patrick.net

"How does section 8 work exactly, what are angles for a landlord? Why would they want a section 8 tenant? Do they get more rent from them? Is it guaranteed?"

Section 8 is basically a housing subsidy where the tenant is free to choose from the private sector as opposes to public housing assistance. the subsidy is 70%, so if the home rents for 2,000, HUD pays 1,400 while the section 8 beneficiery picks up the rest. Because this is an extremely lucrative program, the beneficies have motivation to pay the rent than risk losing it (extremely high demand and long waiting list). So from that perspective they can be thought of as quality tenents. From a rental price perspective, the landlord will price it to the maximum allowed by HUD and will not have trouble finding a section 8 renter. (when you see rent prices that seem high, chances are it is marketing to the HUD crowd and will rent for exactly that with no haggle)

Section 8 is pervasive in places like Concord (a meeting of the mind between both the landlord and the tenant). That is why you see 2K plus rents in 200K+ houses (and leaving non-section 8 hosed). Likewise, a section 8 beneficiery will have no luck trying to rent in Lafayette even though the rents are 2500, but the houses are 900K or more. landlords in Lafayette do not want section 8 tenents to ruin their schools, etc even though there is a strong desire for section 8 beneficiery to move there. So from a mechanics perspective, section 8 usually ends up renting in the 250K -400K type homes and never the upscale homes nor the worst homes that are more associated with project homes.

I don't think this would be a good landlord's property. The cashflow would be positive, provided that the tenants even will pay up :) Just not worth the time. You might also risk your safety going to the property to work on it. This is by the far the worst part of town.

I say we just merge both threads. That's why I posted it anyways - for discussion.

Is there some way to promote a commenter Patrick? If so, I'd like to give SF ace a gold star.