The Landlord Lens - Section 8 Tenants: The Pros, Cons & What You Should Know

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

Is accepting Section 8 tenants a smart move or a costly mistake?In this video, we break down the real pros and cons of Section 8 housing for landlords, including guaranteed rent payments, inspections, demand, regulations, and potential risks. If you're deciding whether to accept housing vouchers, this will help you evaluate if it fits your rental strategy.We cover:• Guaranteed rent payments• Inspection requirements• Tenant demand• Payment timelines• Common landlord concerns

One of the main threads in political conversation today is affordability. Section 8 was designed to help for that. It's not politically popular to say you're going to get rid of Section 8. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Landlord Lens. I'm here with Seamus, my lovely co-host. How are you today, Seamus? Doing great, John.

What are we talking about today? John, today we're talking about housing voucher programs, most commonly referred to as Section 8. their impact on landlords, tenants, and how the existing political environment is influencing it. Yeah, I think I've heard of Section 8 before. I'm sure you have. We've talked about it before, John, both the pros, the cons, and then we've talked about what's going to happen as Section 8, is the money going to stop flowing? That's right.

That's right. It was our most watched video. People loved it. Yeah, it is a very interesting topic, right? And I remember the thumbnail for that video was Elon Musk with a chainsaw, because there's significant pressure to cut the program. Yes, to cut funding for the program. That has really waned, though.

I think since the Doge itself has kind of has waned. And you don't hear a lot of rhetoric around cutting the program anymore. You hear rhetoric around trying to get fraud out of it, right? Make it more efficient. Yep. But I don't think anyone, it's not politically popular to say you're going to get rid of Section 8. Yeah, especially when one of the main threads in political conversation today is affordability, right? and Section 8 was initially designed to help for that.

Yeah, it absolutely was. And we saw even during the historically long government shutdown that we had just a couple of months ago, HUD and housing voucher programs were spared, right? They kept paying out. But that was one of the big concerns we talked about as a landlord. How comfortable are you knowing that the federal government's paying your rent? Yeah, and there's those questions of comfort. There's the political questions all around it.

But Section 8 is actually a thing in the world, right? And landlords use it, renters use it. It's a real program. So I think it's really important for folks to understand the actual game on the field when it comes to Section 8 rentals, right? Exactly. So let's hit some of the facts. So what Section 8 does is the government supplements through the local housing department and programs supplements rent. They pay directly to the landlord.

Now, how much they pay differs. The tenant is responsible for paying 30% of their income. towards rent, then the government picks up the tab on the rest. Gotcha. Okay. So, so my grandpa used to always tell me, try to keep housing costs at around 30% of your income, and that's kind of where I come from. Yes, the government has basically pegged that 30% for the Section 8 program, which makes it extremely popular. Obviously. Yeah, very long wait lists. In fact, a lot of the wait lists just close, and then they open up lotteries. Last time New York City, for example,'s waitlist was open was back in 24. Wow. So it's not an easy thing to get, but once you qualify as a as a renter for section

eight, not only do you have the benefit of the supplemental payments, right? You also have the benefit of being able to at times afford a nicer place than you would have. Oh, yeah, yeah. In most states, landlords can't discriminate based on income source and section eight is an income source. So as a landlord, I'm basically collecting two checks. One's coming in from the government and one is being paid electronically or something from the renter. Exactly. You're getting that direct deposit from the government, and then the renter is paying their share as well.

Some of the myths or I think misconceptions around Section 8 as a landlord is you can still evict a renter that's not paying their portion. Okay. And so it's not, there's no eviction freezes or things like that. In general, you deal with that renter the same exact way you deal with any other renter that you have. So the screening process looks the same. Your security deposit in most cases can be the exact same as it would.

be for other tenants. It's just that the government is footing part of the bill. Awesome. Okay. Well, tell me about these annual inspections, though, because that's a, that's a government mandated activity on the landlord, right? I always struggle with landlords that have a big problem with these inspections because you should be maintaining the property in general, right? And I actually see the flip side where these annual inspections are, they'll also record whether there's tenant damages to the property, right? Which then gives you documentation as the landlord to utilize, you know, to keep parts of the secure

deposit and things like that. So I think for the bad landlords out there, these are the real thorn in their side. Yeah. For good landlords out there, I actually think there's an element of protection it provides. Absolutely. And I think there's a good

case for you to do this even if your tenant isn't in Section 8. Oh, absolutely. Even better when it's the government saying that the tenant has caused damages, right, in terms of defensibility. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, so we've got the inspections. We've got the rent amount. How is the fair market rent actually set? And how should landlords think about that? Yeah, so fair market rent or, you know, referred to as FMR, that is set annually based on the local housing authority in a market. And they're basically just looking at what is fair market rate for rent for a unit, a apartment, a house of that particular size.

