All Forum Posts by: Karen F.

It's useful to know what Section 8 will allow for apartments by number of bedrooms, bathrooms, town, utilities included or not.  The housing authorities will not give out this information, even to the tenants, which makes it even more challenging to rent to Section 8, since the unit must be empty to be inspected, at least two weeks before the beginning of the month, and the tenants are often hard on the units, sometimes challenging to deal with.   In New Britain, we are currently getting 1050 3 bedroom cold flat, but each time we've had to fight hard with the housing authority to get it.  We're also getting $1275 for 4 bdrm cold flat, and I figure it's time to try to get an increase on that.  Anyone have information to share?

BTW, if tenant submits paperwork for the unit before the middle of the month here, it is very likely to be approved by the beginning of the next month.

I'm in CT.  We have about 20 units in multifamilies.  We DO have a few Sec 8 tenants (and also ones who are on some kind of agency support with planned transition to Sec 8).  Sec 8 pays about 5% below market, sometimes 10% below market, if a "helpful" (NOT) agency is taking their cut, but you do get the money from them.  The portion that the tenant is supposed to pay, not so reliable.  Also, I have had SO many applicants offer to pay MORE than they're supposed to, to get the apartment.  NEVER, NEVER do this!  The tenant will have you under their thumb, because if they reveal to Sec 8 that you are accepting more than you are allowed to from the tenant, Sec 8 will kick you off the program, and bar you from it, and you'll still have to get that tenant (and all your other Sec 8 tenants) out - and believe me, it's not easy, because they cannot find a place that will take them!

We don't rent our "good" units to Sec 8.  Those that can command a higher market rate, we avoid Sec 8 like the plague.  The tenants are very hard on the apartments.  We have one family that we put in the screens for inspection day, and remove and store them right after the inspection - because they deliberately bust out the screens to look down to see who is ringing or knocking to get in - oh, did I forget to mention that they got busted for dealing last year?  They invite in other people to live in their apartment, likely collecting money for subletting a room.  They get pitbull after pitbull, despite the no pets rule.

That all being said, we are collecting money for a unit that's hard to rent.  You do have to pass an inspection, and that can be just according to the whim of the inspector.  Outlets have to work and be grounded.  Appliances have to work.  But once, we had a new inspector insist that we repoint a foundation - on a building that had passed inspection many times.

Our experience has been that if you are going to take Sec 8, best to get in a family where Sec8 pays the entire rent - cause it can be hard to get the tenant to pay their share, even when they know that ultimately they will be kicked off the program if they don't pay their share.  Sometimes you get a family that is no trouble, and the rent just comes in - we've got one like that.

So if the unit warrants market rents - don't take Sec 8.  If it is not so desirable, and you'll have trouble getting market rent, I'd consider it.  We try to group Sec 8 together into one building, because they surely do not make good neighbors.

yeah, I think you all are right. Glad they are gone.  I will have to just go with any damages.

We are the kind of LL that bends over backwards to return deposits, if at all possible.  But if ever there were a time that I would want to keep the deposit, this is it!  I have posted previously about them, and their friends downstairs.  Now, both units have turned over, hurray!  These tenants were that terrible, and they .  I am so glad to be rid of them.

I notified them by certified letter (which they refused to collect) three months ahead of time that I would not renew their lease.  I also slipped a copy under their door.  They did acknowledge, in a text, that they knew that I would not renew the lease.  But, despite my many text requests to be informed that they had found a place and were actually moving out, they didn't let me know that they would actually move out until six days before the end of the lease.  I have the texts to demonstrate this.

The lease requires thirty days notice of moving out.  But of course, I had told them that they had to move out at the end of the lease.  And they have, (although they left a lot of crap, they did move out on the last day of the month, and they left keys on the counter, and when I texted them to ask if they indeed were out, they said that they were.

They gave me a great deal of trouble about letting me show the apartment, but when I pressed them, and informed them that it was a violation of the lease to deny me reasonable access with 24 hrs notice, they would, at the last minute, say, "Fine".  But because they still hadn't found a place, right up until six days before the end of the lease, I really couldn't rent it, since who is going to rent a place that they can see may not be available?

Question is, aside from any damage they may have done, can I keep the one month security deposit because they gave me far less than the 30 days notice required that they were moving out?  I did tell them that I would not renew.  As they got closer and closer to the end of the lease, without having found something, I even warned them that I would evict them for holding over, beginning the day after the lease ended.  But they only gave me six days' notice that they had found a place and would actually leave.  Of course, despite my having advertised the place, it's very difficult to find a tenant with only six days' notice.

maybe I am not using the correct terms. Under contract means an offer has already been accepted. It's a waste of time and effort pursuing these properties. Realtor. Com used to show this, now it doesn't. 

Murdoch has killed realtor.com.  Not only does it now run so slowly as to be virtually useless, it has lost the only advantage it had over Zillow and Trulia.  It used to show status - whether a property was "active" or "under contract".  This was the only feature it had that was useful, that Zillow or Trulia did not have.  I don't know if Redfin has it or not, but Redfin doesn't cover my area.

Does anyone know any other way to search for properties that are not under contract?  I have found most of our properties without using a buyer's realtor.  Sometimes we wind up with a better deal if we are able to use the seller's agent as a dual agent.  But now, I don't see how we can search for properties that are not yet under contract, short of working with a realtor.  I hate doing that, because I usually know better than them what it is that I'm looking for.

BTW, you will ALWAYS lose a month between tenants when you rent to Sec 8, since the inspection can only be done when the unit is vacant, and it takes about a month to get the entire process done, from the time the prospective tenant views the property, to the time Sec 8 approves and starts paying the rent.  Also, inspectors can be having a bad day, and insist at random that you do things that have no effect on safety or rentability.

Where I am, Section 8 pays a little less than the going rate for rentals, so the only ones that we have rented to Sec 8 are properties in bad neighborhoods.  I NEVER advertise "NO SEC 8", but I do sometimes advertise, "SEC 8 OK".  If I have a unit that commands more than the going rate for Sec 8, I just tell the applicant that Sec 8 will not allow that price for such and such a unit.  They usually then offer to pay more under the table.  This is, in fact, extremely common in my area.  A realtor in the town where we own multifamilies told us that she had never seen a building for sale that had Sec 8 tenants where the tenants WEREN'T paying 15 to 20% under the table above and beyond the contracted rental price.  We even were shown buildings where we were shown leases that had a handwritten note, "tenant is paying an additional $200/month".   BEWARE!  NEVER, NEVER put yourself in that position. It is a violation of Sec 8  If you do it, and if the tenant ever wants to, they can report you, and you will be kicked off of Sec 8, and never be able to participate in the program again.

In addition, many of the Sec 8 tenants are horrible tenants.  Not all, but many.  There is always a "baby daddy" who lives there illegally, and often he is dealing drugs.  In addition, the tenants will let in other illegal subtenants, from whom they collect rent.  They absolutely destroy the units - have NO respect for anyone else's property.  They are horrible to the neighbors - make noise all night (cause they often don't work so they sleep all day), break into neighbors' cars, do drugs, deal drugs.

If you have a property that has any value, do not take Sec 8.  If it's in an area where rents are low because it's a high crime area, you might want to take it, but if you do, make the entire building Sec 8, so that you don't have paying tenants dealing with the trouble that sec 8 brings.

I think we do need all those sub-markets.  I'd like to be posting in both Cape and Islands, and South Shore subforums, about very local issues, like property leads, contractors, dealing with local officials, and more.  Why shouldn't we have them?  All real estate is local.  Boston is a totally different market from South Shore, and both are different from Cape and Islands.