict people because the govt wasn't going to be footing the bill anymore, people flipped out. They started destroying the place, shitting on floors, smashing all the windows, tub, toilet, pissing in the halls.

Funny though that they always complained about how the govt wasn't helping them enough, but it was noting but pimped out cars with $500 rims in the parking lot.

 

[thedarkwolf]

When the 5 year welfare limit kicked in and they actually had to evict people because the govt wasn't going to be footing the bill anymore, people flipped out. They started destroying the place, shitting on floors, smashing all the windows, tub, toilet, pissing in the halls.

That is still my biggest worry. I'm hoping to hear HUD will pay to fix anything major like that. I'm not too afraid of the little normal rental things but I don't won't to have to foot the bill if the HUDer destroys the house.

 

[FallenHero]

Here is the problem with Section 8...once you go there, it is very very very difficult to go back. Going to Section 8 in even one unit will cause a huge domino effect on the rest of the units. No one, and I mean no one, wants to live near or next to section 8 housing. I've seen it happen in every town I know...decent apartment complexes looking to make a quick buck will go Section 8. Within 2-3 years, it went from one building being section 8 to the entire complex because residents got out quick.

We have one in our town that is trying to get away from it. They have been on an eviction rampage and they can't get them out quick enough. The levels of crime generally remain the same and the drug dealing/thefts continue. They have been at it for 4 years now and they are probably another 6-10 away from actually being sec 8 free.

 

[Vette73]

^

Yep in my college days the first thing I asked was do you take section8? If they said yes I walked out.

 

[boomerang]

"When You Reward Bad Behavior, You Get More of It."

 

[edro]

I'd stick with standard tenants and discriminate heavily.

 

[dud]

The kind of duplexes I can afford for now are not going to be the nicest places in the world so I'm probably going to be stuck with HUD/Section 8 renters and want to know how much of a PITA that is.

How hard is it to get a place a qualified? Judging from what I see HUD's inspection can't be too stringent.
The biggest worry I have with a HUD renter is them trashing the place. Is HUD going to cover that or am I responsible?

What you are considering is not for the faint of heart. The types of people you are going to be renting to have little incentive to maintain your property or leave it in even faie condition when they vacate.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Here is the problem with Section 8...once you go there, it is very very very difficult to go back. Going to Section 8 in even one unit will cause a huge domino effect on the rest of the units. No one, and I mean no one, wants to live near or next to section 8 housing. I've seen it happen in every town I know...decent apartment complexes looking to make a quick buck will go Section 8. Within 2-3 years, it went from one building being section 8 to the entire complex because residents got out quick.

We have one in our town that is trying to get away from it. They have been on an eviction rampage and they can't get them out quick enough. The levels of crime generally remain the same and the drug dealing/thefts continue. They have been at it for 4 years now and they are probably another 6-10 away from actually being sec 8 free.

This whole town is pretty much section 8 so that isn't a big problem .

 

[marmasatt]

What you are considering is not for the faint of heart. The types of people you are going to be renting to have little incentive to maintain your property or leave it in even faie condition when they vacate.

This. I have a cousin who does this. The good thing, as others have noted is that the rent basically comes to you like clockwork every month. You never have to worry about that. What you want (if you can find one) is like a middle aged male who works hard and is never really home but to sleep. Or like a single mother who *won't* actually try to have her new boyfriend staying in the place after the first week

 

[Vette73]

Yea I will add not ALL section 8 is that bad. But it only takes 1 to ruin your whole business model.

If you buy a place see if you can find one with inside brick walls and carpet. Carpet is cheap and brick can be painted. Drywall and wood/tile will have to be replaced at higher cost.

 

[vi edit]

I'd rather have a $10,000 bender in vegas. At least they have the odds of repayment fairly clearly posted and the hotel staff has to clean up the place after you trash it.

I rented a house from a guy that did section 8 and repo stuff for years. He's cashing out what little he can and getting the hell away from the business. He's had houses burnt down, toilets ripped off the floor, basements flooded from bathtubs never turned off, police called in for meth production and a whole slew of other things.

I'd just want nothing to do with the business and the headaches associated with it.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Think they have some protection from not paying through the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

We catch a lot of shit (potentially legally I think) if we fail to pay bills. We have some protection for when we get a change of base/deployed, but that might need to be in the lease too (I live on base so don't deal with this stuff).

 

[ichy]

Renting to Section 8ers can be profitable, but you need to know what you're doing. Check out some landlord's forums, or the rental property thread on Fatwallet.

 

[PottedMeat]

this idea sounds terrible. from the posters here it sounds like owning this type of housing is fine - as long as you have an intermediary to deal with it. so if you can't hire a guy to deal with this shit directly, don't do it.


whenever i hear 'section 8' i think of this:

Private Cowboy: Tough break for Hand Job. He was all set to get shipped out on a medical.
Private Joker: What was the matter with him?
Private Cowboy: He was jerkin' off ten times a day.
Private Eightball: No shit. At least ten times a day.
Private Cowboy: Last week he was sent down to Da Nang to see the Navy head shrinker, and the crazy fucker starts jerking off in the waiting room. Instant Section Eight. He was just waiting for his papers to clear division.

 

[Sluggo]

police called in for meth production

Yeah, if someone cooks meth in a house you own, that opens up another can of worms. You would always carry some liability if the next renters got sick from it not being cleaned properly.

http://www.kci.org/meth_info/meth_cleanup.htm