Some section 8 tenants showed their true colors last night.

[fastfredracing]

Long story short. This is our least desirable house, and we decided to sect 8

it.  We ended up deciding on  tenants from NYC.  Seemed like a decent couple, young guy 23, and his big mama is 34.  They are starting over in PGH, want to

raise their kids somewhere safe, and quiet. This was the perfect house for them.
The young guy is looking for work, and we just happen to have a bunch of stuff going on right now, cleaning up all properties, and we needed some help finishing up the place they are renting. Against my better judgment, but for the sake of helping these guys out, we took him on. All terms were agreed upon up front, and we made an eye to eye handshake deal. He worked for us all day Sunday, a little bit Monday night, and last night until 11:00. Later in the evening , he hits me up for an advance on his pay( we were already square on the work he had done). I declined, and told him that we should not start muddying the waters yet, I hardly know him, and that I wanted to start this relationship out on the right foot.
Well, his lady gets involved, and she is showing her nasty side. She states that he has cut his hand, while working and they should sue, but they are not going, to, but she wants to renegotiate the terms we all agreed on. ie more money, and now. ( I saw his cut, and a Dora the Explorer bandaid was all the treatment that he needed) .
I lit up like a fireball. I hate scum bags, and I really felt as if I was going out of my way to help these fvkers out. I even brought them down an extra bed we had , and some furniture, and pots/pans that same day.
I basically told them that they have a choice to make here, I said that we have lots of good easy work for him at a fair rate, all within walking distance of his house. It should last all summer, and we can probably carry him through the winter as well if this works out. I said that you can try to strong arm us out of money , and fvk up this relationship right out of the gate, or we can all be cordial, and we will continue to feed him work/money, and form a strong landlord/tenant relationship.
They took the money. They had a real chance here, we are decent guys, and would have done anything to help them get on their feet . We will probably also not renew their lease next year, and he just negotiated himself out of a job . It was a shame, we all worked well together, and at first , the vibe felt pretty goo

[fastfredracing]

I don't know how that happened ?

[skunked]

no good deed goes unpunished.

It's sad to see those given a good opportunity fail to realize it.

[widebody911]

It sounds like he might be a decent guy, but the beotch is calling the shots and wanted the cash.

[Joel8005]

As a simple business practice we do not lease to section 8 tenants and will never allow any tenants to work for us, on the "clock" or otherwise. By doing so you expose yourself to issues such as this. We learned a long time ago, leasing is a simple business transaction, as soon as you let emotions into the deal by trying to "help" one of your tenants, you are screwed.

Good luck,

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by Joel8005

As a simple business practice we do not lease to section 8 tenants and will never allow any tenants to work for us, on the "clock" or otherwise. By doing so you expose yourself to issues such as this. We learned a long time ago, leasing is a simple business transaction, as soon as you let emotions into the deal by trying to "help" one of your tenants, you are screwed.

Good luck,

We have basically operated this way as well, and broke the rules a little on this one. Just re-inforced the fact that we were already doing it the right way. Glad it got nipped in the but now, before we got real deep in with them. At least we know who we are dealing with now.
We have one other sect 8 tenant, and she is great. Keeps the place clean, is friendly , pays her utilities, and has been there for 4 years now. We kind of go on a house to house basis. This place, like I said had a few negatives that made it a little harder to rent, so we went this route. That check is never late, and we are always in the area to keep an eye on the places.

[asphaltgambler]

I maybe on the outside here but my experience is that there usually are multiple reasons why people end up in situations like that. They consistantly either make poor / wrong choices over the long run and/or do not posses the fortitude to better themselves.

Every person that I have come into contact with like this and tried to 'help' just continues to make bad choices then blame everyone/circumstances around them. They have nothing so they think ultimately the world 'owes' them

They have nothing to loose so they 'take' from those who do make good choices. Jealousy and envy take over for them. They see you driving a decent car, your own business, properties and (quickly) they start to wonder why are they working for peanuts and struggling for their next meal and YOU seem to have everything THEY should have

[mpeastend]

FastFred...sorry for your problems. Wish you had posted, asking for advice prior to accepting them. I've seen this time & again, section 8 tenants are the absolute worst of the worst & only desperate landlords with property they don't care about will take them on. There may be 1% that are transitioning through a rough patch but the rest are seasoned leaches living off the gov't teat & they know the system quite well.

