My husband and I just bought our first section 8 property. I excited to learn the process and wanted to reach out to the Bigger Pockets community regarding a few things: 

1. Do you do a pre-screen before you have the applicant fill out and pay for a background check?

2. What do you think of Chex Safe for a background check website? This is the website that gosection8.com recommends. For our other properties, we use myrental.com to run background checks. 

3. Do you ask the tenant for one month's security deposit upfront? I have been reading other forums on this and many say 1-2 months.

4. Any other information to know upfront! 

5. Are there any questions I can't ask (that could be considered discrimination) aside from the obvious?

Thank you! 

Originally posted by @Jennie Monfried:

My husband and I just bought our first section 8 property. I excited to learn the process and wanted to reach out to the Bigger Pockets community regarding a few things: 

1. Do you do a pre-screen before you have the applicant fill out and pay for a background check? I use ShowMojo for self showing and have created pre-screen questions before they can view the property.  I find out how many bedrooms their voucher is for, when they plan to move, if they have pets (I don't allow them) and if they smoke (I don't allow smoking in my properties).

2. What do you think of Chex Safe for a background check website? This is the website that gosection8.com recommends. For our other properties, we use myrental.com to run background checks. I would stick with generally the same process that you use for all your other properties.  This will help you avoid any potential Fair Housing issues.  You will have to make some changes in regards to income.

3. Do you ask the tenant for one month's security deposit upfront? I have been reading other forums on this and many say 1-2 months. I require $1000 security deposit.  My average 3 bedroom rent is about $1075 so I just went with the $1000 for ease of business.  This is because I don't know exactly how much the Section 8 office will land on in rent so I found that saying 1x the monthly rent meant I had to wait until well into the Section 8 process to be able to tell the tenant how much the deposit would be.  That doesn't work for me.  I require half of the deposit at the time of lease review/Section 8 landlord packet signing, and I don't know the rent amount yet at that point. 

I know a lot of people are requiring 2x the rent right now due to the eviction moratorium and I know that makes sense.  But I'm not sure if Section 8 tenants would be able to swing that in my area.  Plus, I've found that strong screening doesn't require me to ask 2x.  Section 8 tenants have a lot at stake not to lose their voucher so good S8 tenants pay their rent portion and take care of their property.

4. Any other information to know upfront!  There's a lot ot know about Section 8, yes.  I answer A LOT of questions on BP about Section 8 so check my Forum responses in my profile to find a litany of stuff that you may not know to ask yet.

5. Are there any questions I can't ask (that could be considered discrimination) aside from the obvious?  Stick to your normal screening, adjust for income and possibly credit (I'm looking only for mostly positive pay history in the last 2 years, no $ owed to utility companies).

Thank you! 

Jennie, my answers are after your questions in bold.

@Jennifer Donley this is so helpful. I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH.