It has been a long-standing debate among real estate investors on whether or not renting properties for Section 8 tenants is good for business, given that these renters belong to the low-income sector.

Section 8 housing is a rental-assistance program that is spearheaded by the United States Government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with the help of hundreds of Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) from different regions across the country in managing the program at the local level. Private landlords are allowed by the program to offer their properties for low rental rates to low-income tenants.

There are quite a number of disadvantages in leasing your properties under the program. Previous Section 8 landlord complaints include tenants damaging properties or bringing in a large group of relatives into their home. However, landlords can enjoy some advantages in the program as well. Here are a few:

Payments are ensured by PHA

Since the program is backed up by the U.S. government and PHA, the money to subsidize the rent of Section 8 tenants are readily available. The program has been consistently fully funded and holds reserves amounting to billions of dollars. This way, landlords always get the full rent or a large percentage of it on time. The PHAs have no excuse to delay rent since it has enough budget to maintain the program.

Rental payments continue even if your tenant gets caught in financial hardships

There have also been instances when a Section 8 tenant suffered financial hardships after losing work because of health issues, and they were assisted by HUD by shouldering 100% of the tenant’s rent. The program is beneficial to both tenants and property owners because the latter can be assured of receiving rent and be spared from dealing with unexpected vacancy of their unit.

Competitive pricing for your housing

HUD sometimes set the best rental rates. Even for low-income neighborhoods, a landlord can still get a very reasonable amount as rent. This is possible because HUD and the PHAs have the authority to assess a Fair Market Rent (FMR) for different locations in the country. This can also protect tenants from getting overly charged by abusive tenants.

Assistance in resolving issues with tenants

Since candidates for the program are carefully screened by PHA social workers, this decreases the probability of having problematic tenants. And should a landlord have issues with how tenants violate leasing agreements, they can easily request social workers to mediate to fix the problem.

There are many advantages for making your property available to the Section 8 program, and it would be wise for every landlord to be open to the idea. One of the most rewarding things about leasing your property under the program is not only do you enjoy the advantages of securing rental payments for your units, but you are also contributing to the government’s initiative to provide opportunity to the less fortunate members of our society to gain access to affordable shelter for themselves and for their families without them losing most of their income.

But of course, as a landlord, you shouldn’t decide in haste in terms of how you want to manage your properties because every decision comes with its own pros and cons. While you’re still on the fence on signing that section 8 landlord application, there are other options to explore in order to market your units. There are websites such as Padleads.com where interested clients can easily access information on your available units. Similar to Section 8, the site also helps match interested tenants with properties according to their budget. The process of screening leads is also made easy by the Padlead’s user-friendly filters that can be adjusted according to the client’s needs, so that they will be matched with their ideal housing, while the landlords are sure to get leads of only genuinely interested clients. It’s a win-win.

In conclusion, it doesn’t really matter what other means you will consider in marketing your properties. The important thing is that you’re satisfied with how your rental business is earning and you are providing homes to people according to what they can afford.