How to Find a Section 8 Tenant to Rent Your Property
/The myth of Finding Section 8 Tenants
People assume there is some kind of Section 8 qualification a landlord must do. It doesn’t work that way. Landlords simply prepare their house for a tenant. If you are not a slumlord, your house should be up to city code. If it is, you are probably able to pass a Section 8 inspection as well.
Once your house is up to city code, then you list the house for rent. If someone who has a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) comes to you, that applicant will have a move packet. Before you take her move packet, you will definitely want to do the background check and home visit, as you would with any other tenant. If you find she qualifies, you can fill out her move packet and send it in to her caseworker at her Section 8 office (otherwise known as her Public Housing Authority or Housing Commission). The move packet is a set of forms the PHA needs to prove you are the real owner of the house and to know how much the rent is and if you are paying utilities or not. Once the Section 8 office determines your paperwork meets their qualifications, which can be up to 14 days, Section 8 will email you or call you to schedule an inspection. Once the house passes the inspection, then the tenant can move in and rent payments begin.
Check out my video and blog on the Pros and Cons of Renting to Someone with Section 8.
Also be sure to see my video and blog on how I do the initial phone screening.
Do you really want a Section 8 tenant?
I used to list my houses for rent to “Section 8 Only” applicants. This caused a lot of anger with applicants. And I learned along the way that having Section 8 isn’t always all that. What matters the most is the background check. I have a very extensive background check system I use. I’m eventually putting together a class on it that any landlord can do from any city. So for now send me an email and I’ll add you to a list once I know when I will be offering that class. Monique@GreatDayPM.com
How I write my ads to attract a Section 8 voucher holder
I will state in the first line that we pass inspections. Or I will use the wording, “Section 8 OK” or “Section 8 Welcome.” This is enough.
Here are my top places I post my properties:
Zillow-Trulia-HotPads
I post my properties on Zillow and they feed out to Trulia and Hot Pads. I get the majority of my leads from Zillow.
Facebook Marketplace
I post my properties here as well. When people reply that they are interested, I always respond with a video of the property and I ask them to text me if they want an application.
Housing Commissions or PHAs or Section 8 Offices
Over the many years of providing quality housing to voucher holders, I’ve accumulated email addresses of different Section 8 caseworkers. In order to find the housing commissions (known as Public Housing Agencies or Section 8 offices) in your area, you can try calling HUD’s Public Housing Resource Center at 1-800-955-2232. Ask them for email addresses. You should first email the housing commission and ask if they accept listings and if they have a preferred form.
The problem with the local Section 8 offices accepting your posts is that applicants will sometimes call MONTHS after the house has been rented because there is no way for the housing commissions to remove the ads once the house has been rented unless a landlord lets them know. This works for me though because I just tell the person about another house I do have and I tell them not to be discouraged because they just need to ask the landlords they call what other properties they may have.
GoSection8.com
This is a site I do have to pay for ($39/month paid yearly). Second only to Zillow, I get most of my leads from this site.
Rentlinx.com
Another site that I used to use is Rentlinx.com. They link to several sites that have rentals. They are too pricey for me at $55/month and they don’t list on GoSection8.com.
Craigslist
This used to be the only place I listed my properties. It was great. I’ve used it a little bit since then but I get far more response from Zillow. Scammers will take my listings from Zillow and then place them for cheaper rent on Craiglist. They will meet the tenant at the house and say they can’t get them in right now. Or they will ask the tenant to submit a deposit. Then the person naturally goes missing. It’s really sad when the applicant finds me and lets me know this happened.
Nextdoor
This looks like a new feature. I can’t tell if I can do this living outside of Detroit. I tried it and it did not work. I may need to have a separate Detroit account. But if your rental is in your same area in which you live, this could be a nice option.