Section 8 rental houses

The research was done by AI agents that open web pages. Some sites refuse them; where that happened we say so. The small numbers point to the source list at the end. Where a figure is our own sum or guess, it is marked “our estimate” and the basis is given. A first pass was made on 10 October 2026 and a second on 13 October; each source shows the day it was read.

The claim

Our collection holds one tweet on this scheme, so there is one example here, not three or four¹. The date is worked out from the tweet’s ID number. The page judges the scheme, not the person who tweeted. It rests mainly on how the method is promoted generally, by course sellers, house sellers and paid communities, whose own pages are quoted further down. We saw nothing for sale in this tweet.

“$80,000 buys you a 2-unit house in detroit. The federal government will pay you $1,400 a month in rent on it.

That’s $16,800 a year on $80,000. 21% guaranteed.

If you bought 5 of them in 2018 (like me), you’re cash flowing $84,000 a year while wall street fights over $5M”

@felixprehn, 9 May 2026, 38,804 views¹

The text of the tweet names no cost of any kind¹. We read the text from our collected file. We did not re-open the tweet on X, and we did not view any images, videos or replies attached to it.

What the scheme is

“Section 8” is the everyday name for the Housing Choice Voucher programme. The US government gives a low-income household a voucher. The household finds a private landlord. A local public housing authority (PHA, the agency that runs the programme in each city) then pays part of the rent straight to the landlord, and the tenant pays the rest⁶¹⁴.

The scheme sold on X is to buy the cheapest houses in a low-price city such as Detroit, rent them to voucher holders, and collect rent that is high compared with the price of the house. “Yield” means a year’s income divided by what the house cost.

The mechanism is real. Renting to voucher holders is legal and common. Since 2 April 2025 Michigan has barred landlords from refusing voucher tenants; the law “does not apply” to “a landlord of fewer than 5 rental units in this state”⁹¹.

Two words in the claim need checking: “21%” and “guaranteed”.

The arithmetic

Step 1: where the 21% comes from

The tweet multiplies three numbers¹:

• $1,400 a month x 12 = $16,800 a year
• $16,800 / $80,000 = 21%
• 5 houses x $16,800 = $84,000

So the 21% is the gross yield: rent before any cost. The $84,000 is five times the gross rent, and the tweet calls it “cash flowing”¹. The tweet gives $80,000 as the price in the present tense and says the author bought in 2018. It gives no 2018 price¹.

Step 2: is the rent realistic?

Yes. It is, if anything, low.

The US housing department (HUD) publishes “fair market rents”, which set the ceiling for voucher rents. In the Detroit area they are set ZIP code by ZIP code⁷⁹. For fiscal year 2027, which began on 1 October 2026, the 42 ZIP codes beginning 482 run from $810 to $1,740 a month for a one-bedroom unit and $1,010 to $2,170 for a two-bedroom. The middle ZIP code is at $1,085 and $1,355⁷⁹. That set includes some inner suburbs. Leaving out the 14 ZIP codes a reviewer placed outside the city (from memory, not checked against a map), the lows are a little higher, $860 and $1,070, and the middle is $1,015 and $1,265 (our estimate from⁷⁹). In ZIP code 48227 the two-bedroom figure rose from $1,220 to $1,350 in a year²⁷⁹. Not everywhere: in ZIP code 48218 it fell from $1,060 to $1,010²⁷⁹.

$1,400 for a whole two-unit house is $700 a unit. That is below the lowest one-bedroom ceiling, $810⁷⁹.

HUD also publishes what is actually paid. At the Detroit Housing Commission, the city’s main voucher agency, on 31 December 2025, households holding ordinary (tenant-based) vouchers paid an average of $457 a month and HUD spent an average of $927, about $1,384 per unit together (our sum)⁸³. Across all the agency’s vouchers the family figure was $446⁸³. Three cautions, so an owner receives less than $1,384. By HUD’s own definitions the family figure includes utilities the tenant pays, and the HUD figure has “an amount added for administrative cost”⁸⁴. And 62% of the agency’s tenant-based voucher households have three or more bedrooms (52% across all its vouchers), so a small flat gets less⁸³.

Each agency sets a “payment standard”, the most it will normally pay, at 90% to 110% of the fair market rent⁵. The Detroit Housing Commission’s 2026 payment-standard file is a copy of HUD’s 2026 table, which is 100%³. A page on its site, still headed “Effective Jan 1, 2025”, says “DHC’s current Voucher Payment Standard is 110% of the published FMR”⁴. We could not tell which applies now. We do not rely on 110%.

The ceiling is not the approved rent. The agency must judge the rent reasonable against similar unsubsidised homes nearby: “At all times during the assisted tenancy, the rent to owner may not exceed the reasonable rent”¹⁰.

One real sale shows the shape. A brick two-unit house in ZIP code 48227 sold on 27 March 2026 for $110,000. The listing said each two-bedroom unit was approved for Section 8 at “$1,000 per month”, called the house “fully vacant”, and showed a property tax bill of $4,424 a year⁷⁴. That is $24,000 a year on $110,000, a gross yield of 21.8% (our sum). It was first listed at $139,000 and cut five times before selling⁷⁴. All of this is the listing’s statement. City records show the seller, a company, had bought the same house for $55,000 in January 2025⁸⁵. So the price a newcomer pays can already include someone else’s renovation and profit.

Step 3: is the price realistic?

An $80,000 two-unit house exists today, but it is a cheap one. And it is not what a 2018 buyer paid.

We queried the City of Detroit assessor’s sales records for houses coded “two family”, counting only arm’s-length sales (ordinary sales between unrelated parties)⁸⁵. These are our own computations from city data. They were run three times by separate agents on 13 October 2026, with near-identical results; figures that differed slightly between runs are rounded.

• About 335 two-family houses sold between 2 January and 3 October 2026. The median price (the middle sale) was $125,000. A quarter sold under about $74,000. 29% sold at or below $80,000⁸⁵.
• The yearly median was $31,000 in 2018, about $42,000 in 2019, $48,000 in 2020, $60,000 in 2021, $70,000 in 2022, $77,000 in 2023, $100,000 in 2024, $110,000 in 2025 and $125,000 in 2026 so far⁸⁵. That is about four times the 2018 figure. The mix of houses sold changes from year to year, so this is not a pure price index.
• The middle half of 2018 sales were at about $16,000 to $50,000⁸⁵.
• These houses are old. In the city’s parcel file the median two-family house was built in 1924, and nine in ten were built before 1932 (our estimate from⁸⁵).