Now, it's not as responsive as typical rental markets because it is only looked out once a year. So that is something to consider. I think another interesting element is as that goes up, it doesn't automatically increase rent on your existing tenants. Okay. It does allow you, though, to do a rent increase in the future at a time of renewal or if you have a new Section 8 tenant coming in. So at the time of renewal or a new lease, basically, you can raise the rent to the fair market rent. Are you obligated to drop it if the fair market rate drops? So you are, but not on existing tenants.

So when you have a renewal coming up, right? You may actually have to have to decrease rent. The goal of the government is for this to be a weather vane of the local rental market anyways, right? So whether you're section 8 or not, you know, if they're accurate, you would have to do that kind of regardless to be competitive in the market. So they set fair market rent. And I read online that that's typically middle of the road for the unit type, right? So if you have two bed, three bed, it's kind of middle of the road for units like that, the one like you're bringing to market. So what should you do if you have a unit with significant amenities that, you know, might command a higher rent than the average two bed?

Yeah, not Section 8. So if you do have kind of a luxury rental, let's say, that you would peg at quite a bit above fair market rate, Section 8's not a great option from that perspective because it's really capped what you can make. And so you might be underpricing significantly your unit. There are locations, though, even where I've owned rental properties where the exact opposite's happening. You have some pretty deteriorated units renting for much higher than what I would say is market rate because the government, you know, pegged fMR there, which actually fits a really tough squeeze on those individuals that aren't within Section 8 because it kind of raises the price for everyone. What are some of the pros? What are some pros for a landlord to consider here? Yeah, so as a landlord, you should really consider Section 8 if you have kind of a middle of the road rental in terms of amenities, right, that typically gets fair market rate.

And you can look up what the fair market rate is in your area to understand is the rent I'm getting today, you know, close to that, lower than that, higher than that. So if you're kind of mid-market from that standpoint, you want low to zero vacancy. Yeah. Right? Because there's very limited vacancy. you're excited about the idea of getting paid at least a portion of that rent on time every single month, come in direct deposit right to your bank from the federal government is a really good reason to pursue Section 8. Awesome. Okay. And some of the cons now for the landlord. Well, if you're skeptical of the government's ability to pay, right? If you, like we said, have one of those luxury rentals that can command much higher than fair market rent, that's not great. There's also some downside. like typically your first month receiving rent may be delayed from the government.

There's also some administrative burden. You have to stay up to date in the program as a landlord. You have to do the annual inspections, right? You have to allow for that and adjust based on the findings. There's not a lot of, though, I would say, downsides, given that you can click the same secure deposit, do the same screening methods that you do with any other tenant. I'm curious from your perspective, what would be some positive reforms that would overall improve the rental market to Section 8 that you would see?

So I think what is really interesting and what I was kind of excited about when there's a lot of talk about Section 8 early, you know, early 2025 is just making it more efficient. The length of the wait lists are, you know, ridiculous. Very few people can actually take advantage of the program. So in my mind, it makes sense to actually tighten some of those requirements so that the people most in need, right, are receiving Section 8. And what was really surprised to me is that in some markets in the United States, it's a family of four. You can qualify for Section 8 making over $100,000 a year. Wow. Which is a big difference compared to someone making, you know, a family of four where the income's $20,000, $30,000 a year.

And so I would love to see them actually tighten who qualifies so that the people most in need can you. get to the front of the line from that perspective. And then I think the dollars, as we're seeing in a lot of government agencies, can just go so much further if things get more efficient, right? There's still a lot of examples of paper pushing in all of government. But housing has been one of those areas, which is a little bit archaic. And so my hope is that new technology waves will just speed things up, make it more efficient. Gotcha.

Okay. So a little more tightening on restrictions on who qualifies. anything on the landlord side, supply side, because I imagine that's also an input to these long wait lists, right? I think as a landlord, it's just the continual education of what does it mean to be a Section 8 landlord

that's important. The other thing is just administratively speeding up that process, right? Making it easier to get the paperwork done, hear back as to whether or not your location is going to qualify just so that the burden of being part of Section 8

is decreased as much as possible on behalf of the landlord. All right, what an informative episode about Section 8. Thanks so much, Seamus. Yeah, absolutely. And my hope is that some of our audience out there, maybe you are a Section 8 landlord, you have a great story or you're pro, or maybe you were Section 8 landlord and you never do it again.

Please sound off in the comments. We love to hear that perspective around the country. to manage their rental properties. From vacancy to tenancy, we have you covered with industry leading tools and expert advice. Landlord better from anywhere for free at turbotenant.com.