All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Bombaci

Hey Portsmouth,
Hope you'll join us for our Portsmouth meetup!
See you soon!

Hey everyone,
Hope you'll join us for our Worcester meetup!
See you there!

Hello, community,
We hope to see you at our Lowell Meetup!
See you there!

Hello everyone,
We hope you can join us for the Westborough meetup! 
See you soon!

Hey folks! The date of this meetup is April 17th

Hey everyone!

Hope you’ll join us on April 24th, at the Backyard Brewery in Manchester, NH.

See you there!

Hey everyone!

Join us on April 22nd, at the Craft Food Halls in Waltham.

See you there!

Hey everyone,

Hope you'll join us for our Worcester meetup!

See you there!

Hey everyone!

Hope you’ll join us on April 9th, at Sacred Profane Brewery & Tankpub, 50 Washington St, Biddeford, ME.

See you there!

@Jason Reider 

That gap might feel big at first, but honestly, it is not bad at all compared to what we usually see when taking over properties from older landlords who have not kept up with rent increases. You should not get much pushback from Section 8 if you raise the rent closer to market value.

A quick look at the fair market rent website shows the 2025 rate for a four-bedroom in Manchester, Connecticut is around $2,260. That is the number most housing authorities use as a baseline. I would recommend reaching out to the tenant's case manager in August or September to let them know you plan to raise the rent to $2,260 starting November first. That gives them time to process the paperwork so the increase takes effect when the lease ends. Depending on the tenant’s income, their portion might go up slightly, or Section 8 might cover the full difference.

Four-bedroom two-bath units are really hard to find for voucher holders, so odds are the caseworker will do what they can to keep this tenant in place. As long as you give proper notice and communicate early, you are in a strong position.

We own and manage around 700 units across Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and help about 100 people a year buy their first househack. So we deal with this kind of thing all the time. I actually grew up in Manchester, Connecticut, so this post jumped out at me. My first house hack was a three-family in Vernon, just down the road. All three tenants were Section 8, so I learned a lot early on. We ended up selling that property when I moved to Massachusetts, and now we are working on expanding our company back into Connecticut, but we are not quite there yet.

If you are buying in Manchester or anywhere nearby, check the Events tab here on BiggerPockets. There are usually local meetups that can help you connect with people familiar with the inspectors and case managers in your area. We host four or five free monthly Simplified Real Estate Meetups in cities like Worcester, Lowell, Waltham, Manchester (NH), Portsmouth, Northboro, and Biddeford (ME). The meetups are great for learning from others who are actively managing units with voucher tenants. I am sure we will expand into Connecticut soon, but for now we are focused on MA, NH, and ME.

Feel free to message me if you want the fair market rent website link or have other questions. Moderators don't like it when you put external links in forum posts. You are on the right path. Keep going.