Zillow’s index, which covers single-family houses and flats, not two-unit houses, shows a smaller rise: $42,686 in June 2018 and $77,199 in August 2026, up 81%. Its bottom-third index went from $17,880 to $48,867²²¹²³. The two sources disagree on the size of the rise. On Zillow’s mid-tier index a 2018 buyer paid about 55% of today’s value; on its bottom-third index about 37%; in the city’s two-family sale records about a quarter (our sums).

Rents rose far less. HUD’s two-bedroom fair market rent for the whole Detroit area was $940 in fiscal 2018²³. Today’s ZIP-level ceilings are about 7% to 55% above that in most Detroit ZIP codes (our sums from²³⁷⁹). A person who bought in 2018 earns today’s rent on a 2018 price. A person buying today does not.

Is 21% gross still reachable? On paper, yes. Two two-bedroom units at the 2027 ceiling, set against the 2026 median two-family sale price in the same ZIP code, give gross yields of about 29% in 48206, 33% in 48204, 27% in 48227, 23% in 48238 and 27% in 48224 (our estimates from⁷⁹⁸⁵). At the tweet’s $1,400 a month the same houses give 13% to 18%. These are ceilings that include utilities, on houses whose condition we do not know, before every cost.

Step 4: who pays the $1,400

Not only the government. The federal rule says the agency pays “the lower of: (1) The payment standard for the family minus the total tenant payment; or (2) The gross rent minus the total tenant payment”⁶. The tenant owes the rest to the owner. In Detroit the measured split is about two thirds from HUD and one third from the tenant⁸³.

HUD’s standard contract is plain about the limit: “The PHA shall not pay any portion of the rent to owner in excess of the housing assistance payment. The PHA shall not pay any other claim by the owner against the family”¹⁵. The Detroit Housing Commission’s own landlord page says it “guarantees owners a portion of the rent”¹⁷.

Step 5: the costs

Property tax. A rental does not get the lower rate for a home the owner lives in. The city’s own table gave 87.6202 mills for non-residents’ property in 2020 against 69.6202 for residents²⁴. A mill is $1 of tax per $1,000 of taxable value. A university article gives 82.18 mills for 2025 as the rate businesses pay²⁵. We assume a rental house pays about the same, which we could not confirm. We did not find the official 2026 rate.

A sale resets the tax. Michigan law says that after a transfer the taxable value becomes “the property’s state equalized valuation for the calendar year following the transfer”⁸⁹. That valuation is meant to be half of market value. The Detroit assessor warns that it “IS NOT BASED UPON THE PURCHASE PRICE OF YOUR INDIVIDUAL SALE”⁸⁸. So the seller’s old tax bill is no guide.

On a house assessed at $40,000, half of $80,000, the tax is about $3,290 to $3,500 a year (our estimate: $40,000 x 82.18 or 87.62 mills). A city dataset gives a check. Its estimated tax after reset on two-family houses sold for $60,000 to $100,000 in 2026 has a median of $3,272 a year, with the middle half between $2,096 and $4,389⁸⁶. We could not open a description of that dataset, so we are reading its column name. Either way, tax is about a fifth of the claimed rent.

Running costs overall. The Census Bureau’s 2024 Rental Housing Finance Survey gives mean operating expenses for properties of two to four units as $5,820 per unit a year, plus $2,665 per unit of capital improvements (larger works such as a new roof)²⁶. These are national means, pulled up by a few very large bills and by dearer properties.

Management. A Detroit property manager’s guide says: “flat monthly fees generally range from $89-179, whereas percentage fees range from 6-12%”, plus a leasing fee of half to a full month’s rent for each new tenant²⁹. At 8% that is $1,344 a year on $16,800 (our sum). An owner who lives nearby and manages personally saves it and pays in hours.

City inspection. Detroit requires a certificate of compliance for every rental. The inspection fee is “$195 for 1-unit inspection and $225 for duplexes”, plus $20, and a passed Section 8 inspection can stand in for the city’s³⁰. The fee is small. The work needed to pass is the real cost, and we found no measured figure for it.

Insurance, repairs, empty months. We found no measured Detroit figures. A forum post on Detroit costs puts insurance at $1,500 to $3,000 or more a year, maintenance at 10% to 15% of rent, vacancy (empty time) at 8% to 10% and management at 8% to 10%⁴⁰. A property manager in the same thread gives vacancy of 10% to 20% for what he calls Class C neighbourhoods and “20%+” for Class D⁴⁰. (Class C and D are investors’ slang for older, poorer areas; D is the cheapest.) These are two people’s estimates.

A changeover. A Tennessee investor puts one tenant changeover at “$4,000 to $7,000” once lost rent and repairs are counted; his post goes on to describe how his own firm avoids changeovers¹⁰⁶. A Memphis operator says it “costs two to four months of gross rent”⁴².

A rule of thumb. Economists who studied rental houses in 30 cities from 1986 to 2014 found: “net yields are about 60% of gross yields”⁹⁴. Applied to 21%, that gives about 12.6% as a best case (our sum). Their figures are for ordinary single-family rentals. On a very cheap, old house, fixed costs take a bigger share.

Step 6: what is left

All rows are for a buyer who pays cash, on the tweet’s own figures: $16,800 of rent on $80,000.

Insurance, vacancy and maintenance in the itemised rows are assumptions within the forum post’s ranges⁴⁰. Tax is from²⁴²⁵, management from²⁹.

So for a cash buyer of this house, a year without big repairs leaves roughly 5.5% to 10.6%, with about 9% in the middle. A year with a roof or furnace can leave close to nothing. None of this counts the repairs needed to pass the first inspection, closing costs (legal and transfer fees at purchase), the empty months at the start, or income tax.

Over many years. Big repairs are not rare on houses about a century old. If the survey’s mean for capital works, $5,330 a year for two units, is spread over every year, the three itemised rows fall to about -1% to 4% (our estimate from²⁶). That mean comes from dearer properties across the country and may be too high for a cheap house. At half of it the rows give about 2% to 7% (our estimate). The one independent long-run figure we found, the economists’ study, puts net yields at 6.1% in the cheapest fifth of cities⁹⁴. So a long-run figure is more likely to sit at the bottom of the good-year range than at the top.

The forum post reaches a similar answer: “A Detroit SFH that looks like a 15% cash-on-cash return with rosy assumptions becomes 6–9% with realistic ones” and calls that “still solid by national standards”⁴⁰. (SFH is a single-family house. Cash-on-cash is the return on the cash put in.)

