Real Estate Investing - Section 8 Housing

Yearly Inspections

Be prepared for annual inspections once your Housing Inspection passes. Depending upon when your year lease is expired; housing usually mails out the landlord or management company a letter 2 months prior to the inspection date. The letter gives a date and a four hour window timeframe of when the housing inspection will occur.

Housing does require either the tenant or the landlord be present at the time of inspection. Normally my tenants are present at time of inspection.

Repairs

Once the inspection is completed then housing will mail the landlord a list of repairs needed to comply with Section 8 Housing Rules. If the landlord is unwilling to comply to meet Housing requirements then the Housing payments will stop at the end of the lease.

If you do decide to comply then the landlord needs to fix all items listed on the repair sheet by a deadline date. Housing supplies a date and time re-inspection will transpire.

2^nd Inspection Fails

Depending upon where you live and how busy the inspectors are working for Section 8 if the 2^nd inspection fails you may lose one month’s rent. It depends upon how busy the inspectors are and if they are willing or have time to swing by and re-inspect the items that did not meet housing’s guidelines.

It’s critical to get your unit to pass housing’s 2^nd inspection. As I mentioned above; the inspectors are extremely busy and have many other inspections scheduled. If the inspection fails then a re-inspection date is scheduled in 3-4 weeks. In some cases, they may charge you for a 3^rd inspection if the 2^nd inspection fails or you may lose the next month’s rent.

If your name is not on the list to issue a check during the time they cut the checks then you need to wait until the following month to receive a rent check. Housing WILL NOT issue you a check if the unit failed the inspection!

Communication

Communication is extremely important during the inspection time period with both the contractor and the housing inspector. My partner contracted our handyman to make the needed repairs per the housing letter. However, instead of communicating with the contractor she mailed the list of repairs needed. The contractor missed 5 items on the repair list and our 2^nd inspection failed. This was the first time our 2^nd inspection ever failed on our units and I was not happy. (I find the inspection time to be extremely stressful for various reasons)

II contacted the housing inspector and she communicated to me WHY the 5 items failed. I immediately contacted our contractor and instructed him on how to make the repairs. We were extremely fortunate to have an inspector who took the time to re-inspect the unit the next day once the repairs were completed. This time the unit passed!

Cashflow Cindy

P.S. Real Estate Investing is all about overcoming adversity. In order for you to become a successful landlord or wholesaler it will require overcoming many obstacles. A great book to read is ‘Three Feet From Gold ‘ to learn how to overcome adversity in your business.