I try to stay clear of other landlords, but once in a while i get to talk to others.... and they all seem sleazy.

There is a list of tenants looking for Section 8 (assisted housing) houses. Usually they have awful credit and sometimes are not the nicest to your houses......

A typical house in crappy harrisburg PA would rent for ~$600/ mo or so if it was not through section 8. The guys that rent through Section 8 all seem to be getting $750-$780 per month for these houses...... to me that seems crazy, but I guess Section 8 is desperate to get people houses and goes ahead and pays......(that is about $2k per year, per house more than if they rented it privately).

My houses average amost exactly $625 / mo which is just slightly more than the going rate....... i make decent $ on these places, but am I foolish not to bump them all up to $675-$700 -$750 range.?

I have 10 section 8 houses - that would be $6000 more rent per year if I averaged $675........ i would make $9,000 more if I averaged $700 / mo.

I keep thinking if the rents are somewhat reasonable, that they would be able to afford to house more families....but apparently the $ is endless and I am stupid for not bumping up my rents.??

 

I'm don't know exactly how section 8's work but my guess is that the landlords are charging higher rents due to the higer risks associated with bad credit tenents. Same reason peopel with spotty credit can't get anything better than an 18% credit card.

 

i forgot to explain how Section 8 works. The Gov't pays the majority of the rent for the majority of the Section 8 renters. Therefore money wise there is little risk. Also, if a tenant gets evicted (due to police acitivty or lack of payment, etc...) they automatically lose their section 8 certificate...... so there is some incentive for them to stay somewhat clean...... they definately destroy carpet, but most of these guys just paint the hardwood floors and let the tenants figure out throw rugs, etc......

 

i say bump it a bit, Use the extra money to fix up the properties after the people treat them poorly?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Scot
i forgot to explain how Section 8 works.

 

exactly....... one guy i talked to said the lowest rent he charges is in the mid 700's..... these are houses that people pick up for about $25,000......... this particular guy buys "shells", then uses a grant of $15k for lead abatement...... he claims to use the full $15k on the lead, although he does the work himself.... so basically he uses the $15k to fix the entire house and his total investment is about $5k-$10k for the shell..... then he rents it out for $750 minimum through the Gov't...... pretty sleazy if you ask me.

i have not taken a dime of free money to fix any of my houses....... everyone we talk to tries to work every angle of every gov't give away! Hopefully they all get cancer.


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Daveg27

 

man how the hell can you get a house at 25k? they start well over 100k here

 

these are houses in poor neighborhoods in poor shape.

you ever see the billboards that say "we buy houses"? people who need money FAST go to these places and sell at bottom dollar. then the buyers sell the houses to willing buyers for a markup, but often still very cheap.

 

I know a guy who rents out to section 8 only as the money is way above the market rate. He is a decent and honest guy. The shit he has to put up with from his tenants is beyond belief. Some of them, despite being 40+ years old have no clue what it means to be a responsible adult.

 

to rent through section 8 you do have to get the house up to a decent standard...... they inspect annually.... so that helps keep the landlord somewhat decent.

It is just funny how greedy people are. $625 for a house seems somewhat reasonable... $750-$780 does not seem at all reasonable. Sure the people act stupid at times, but if you screen them properly you generally don't have too many real issues (or they lose their free rent).

I guess I am just stupid.....I should raise all of these to sky high levels and rape the system.