At today’s typical price. A second estimate uses the $125,000 median and rents nearer what the programme pays: $1,000 to $1,150 a unit, so $24,000 to $27,600 a year. With tax of $3,500, insurance of $2,500, management 10%, empty time 10% and repairs 12%, costs are about $13,700 to $14,800. That leaves about $10,300 to $12,800, or 8% to 10% (our estimate from^7983858640). It is a higher number of dollars on a larger outlay.

A cheaper house at full programme rent. The table pairs the $80,000 price with the tweet’s low rent. Operators aim for a below-median house at a rent near the ceiling. Take ZIP code 48206: a median two-family price of $96,500 and a two-bedroom ceiling of $1,180⁷⁹⁸⁵. At the full ceiling the rent is $28,320 a year. Tax of about $3,965, insurance of $2,500 and management, empty time and repairs at 32% of rent come to about $15,500. That leaves about $12,800, or 13%. At 85% of the ceiling it leaves about $9,900, or 10% (our estimates). The cautions are the same as before: the ceiling includes utilities, the agency must find the rent reasonable, and we do not know the condition of a median-priced house there or what it costs to get it through inspection.

Put together, a good year for a cash buyer runs from about 5.5% to about 13%. In round numbers we call that 6% to 12%, because the 13% needs the full ceiling. All of it is before major repairs.

Step 7: how many houses for a given income

Each house is $80,000 in cash.

The net columns are our estimates from Step 6. The tweet’s five houses would leave about $22,000 to $42,000 a year at these costs, not $84,000 (our estimate). $10,000 a month means 14 to 27 two-unit houses, so 28 to 54 tenancies to keep occupied and passing inspection. The income is roughly the capital times 6% to 10%.

Step 8: borrowing

“The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.40% as of October 8, 2026”²⁸. That is the rate for people buying their own home. Investor loans usually cost more, our researchers recalled without a source.

A $60,000 loan at 7.40% costs about $415 a month, $4,985 a year (our sum). In the middle case that leaves about $2,160 a year on $20,000 of the buyer’s own cash, which is 10.8%. That is a higher percentage than the 8.9% without a loan, on less cash, but it is only $180 a month of cushion. In the higher-cost case it leaves a loss of about $570 (our estimates). An investor rate above 7.40% cuts both: at 8.5%, a rate we chose for illustration, the middle case leaves about $1,610, or 8.0%, less than without the loan (our estimate). So a loan adds risk and, at investor rates, may add no return. These sums ignore the lender’s fees. We did not check whether lenders write $60,000 investor loans at all.

What people who tried it report

Nobody publishes outcome figures for small Section 8 landlords. We found no median return, no share who lose money and no income report backed by payment records, for Detroit or nationally. Every profit figure from a participant below is that person’s own statement.

Landlords have been leaving, on balance. HUD’s records show “the number of landlords decreased from just over 700,000 to around 640,000” between 2010 and 2016, while the number of vouchers held steady, so vouchers per landlord rose from 2.6 to 3.1⁹⁵. The data ends in 2016.

Many who refuse vouchers once took them. Johns Hopkins researchers interviewed 127 landlords and managers in Baltimore, Dallas and Cleveland for HUD³⁶. Their journal article says: “the majority of landlords who refuse voucher holders had accepted them previously”⁹⁷. A summary of the HUD report gives the detail: of 37 landlords not taking vouchers, 68% had taken them before, and 51% “cited issues with inspections, including the time and repair costs”⁹⁶. The sample is small. Complaints about inspections came from 60% of Cleveland landlords and 12% in Dallas, where houses are newer⁹⁶.

The same study found:

• Small landlords “were remarkably unaware of their business’ profitability. Many could not itemize their routine costs”³⁶.
• Dependable rent was the main draw: “More than any other factor, landlords mentioned guaranteed rent as a key motivator”³⁶.
• For Cleveland, the city in the study most like Detroit, the case study is a landlord with a mortgage, chosen as typical. The report says the programme “does not represent a path to profitability in Cleveland” and quotes him: “by the time I end up paying [the mortgage and taxes] and the water and sewer, I’m in the negative”³⁶. It adds that “a meaningful number of ‘mom-and-pop’ landlords in Dallas and Cleveland contained some success stories”³⁶.
• A landlord told the researchers the “biggest thing that hurts a landlord is turnover”³⁶.

Detroit. In 2023 Outlier Media contacted about 45 landlords who take the Detroit Housing Commission’s vouchers (our sum: 15 who spoke plus “around 30” who never replied). “Of the 15 landlords who did speak to us, three said they don’t have any major issues with the DHC and find working with them to be easy, especially once payments start.” The other twelve “had similar complaints: The DHC regularly takes many months to initiate payments or approve rent increases”⁹⁸. One said: “Five to seven months is very routine”⁹⁸. The article also says: “Landlords can, and many do, make the Section 8 program a cornerstone of their business”⁹⁸. Board papers it obtained showed “only around 1,200 in the entire metro area” taking the agency’s vouchers, against an estimated 42,000 landlords in the city⁹⁸. The agency replied in a written statement. It said there had been “some delayed time periods for payment” the year before, that it had “created a team to focus exclusively on onboarding new landlords”, that it “is current with landlord payments”, and that it was starting payment an average of 60 days after all paperwork was complete⁹⁸. Almost all the landlords disagreed that it was current⁹⁸. A November 2023 follow-up said landlords “regularly don’t get their first payment until six months to a year after the renter moves in”, and that some were refusing the agency’s vouchers “in favor of those issued by other housing commissions”⁷⁰. That article says the agency “preemptively declined to answer any questions” about its performance⁷⁰. People with complaints are more likely to answer a reporter, and this is three years old. We could not confirm today’s state.

A March 2026 report by Detroit Future City counted 54,365 landlords: “Ninety-three percent, or 50,535, of Detroit’s landlords own one or two” properties⁷⁷. Landlords in its focus groups “were challenged by only making a small margin on their properties”, and evictions for unpaid rent “can frequently take more than six months”⁷⁷.

Tax data. On US tax returns for 2023, 4,886,466 reported net rental income and 4,336,173 a net rental loss, so 47% showed a loss (our sum)³⁴. Tax losses include depreciation, a deduction that is not a cash cost, so this overstates cash losses. It covers all US landlords.

