Hahahahaha. A shortage of houses that will accept Sec. 8? I wish! Certainly not in my neck of the woods, Sacramento, CA. I’ve been advertising on the Sec. 8 website and on their weekly rental listings for six weeks, two houses, and only got about two calls. You know things are bad when you can’t even get Sec. 8 interest. Of course, one guy at the office did tell me their computer system was down for about three weeks, so that might be part of the problem. Nice going, guys. I’m desperate to find tenants and you let your computer problem drag on for THREE WEEKS!! Oh, I forgot. You’re a government agency. You don’t have to care.
Does anyone know when advertising for a rental if one can say they only will rent to Section 8 tenants. I’m waiting for an answer back from my attorney but he’s out of town for a week. I have a realtor friend who believes it would be alright since normally to be protected you have to be in a minority class. In this case Section 8 tenants would be the minority class, but non section 8 would be the majority. Anyone have thoughts on this?
Rich, for me Section 8 has been terrific. Especially with the current economic crisis. I know my money is coming on time from Uncle Sam. For most of my houses my worst dealings have been non section 8. They just don’t seem to take care of house as well. This goes against all common thinking about section 8. However, i can say section 8 is a true niche market that many people overlook and if managed right is a great business model.
Posted by Rich-CA on December 10, 2008 at 15:30:14:
when you have a problem, then it would be ideal especially if failure of a tenant to comply means no more benefits and they are timely about it, that’s a much bigger stick than taking a penniless loser to court to gain nothing. Its just that in some areas the housing auth is not landlord friendly and even tries to stops evictions for non payment.
If you advertise “section 8 accepted” you would have no problems. But I would think advertising a preference of where the money comes from violates fair housing. For example, you can’t refuse to rent just because they are on long term disability, get child support and so on. I would think advertising that you won’t take anybody not on sec 8 might violate that. You could say something like, “must demonstrate sec 8 eligibility”, but again I don’t think you can discriminate based on where the funds come from. Perhaps requiring a co signer if they are not on sec 8 (since sec 8 essentially cosigns for their client) might slip by, but I’m just brainstorming here,
Rich, I think you give good advice. I wont put that in my ad. These are flyers going to just my current tenants and most of their friends are on sec. 8 anyway. Thanks for the thoughts.
Re: If the housing auth backs you - Posted by Natalie-VA
Posted by Natalie-VA on December 11, 2008 at 14:37:13:
There is absolutely NO problem advertising for section 8 tenants. I wouldn’t say “only section 8”, but, by all means, advertise for section 8 tenants. Some cities in my area have a shortage of section 8 housing with people (with vouchers) waiting.