I wish you the best of luck but I fear this is just the start of your troubles with them. Get them out as soon as you can. It will be a long year. Don't bother giving them any more work or trying to be helpful, they will just spit in your face for your troubles. Please update this thread, I'm interested to know how it turns out.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

I maybe on the outside here but my experience is that there usually are multiple reasons why people end up in situations like that. They consistantly either make poor / wrong choices over the long run and/or do not posses the fortitude to better themselves.

Every person that I have come into contact with like this and tried to 'help' just continues to make bad choices then blame everyone/circumstances around them. They have nothing so they think ultimately the world 'owes' them

They have nothing to loose so they 'take' from those who do make good choices.

+1

This couple knows how to be nice when they need to be. Their previous choices led to their situation now.

Distance yourself.

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by mpeastend

FastFred...sorry for your problems. Wish you had posted, asking for advice prior to accepting them. I've seen this time & again, section 8 tenants are the absolute worst of the worst & only desperate landlords with property they don't care about will take them on. There may be 1% that are transitioning through a rough patch but the rest are seasoned leaches living off the gov't teat & they know the system quite well.

I wish you the best of luck but I fear this is just the start of your troubles with them. Get them out as soon as you can. It will be a long year. Don't bother giving them any more work or trying to be helpful, they will just spit in your face for your troubles. Please update this thread, I'm interested to know how it turns out.

There will be no more help, they just earned a spot in our pia, low priority tenant list. We will be fine though, have played this game before, and we both have strong stomach's, and generally take no shat.

[sammyg2]

In my experience, too often people are poor because of their own doing.
Lack of morals, trouble differentiating right from wrong, poor decisions, generally just low-lifes. Their life sux because they do.
Sure there are exceptions and there good people who are just unfortunate, but more often people create their own situation.
I did allot of volunteer work in my younger years and I got screwed over by the people I was trying to help too many times to count.

I wasn't always this grouchy or jaded ..... eventually i learned the smartest thing to do was to have as little to do with people like that as possible.

Nowadays the only volunteer work I do is work with elderly shut-ins, that's allot more rewarding but you still have to have your guard up at all times.

Did I ever mention the time I was delivering food to the local rescue mission on thanksgiving and got a knife pulled on me by a low-life gangsta who wanted to steal the pallet of food out of the back of my truck?

[Noah930]

What happens if they start Fking up your property out of retaliation?

[Dantilla]

I used to own a building that came with a couple Section 8 residents.
For the most part, they were nice people, and caused no problems.

-BUT-

I will not accept Section 8 people- Not because of the people themselves, but because I refuse to sign year-long leases. Nothing but month-to-month rental agreements, so I don't have to wait an entire year to get somebody undesireable out.

Dealing with the Section 8 bureaucracy is not worth it. Plenty of nice people out there that can pay their own rent.

[crb07]

You will not have to worry about renewing there lease, you will have to evict them long before a year is up.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Noah930

What happens if they start Fking up your property out of retaliation?

Pretty sure that breaks the lease. Might be a good thing.

[911pcars]

azzhats come in a variety of guises, rich and poor. Good to cover yourself and use effective filtering methods for potential renters (works for non section 8 folks too).

Sherwood

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Noah930

What happens if they start Fking up your property out of retaliation?

Meaning, what are the limits of restitution from the gubmint and procedures?

In Mich(edited: LOCALLY), there is a 7 day and a 30 day notices. Unless there are "special circumstances", the courts and sheriff will eventually move on it within months not years.

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by john70t

Meaning, what are the limits of restitution from the gubmint and procedures?

The local housing authority in charge of the Section 8 program used to take responsibility for damage to the building caused by their tenants.
That is no longer the case. Now the building's owner can only go after the actual resident to recover repair costs.
Another reason Section 8 is no longer attractive to building owners.

[john70t]

Blood from a turnip?

[GH85Carrera]

One of the local very exclusive neighborhoods is a one square mile area all behind a fancy brick fence. The most exclusive of the exclusive areas where the mega million mansions are on 25 acre lots along the lake is called section 8 by the developers.