Research on cheap rentals. A 2019 paper in the American Journal of Sociology used a national landlord survey from 2012: “After accounting for all expenses, nationwide the median rental unit located in a poor neighborhood yields $98 in profits, compared to only $3 in middle-class neighborhoods and $49 in affluent neighborhoods” a month⁹². The same paper gives the limits. Milwaukee landlords in poor neighbourhoods spent “typically 35 hours a month” managing, “compared to nine hours” elsewhere; the paper adds that the national survey showed no such difference in hours. Among Milwaukee landlords the result “reverses for the landlords in the 10th percentile”, so the weakest landlords there do worse in poor areas. And the typical profitable owner in a poor neighbourhood had no mortgage⁹². It is not about vouchers. A separate Milwaukee study found voucher households “are charged between $51 and $68 more in monthly rent than unassisted renters in comparable units”⁹³.

Remote and bulk buyers. These are not voucher cases. They are about buying cheap Midwest houses from a distance.

• A study of more than 73,000 sales of foreclosed houses in Cuyahoga County, which contains Cleveland, from 2000 to 2012 found: “By 2008, properties purchased by out-of-state large investors were almost five times as likely to fail as those purchased by small investors”¹⁰⁰. “Fail” means the house ended condemned, abandoned or demolished. We read the authors’ press release, not the study.
• A Baltimore firm bought more than 170 houses in the Cleveland area in April 2025 to run as rentals. A survey by two advocacy groups, judged from the street, found “79% of these homes—121 out of 153—were visibly vacant more than a year after purchase”¹⁰¹. The houses were part of about 1,000 bought from a failing investment fund, and the firm says it knew they were heavily vacant when it bought them¹⁰². Its chief executive said they were in worse condition than expected, and that the firm has had a prospective buyer for the hardest Cleveland houses since December and is waiting on lenders’ approval: “We set out to do something, and not everything works out the way it’s supposed to”¹⁰².

Forum reports. These are from BiggerPockets, a property investors’ forum. Several posters sell houses or services to investors.

• A Detroit-area property manager reports buying a three-bedroom house for $35,000, spending about $30,000 on renovation, and that “Section 8 pays $1,350 per month”⁴⁷. That is about 25% gross on $65,000 (our sum). The post says a Section 8 tenant was placed “after a few weeks” and that the purchase was financed with a loan. No costs are given.
• A Metro Detroit agent reports “$100k a year off 16 properties” begun in 2019, about $6,250 a property (our sum)³⁵.
• A Toledo broker wrote in about 2014: “I buy 3/1 houses for less than $10k and put a pretty significant renovation into them so I’m $15-$20k total by the time I rent…and I have nine sect 8 houses now, three for rent”¹⁰⁵. (3/1 means three bedrooms and one bathroom; sect 8 is Section 8.)
• A Memphis operator with a “few hundred doors since 2003, most of them voucher tenants” says the “longest tenancies - five, eight, some past ten years - are voucher families” and that “a unit that passes inspection has a line behind it”. The same post warns of “30-60 days before the first HAP payment lands” (doors are rental units; HAP is the agency’s payment)⁴². A second Memphis landlord budgets “$200-500 a year per property just for inspection driven repairs”⁴².
• In the same discussion a property consultant, whose profile gives a Nevada address, reports giving it up: “at one time I owned over 200 homes in Indy Jackson MS Birmingham 97% section 8 I lasted maybe 18 months 2 steps forward 3 backward to me juice no way worth the squeeze”⁴². He says he prefers ordinary tenants in better areas⁴².
• A landlord of more than 15 years wrote of one voucher house: “That $2,000-$3,000/year? That was my profit margin. Gone, every single year” to inspection repairs¹⁰⁴.

The gap between $200 and $3,000 a year for the same line is itself a finding. It depends on the house.

What the rules allow now

Buying a house and renting it to a voucher tenant is legal and ordinary. “Guaranteed” is the word the rules contradict. What a landlord gets is a contract for the agency’s share of the rent while an approved tenant lives in a house that keeps passing inspection.

No tenant, no payment. “If the family moves out of the unit, the PHA may not make any housing assistance payment to the owner for any month after the month when the family moves out”⁹.

No payment before approval. “The PHA may not pay any housing assistance payment to the owner until the HAP contract has been executed”¹¹. (The HAP contract is the agreement between landlord and agency.) That needs a passed inspection and an approved rent first. A contract signed more than 60 days after the lease starts is void¹¹.

The amount can change. “The amount of the housing assistance payment is subject to change during the HAP contract term”⁷.

A failed inspection stops the money. Life-threatening faults must be fixed in 24 hours and others in 30 days. If not, “The PHA must abate the HAP”, meaning stop it, and “does not make any payments to the owner for the period of time that the payments were abated”⁸. After a further 60 days the contract ends. The owner may not evict over it⁸. A new federal inspection standard, called NSPIRE, becomes compulsory for voucher housing from 1 February 2027, after three postponements¹¹⁰.

Lead paint. “The owner shall stabilize each deteriorated paint surface … before commencement of assisted occupancy”⁶⁸. (To stabilize is to repair peeling or flaking paint so it is intact.) Detroit adds: “If a child in a rental is lead poisoned, City will require a lead inspection / risk assessment at owners’ expense”³⁰.

Funding. The contract says the agency “may terminate the HAP contract if the PHA determines … that available program funding is not sufficient”¹⁵. If the agency pays late, “The owner may not terminate the tenancy for nonpayment of the PHA housing assistance payment”¹⁵. In February 2026 HUD told agencies: “HUD’s tools to address shortfalls in 2026 will be limited, and HUD cannot guarantee that funding will be available to resolve all shortfall needs”, and listed lower payment standards and fewer new vouchers among the remedies¹⁸. It estimated agencies would get 99% of their payment budgets¹⁸. The 2027 budget is not settled; the government is funded by a stopgap “through December 11”¹⁰⁹.

Payments have been late elsewhere. In October 2025 the Housing Authority of Maricopa County, Arizona, told landlords they “will experience delays in HAP issuance starting with October 2025 HAP”⁴⁴. In December 2025 Boston landlords at first got 25% of the month’s payment⁴³. We found no report of late payment for this reason in Detroit.

