Why Buying Section 8 Rental Property With Cash Is a Great Buy and Hold Strategy

The new wholesale property investor in San Antonio needs to decide if he wants to flip property or buy and hold property. My business is set up primarily to buy and hold property; for the last five years or so, I have especially focused on San Antonio buy and hold property with owner financing.

Owner financing San Antonio properties has the following advantages for the out of state property investor:

  • There are no maintenance problems as with regular buy and hold investing
  • The owner of the under market value property maintains it
  • You simply enjoy the cash flow of the investment property.
  • You help to beautify the community and put a hard working family into a home they own.

Now that is has been my bread and butter way of buying and holding real estate in San Antonio over time with 13% or so returns.

However, there are times where you may want to do buy and hold rental property in San Antonio TX. Some of the most common reasons that we see with our out of state property investors is:

  • They have a high income of $200,000 or more and they want to reduce their taxable income.
  • With rental property they are able to enjoy depreciation and tax write offs.
  • You cannot do this with owner financed property.

When I decide that I want to buy and hold rental property, one of the things that I often do is section 8 rentals. Now, some San Antonio real estate investors may recoil from Section 8 rentals, but to me, there is hardly anything better in rental properties! Section 8 is managed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and can be a good deal for the rental property investor. Here is why:

  • Payments are always on time and very convenient: Rents are received every month on time via direct deposit.
  • Protection from financial hardship: No more worries about your renter losing his job. Most section 8 tenants get a  voucher that covers most or all of their rent.
  • Rent is higher: In my houses, I often will get a section 8 rent for $1200 when I might have only gotten $1100 from a conventional renter.
  • Easy marketing: Section 8 uses GoSection8.com which allows me to post San Antonio rental properties and to review applicants for no cost.
  • Minimal vacancies: There is a large demand for section 8 in SA TX.

Oh, there is one other major advantage of section 8 – attention flippers in San Antonio!

Flipping houses is fine and can be profitable, but what if it does not sell? Then you have a rehabbed property and you have trouble getting your profits.

So rent it section 8! When you rent it out with section 8, after it is occupied for at least 6 months, you can do a cash out refinance on it and pull out as much as 80%! Then you can do more San Antonio rental properties. Not a bad deal, huh?