Section 8 housing in Baltimore
A little about me: I currently rent out and manage a couple of properties to conventional tenants in Maryland. These are mostly in the nicer suburbs.
I'm currently looking into buying properties for 100k< and renting them out to section 8 voucher tenants. I'm only looking at turnkey properties. I do plan on being a respectful and responsive landlord who does not plan on taking advantage of tenants. Does anyone have any advice for me?
1) What areas in Baltimore are the best to focus on?
2) is Baltimore overly tenant friendly?
3) What laws should I watch out for (for example am I allowed to have the water/electricity be under the tenant's name)
4) How hard is it to get the property section 8 approved in Baltimore?
I own houses in Baltimore City and they are all Section 8. Section 8 can be very rewarding because you literally don't have to chase rent money. That being said because it is a government program they are very tight on their rules. If a tenant goes to section 8 with a complaint they can at times come out to inspect and if you are out of compliance even for the smallest thing you will have a timeframe to fix it and if not done to their specs or on time they can abate rent.
I will say though, as long as you have a good vetting process for the tenants and you adhere to the guidelines you will be fine. I have a management company handling my houses and I have not missed a rent payment from section 8 in years.
1) What areas in Baltimore are the best to focus on? - There are plenty of good neighborhoods for this strategy in Baltimore, too many to list. I would look for neighborhoods that do not have an abundance of vacant board ups.
2) is Baltimore overly tenant friendly? - Yes, but its really Maryland as a whole. If you're familiar with land lording in the "nicer suburbs" pretty much the same tenant/landlord laws apply. There are some differences for sure but I don't think they are substantial.
3) What laws should I watch out for (for example am I allowed to have the water/electricity be under the tenant's name) - You can put all utilities in the tenant's name, but I would advise keeping water in your name since that utility is a lien on the house itself. We pay all the water bills and then bill the tenant.
4) How hard is it to get the property section 8 approved in Baltimore? - Its cumbersome and frustrating dealing with some of the programs and their inspectors, but not necessarily hard. Just know that they are going to nit pick you on stupid little things.
Quote from @Lakshmi Maddali:
A little about me: I currently rent out and manage a couple of properties to conventional tenants in Maryland. These are mostly in the nicer suburbs.
I'm currently looking into buying properties for 100k< and renting them out to section 8 voucher tenants. I'm only looking at turnkey properties. I do plan on being a respectful and responsive landlord who does not plan on taking advantage of tenants. Does anyone have any advice for me?
1) What areas in Baltimore are the best to focus on?
2) is Baltimore overly tenant friendly?
3) What laws should I watch out for (for example am I allowed to have the water/electricity be under the tenant's name)
4) How hard is it to get the property section 8 approved in Baltimore?
The instagram strategy is just that. PM me and I’ll actually give you a strategy that works.
Here is a link to the inspection checklist. They will inspect once per year or once every other year. Any property can qualify for Section 8 although it is rare for Section 8 recipients to only need one bedroom. Sometimes it happens, but it's rare. Voucher amount goes up with each additional bedroom, but so does wear and tear on the property.
You can have a hard time collecting utility charges or the tenant's share of the rent. If you do evict them they lose the voucher so there is a powerful incentive for them to follow the lease terms if you show the voucher recipient you're serious the first time they "try you."