New vouchers in Detroit. A tight budget also shrinks the pool of tenants. In October 2024 BridgeDetroit reported that Michigan’s state housing agency “immediately suspended pulling names from its waitlist and issuing vouchers”, and that the Detroit Housing Commission had posted that “due to budget constraints” it would not release new vouchers for the foreseeable future¹²⁴. Existing voucher holders kept their help¹²⁴. HUD’s data for 31 December 2025 fits this: 2% of the commission’s tenant-based voucher households had entered in the past year, about 80 of the 4,076 reported (our sum), and 73% of its vouchers were in use⁸³. We did not find whether new vouchers are being issued today. If they are not, a newcomer’s house has to attract a household that already has a voucher and a home.

A proposed rule. In March 2026 HUD proposed letting agencies set work requirements and “a term limit of not less than two years” for households that are neither elderly nor disabled⁷¹. It was still only a proposal on 13 October 2026⁷¹.

Ending a tenancy. In the first lease term an owner cannot end the tenancy to sell or re-let at a higher rent, and eviction is only through a court¹³¹⁵. The agency keeps paying during an eviction until the court decides, which helps the owner⁹.

The agency can refuse an owner. “Nothing in this rule is intended to give any owner any right to participate in the program”¹². Grounds include unpaid local taxes or fines and a record of failed inspections¹².

Detroit’s own layer. The city ordinance makes it “unlawful … to collect rent from a tenant for occupancy of a rental property, during or for any time in which there is not a valid Certificate of Compliance”¹¹². A news report in July 2026 said “only 14% of rental properties in Detroit currently have such a certification”¹¹³. Our own join of city datasets found 883 active certificates among 12,761 two-family houses with no owner-occupier tax exemption, about 7%; some of those houses are empty, so this understates the share among real rentals⁸⁷. A pending lawsuit asks that judges “should not allow landlords to collect rent or evict tenants when the property lacks a certificate of compliance”³³. The court being sued asked for dismissal. A hearing was set for 21 September 2026 and we found no ruling, so the claims remain alleged and the case pending³³.

Unpaid tax. Wayne County adds interest of 1% a month, rising to 1.5%, and can foreclose in the third year⁹⁰.

What is not allowed. Taking any payment from the tenant above the approved rent, or charging the programme more than other tenants pay. A Massachusetts landlord agreed “to pay a $15,200 settlement for submitting false claims to the government after receiving side payments in excess of approved monthly rent”⁶⁷. Three Delaware landlord parties agreed to pay $430,000 over allegations of charging voucher tenants higher rents; the release says these are “allegations only and there has been no determination of liability”¹²¹. These cases concern only the landlords named in them.

Income tax. Rental profit is taxable⁷³. A rental loss can offset other income only up to $25,000 a year, and that allowance shrinks above $100,000 of income¹¹¹.

Who makes money from it

We found no sign that the voucher programme charges landlords a fee, but HUD’s landlord pages did not load, so that is unconfirmed. The money made around the scheme goes to house sellers, managers, lenders, educators and platforms.

The account in our collection. The tweet’s text links to nothing¹. We did not view the account’s profile. A site in the author’s name, goatacademy.org, which gives this X account as his, describes Goat Academy as “an online school for stock trading and investing”⁵⁰. It also lists a membership for stock-investing tools, Winston Daily¹¹⁴. We saw no Section 8 or property product on either site, so we found nothing he sells that depends on this claim. We did not check property records, so we can neither confirm nor dispute that the author owns five Detroit houses bought in 2018.

Course sellers. The largest we found, by its own count of more than 4,000 students, is Section 8 Training, run by Karim Naoum. Its page says: “This is a paid program. We’ll tell you exactly what it costs on the call, not before”⁵³. It screens out applicants with under $15,000⁵³. On refunds: “You can request a refund within 3 calendar days of purchase, but only if you have not accessed the program”⁵³. Its related site says “our content may include links to products or services for which we may receive compensation”¹¹⁵.

That seller’s page disagrees with the tweet: “Is the rent really ‘guaranteed’? No, and I do not use that word. Be careful with anyone who does” and “Vouchers end, tenants move, units fail inspection, and program rules change”⁵³. Its disclosures say “The Company does not track monetary results”⁵⁴. Its advertised example is an Akron, Ohio house: “Purchase price $75,000, Down payment $11,250 (15%), Cash flow $550 / month”, and the page adds: “Those numbers are not your cost to get in the door”⁵³. That is $6,600 a year after loan payments on a one-family house, on $11,250 down: a claimed return of about 59% on the buyer’s cash (our sum). The tweet’s $16,800 is rent before any cost on a two-unit house, so the two are not like for like. At 7.40% a $63,750 loan costs about $5,300 a year, so the example implies an income before the loan of about $11,900, roughly 16% of the price (our estimate). That is above our best case. The page labels its examples “not typical” and does not list the costs counted⁵³.

A second seller, Tom Cruz, offers software and mentoring through a free webinar with no published price¹¹⁶. The page says: “These are some of our best results, not typical ones”¹¹⁶. A figure of $1.3 million a month appears on both his sites: as “$1.3M/mo Net cash flow” on one, and on the other as “his portfolio generates over $1.3 million per month in rental income”¹¹⁶¹¹⁷. Rent and net cash flow are different things, so both labels cannot describe the same number. Both are his own statements. A 2022 review, on a site that promotes a different business course of its own, put his earlier course, Section 8 Secrets, at “$5,000”; we could not confirm the price¹¹⁸. Cheaper products exist from other sellers: an unrelated membership site that uses the same name, run by Mike Caggiano, charges “$9/month”¹¹⁹.

Paid communities. A search for “section 8” on the community platform Skool on 10 October 2026 found paid groups at $7 to $299 a month or $997 once; most had fewer than 100 members⁵⁶. Skool takes $9 a month plus 10% of each payment, or $99 a month plus 2.9%⁵⁷.

Who answers a newcomer. On one Cleveland forum thread about Section 8 investing, by our rough count about 14 of 21 labelled replies came from agents, brokers, lenders, managers or consultants, and none gave a profit figure¹⁰⁸. One reads: “Connect with us to learn more”¹⁰⁸.

House sellers, managers, lenders. A 2010 press release from a seller of Detroit houses promised “gross annual yields of up to 25%” and “Secure rental payments backed by the US government”⁵⁹. We do not know how those purchases turned out. Managers take the fees in Step 5²⁹. Lenders earn the interest²⁸.

Regulator and court cases. We found none about a Section 8 course. Those below concern only the companies and people named in them.

• Property seminars. In the Response Marketing case the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged revenue of “more than $400 million” and that “the vast majority of consumers who purchased Response Marketing’s products and services did not become successful real estate investors and did not even recoup the money they spent”⁶²⁶³. In 2023 the owners agreed to pay $15 million and two celebrity endorsers $1.7 million⁶². In the Zurixx case the FTC has sent customers more than $10.3 million and then more than $1.8 million⁶⁵. Neither is about Section 8.
• Detroit houses sold to distant buyers. In September 2022 the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint alleging that the defendants raised more than $40 million and “sold more than 900 properties to investors without actually owning the properties they were selling in a majority of the transactions”, while promising to manage them and find paying tenants¹²⁰. These are allegations. We did not find the outcome, and the release does not mention Section 8.
• RealT. This company sold investors digital tokens representing shares of Detroit rental houses. In a lawsuit by the City of Detroit, a judge’s temporary restraining order of 22 July 2025 “prevents RealT from evicting tenants or collecting rent on the 408 properties mentioned in the suit until the company brings them into compliance”⁶⁰. In February 2026 RealT told investors it “could no longer afford insurance premiums, maintenance costs or legal expenses without an influx of cash”⁶¹. Its lawyer blamed “the City’s actions, including but not limited to, barring evictions and the direct collection of rent for nearly eight months at the outset of the lawsuit”⁶¹. In January 2026 the judge declined the city’s request to appoint a receiver (an outside manager), leaving the city free to ask again⁶¹. In April 2026 RealT agreed to hand control of its houses to a third-party fiduciary, a manager acting for others⁸². In July 2026 a co-founder told investors: “We are entering voluntary liquidation”⁸². We found no final ruling on the city’s claims, which remain allegations. The reports do not mention Section 8.

The upside

People do make money this way. None of the evidence is an income report checked against payment records.

The best documented operator. The HUD study describes a Baltimore firm under the made-up name “Rutherford Properties”. From the 1990s it bought run-down houses, renovated them and rented them to voucher households. “During the course of 15 years, they acquired several hundred single-family rentals”³⁶. “By working at scale, avoiding the highest poverty neighborhoods, implementing careful screening and management practices, and making each property lead free, Rutherford Properties was able make substantial profits through the voucher program”³⁶. It was built with loans: the firm “purchased a decaying rental property, renovated it, refinanced it based on its after renovation value”, with voucher rent “enough to cover the mortgage”, and paid from its own cash flow only after mortgage lending dried up in 2008³⁶. The report adds: “Many of the smaller investors in the city also pursue a ‘voucher only’ strategy”³⁶. This is independent research, but it gives no profit figure and the firm cannot be identified.

Early buyers, from city records. We matched about 95 Detroit two-family houses that sold at arm’s length in 2018 and again between January 2024 and October 2026 (92 to 98, depending on the matching rule). The median 2018 price was about $36,000 to $38,000. The median resale price was $125,000. The middle house resold at about three times its 2018 price, and none resold for less⁸⁵. This is the nearest thing to a checkable result for people who did what the tweet describes. It has heavy limits. Money spent on renovation between the two sales is unknown. Houses that were abandoned, foreclosed or demolished never appear as a second sale. Nothing shows these were Section 8 rentals. The sum is ours.

Later buyers did less well. Of two-family houses bought at arm’s length in 2020, 2021 or 2022 and resold since, about one in seven resold for less than the purchase price (60 of 427), before renovation and selling costs. For 2023 buyers it was about one in twelve (our estimates from⁸⁵; resales include quick flips).

Tenants stay. The Detroit agency’s tenant-based voucher households had been in the programme an average of 149 months, and only 2% had entered in the past year⁸³. The sources disagree on how long is typical. A HUD fact sheet says voucher tenants live “in a unit for 7-8 years on average”⁷⁵. A HUD study found that households leaving in 2015 had stayed “an average of 6.6 years and a median of 4.8 years”¹⁰⁷. Those figures measure time in the programme, not time in one landlord’s house. The only per-house figure we found is one Memphis landlord’s statement, with 8 voucher units out of 14: “My average Sec 8 tenant stays 4 years. My market rate tenants average just over 2”⁴². The 2% figure has a second meaning for a newcomer: few new voucher holders are arriving (see “New vouchers in Detroit” above).

Protection against a tenant’s lost income. “When a HCV tenant’s income permanently changes, the portion of rent paid by the PHA and the tenant is adjusted”⁷⁵. If the tenant earns less, the agency pays more. This is the true core of the “guaranteed” idea. It does not cover empty months, failed inspections or the wait for the first payment.

Cheap houses do yield more. The economists’ study found net yields of 6.1% in the cheapest fifth of cities against 2.4% in the dearest, and that “Within cities, lower-price-tier zip codes have higher total returns”⁹⁴. The sociology paper found the highest profits per unit in poor neighbourhoods⁹².

Top tenth, top hundredth. No data exists. Sellers’ own figures, such as “over $1.3 million per month”, are unverified¹¹⁷.

A realistic good result. For a competent buyer paying cash in late 2026: about 8% to 10% a year on roughly $125,000 for a typical two-unit house, which is about $10,000 to $13,000, in a year without major repairs (our estimate, Step 6). A below-median house let near the rent ceiling could reach 10% to 13% (our estimate, Step 6). On the tweet’s own $80,000 house and rent, about $4,400 to $8,500. Before that comes a start-up period with no rent: purchase, repairs, the city certificate, tenant approval, inspection and contract. Operators quote 30 to 60 days from lease to first payment, the Detroit agency said in 2023 that it averaged 60 days after complete paperwork, and Detroit landlords reported six months or more. Three to nine months from purchase is our planning range; it leans towards the landlords’ account (our estimate from⁴²⁹⁸). Five such houses would be about $50,000 to $65,000 a year on about $625,000, not $84,000 on $400,000 (our estimate). The house’s price can add to this or take from it: Zillow’s Detroit index fell 5.7% in the year to August 2026 while the two-family median in city records rose²²⁸⁵.

A net 8% to 10% before major repairs is a good yield. It is under half the number in the tweet, and the average over many years on a house built in the 1920s will be lower.

What it takes to compete

The people for whom this pays share a short list of things.

• Cash, or deep reserves. The typical profitable owner in poor neighbourhoods had no mortgage⁹². The forum consultant who gave up after about 18 months tells anyone who still tries it to “pay cash for them do NOT finance them”⁴². Loans are not ruled out: the Baltimore firm grew by refinancing, at pre-2008 rates and with voucher rent that covered the mortgage, and the Detroit forum example used a loan³⁶⁴⁷. At 7.40%, a loan leaves about $180 a month in our middle case and a loss in the higher-cost case (Step 8)²⁸. What the evidence supports is enough money to survive months without rent.
• Being local. The documented successes run their own management³⁶⁴². The failures on record are mostly remote or bulk buyers^10010161. When Detroit paid landlords up to $15,000 a unit to repair duplexes, it set this condition: “Owners must be Detroit residents and own no more than two properties in their portfolio”¹²². We do not know if that programme is still open.
• The ability to renovate cheaply and stay compliant. Income depends on passing inspection again and again⁸. One landlord quoted in the press puts the cost of bringing a Detroit house to code at $30,000 to $40,000³³. That is one person’s estimate.
• Time. About 35 hours a month for Milwaukee landlords in poor neighbourhoods, though the national survey in the same paper showed no such difference⁹². Part of the profit is pay for a part-time job.
• The right ZIP code. A Memphis operator: “In the right zips the standard pays at or above market - that’s where the strategy works. In the wrong zips it pays under”⁴².
• Reserves and patience. For months without rent at the start, a changeover, and a slow agency⁹⁸¹⁰⁶.
• Bookkeeping and years. Small landlords in the HUD study often could not list their costs³⁶. The Baltimore firm bought over about 15 years³⁶.

What it costs to be competitive. About $100,000 to $150,000 in cash per house including repairs, plus reserves (our estimate from⁸⁵). For $1,000 a month, two or three houses (Step 7).

The barrier works both ways. Few Detroit rentals hold the city certificate, and only about 1,200 landlords across the metro area took the city agency’s vouchers in 2023⁸⁷⁹⁸. An owner who can get an old house through both inspections has little compliant competition. But the pool of voucher holders looking for a home may also be small, if new vouchers are still not being issued¹²⁴. A newcomer should expect the house they buy not to be compliant.

How to tell early which side you are on.

1. First, ask the housing agency whether it is issuing new vouchers and how many holders are looking for a home.
2. Before buying, compare the payment standard (the most the agency will normally pay) for that ZIP code and bedroom count with what similar homes nearby rent for.
3. Write out every cost for the actual house: the tax after the sale resets it, an insurance quote, a contractor’s quote to pass inspection, management, and two empty months. If the result is not clearly positive without a loan, the tweet’s sum will not rescue it.
4. Check whether the house holds a Detroit certificate of compliance and lead clearance (a certificate that it has passed a lead-paint test).
5. Ask the housing agency what rent it would approve for that address.
6. Count the months from purchase to first payment.
7. After a year, compare the cash received with the cash spent.

What we did not verify

• Whether the tweet’s author owns five Detroit two-unit houses bought in 2018. No property records were checked. The tweet’s media, replies and the author’s profile were not viewed.
• Any income report from a Section 8 landlord backed by payment records. None was found.
• Our computations from City of Detroit data (sale medians, repeat sales, resale losses, build years, tax estimates, certificate counts) were re-run by separate agents with near-identical results, but they are still our own sums from raw records. We could not open the datasets’ descriptions. A few sales with impossible dates were excluded.
• The official 2025 or 2026 tax rate for homes the owner does not live in, whether the 82.18 mills quoted for businesses applies to a rental house, and what a given $80,000 house would be assessed at after sale.
• Whether the Detroit Housing Commission or the state agency is issuing new vouchers today, and how many voucher holders are looking for a home. The freeze report is from October 2024.
• Which of the 42 ZIP codes beginning 482 lie outside the city. The split used in Step 2 is from memory.
• The cost of major repairs over time on a Detroit two-unit house. The long-run range in Step 6 uses a national mean.
• The 8.5% investor loan rate in Step 8 is an illustration, not a quoted rate.
• Insurance, repair and vacancy costs for Detroit two-unit houses, and the cost of bringing one up to the inspection standard. The figures used are forum posters’ estimates. This is probably the largest unknown.
• The rent the Detroit Housing Commission approves for a one- or two-bedroom flat, whether its standard is 100% or 110%, how long a first payment takes today, its inspection failure rate, and whether it is short of funds. The only landlord sample is from 2023.
• HUD’s column definitions: one of our agents read the data dictionary and another found the file empty. The $927 figure is the same on several rows, so it may be an agency-wide average.
• Which costs the Census survey counts as operating expenses. An earlier draft quoted the survey’s figure for how well rents cover mortgage payments; a second agent could not read that chart reliably, so it has been removed.
• The outcome of the Detroit tenants’ lawsuit, the City’s case against RealT and the SEC case. The full Cleveland study was not opened.
• Prices of the Section 8 Training and Section 8 Pro programmes. The $5,000 figure is from a 2022 review on a site selling another course.
• Investor mortgage rates and lenders’ minimum loan sizes are from memory. Landlord insurance availability, Michigan eviction costs and Detroit’s income tax on non-residents were not checked.
• Quotes from the FTC, Boston, Wayne County and IRS Publication 925 pages were read through an automatic summary and should be re-opened before this page is published. The SEC and Michigan Public quotes were re-read in full through the reader on 13 October 2026.
• The count of forum replies in¹⁰⁸, the IRS column labels in³⁴ and the Massachusetts settlement text beyond its title were not re-checked in the review.
• Routes: the forum, Outlier Media, News 5, Newswise, most seller pages and several HUD studies loaded only through the reader r.jina.ai. The Michigan statutes returned 403 directly and loaded through the reader. The Massachusetts settlement was read once through the reader and once from a Wayback Machine copy. HUD’s data files, the city datasets, Zillow’s files and the federal regulations loaded directly. Reddit and X did not load at all.

Sources

1. Does It Pay collection of 1 tweets on this scheme, collected 2026-10-06. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (local file; tweet https://x.com/felixprehn/status/2053067506412380259 not re-opened on X).
2. HUD, FY2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents, Detroit-Warren-Livonia. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/FY2026_code/2026summary.odn?cbsasub=METRO19820M19820&year=2026&fmrtype=Final. Fiscal year 2026, in force from 1 October 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai) and 2026-10-13.
3. Detroit Housing Commission, 2026 Payment Standard (scanned image of HUD’s FY2026 table). https://www.dhcmi.org/sites/default/files/department-resources/rental-assistance/forms-and-resources/2026PaymentStandard.pdf. FY2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
4. Detroit Housing Commission, Payment Standards. https://dhcmi.org/node/146. Headed “Effective Jan 1, 2025”. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai) and 2026-10-13.
5. 24 CFR 982.503, payment standard range. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/part-982/section-982.503. eCFR current to 2026-10-07. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
6. 24 CFR 982.505, how the subsidy is calculated. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/part-982/section-982.505. eCFR current to 2026-10-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
7. 24 CFR 982.451, the payment contract. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/part-982/section-982.451. eCFR current to 2026-10-07. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
8. 24 CFR 982.404, inspection failures and stopped payments. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/section-982.404. eCFR current to 2026-10-08; amended 7 May 2024. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
9. 24 CFR 982.311, when payments end. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/section-982.311. eCFR current to 2026-10-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
10. 24 CFR 982.507, reasonable rent. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/section-982.507. eCFR current to 2026-10-08; amended 3 February 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
11. 24 CFR 982.305, approval before payment. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/section-982.305. eCFR current to 2026-10-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
12. 24 CFR 982.306, refusing an owner. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/section-982.306. eCFR current to 2026-10-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
13. 24 CFR 982.310, ending a tenancy. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/section-982.310. eCFR current to 2026-10-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
14. HUD, Housing Choice Vouchers for tenants. https://www.hud.gov/helping-americans/housing-choice-vouchers-tenants. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through an automatic summary).
15. HUD form 52641, Housing Assistance Payments Contract. https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/OCHCO/documents/52641ENG.pdf. Edition 4/2023. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
16. Detroit Housing Commission, Become a Landlord. https://www.dhcmi.org/landlord-info/become-a-landlord. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through an automatic summary). No longer cited in the text.
17. Detroit Housing Commission, Landlord FAQ. https://www.dhcmi.org/departments/rental-assistance/landlord-faq. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through an automatic summary) and 2026-10-13.
18. HUD, 2026 budget management letter to housing agencies. https://www.hud.gov/sites/default/files/PIH/documents/2026-Budget-Management-Letter.pdf. February 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
19. HUD, budget management letter. https://www.hud.gov/sites/default/files/PIH/documents/Budget-Management-Letter-12-2025.pdf. 2025-12-22. Read at source on 2026-10-10. No longer cited in the text.
20. NAHRO, “HUD sends letter on HCV budget management”. https://www.nahro.org/news/hud-sends-letter-on-hcv-budget-management-expects-large-shortfalls-despite-99-hap-proration. 2026-02-18. Secondary. No longer cited in the text.
21. Zillow, Detroit home values. https://www.zillow.com/home-values/17762/detroit-mi/. Index to 2026-08-31; sale price 2026-07-31. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
22. Zillow Home Value Index, city data file. https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/City_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv. Data to 2026-08-31. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
23. HUD, FY2018 Fair Market Rents, Detroit-Warren-Livonia. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/FY2018_code/2018summary.odn?cbsasub=METRO19820M19820&year=2018&fmrtype=Final. Fiscal year 2018. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
24. Detroit City Council Legislative Policy Division, report on the property tax millage rate. https://detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitmi.localhost/files/2021-03/LPD%20report%20on%20analyzing%20ill-effects%20of%20Detroit%27s%20property%20tax%20millage%20rate%20on%20population%20property%20values%20homeownership%20final%20version.pdf. March 2021, table for 2020. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
25. University of Michigan Detroit Center, article on Detroit property tax (republished from The Conversation). https://detroit.umich.edu/?p=12936. May 2026. Secondary (through r.jina.ai).
26. US Census Bureau, 2024 Rental Housing Finance Survey infographic. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/programs-surveys/rhfs/2024-rhfs-infographic.pdf. 2024 survey, figures for 2023. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
27. HUD, release on the 2021 Rental Housing Finance Survey. https://archives.hud.gov/news/2022/pr22-242.cfm. 2022-11-29. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
28. Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey. https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms. Week of 2026-10-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through an automatic summary) and 2026-10-13.
29. Evernest, “How much do property managers charge in Detroit”. https://evernest.co/blog/how-much-do-property-managers-charge-in-detroit. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
30. City of Detroit, New Detroit Rental Ordinance, August update. https://detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitmi.localhost/files/2025-09/New%20Detroit%20Rental%20Ordinace%20August%20Update.pdf. August 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
31. City of Detroit, Rental Property page and ordinance summary. https://detroitmi.gov/departments/buildings-safety-engineering-and-environmental-department/bseed-divisions/property-maintenance/rental-property. Summary dated December 2024. Read at source on 2026-10-10. No longer cited in the text.
32. Outlier Media, report on Detroit rental inspection rules. https://outliermedia.org/?p=55583. 2026-05-27. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
33. Michigan Public, “Why this Detroit tenants’ lawsuit is making landlords nervous”. https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2026-09-15/why-this-detroit-tenants-lawsuit-is-making-landlords-nervous. 2026-09-15. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
34. IRS Statistics of Income, Table 1.4, tax year 2023. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/23in14ar.xls. Tax year 2023. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
35. BiggerPockets forum, “Section 8 real estate investing”. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/1155919-section-8-real-estate-investing?page=1. About 2024. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
36. HUD Office of Policy Development and Research, “Urban Landlords and the Housing Choice Voucher Program”. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/Urban-Landlords-HCV-Program.pdf. May 2018. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
37. Desmond and Wilmers, American Journal of Sociology, 2019 paper on landlord profits, abstract. https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/DOI:10.1086/701697?fields=title,abstract,year. January 2019. Secondary (abstract only). No longer cited in the text; see source 92.
38. Route Fifty, article on the Desmond and Wilmers paper. https://www.route-fifty.com/management/2019/03/how-poor-americans-get-exploited-their-landlords/155780/. March 2019. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai); secondary for the paper. No longer cited in the text.
39. SFR Analytics, “Section 8 housing overview”. https://newsletter.sfranalytics.com/p/section-8-housing-overview. 2024-04-16. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
40. BiggerPockets forum, “Detroit operating costs: what your pro forma is probably missing”. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/921/topics/1285553-detroit-operating-costs-what-your-pro-forma-is-probably-missing. About May 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
41. BiggerPockets forum, a remote buyer’s account of three Detroit houses. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1025049-my-experience-with-strategy-properties-detroit-mi. About 2022. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
42. BiggerPockets, discussion of Section 8 landlording. https://www.biggerpockets.com/posts/7264279. About May 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
43. Banker & Tradesman, “Landlords only getting partial Section 8 checks from Boston Housing Authority”. https://bankerandtradesman.com/landlords-only-getting-partial-section-8-checks-from-boston-housing-authority. 2025-12-03. Read at source on 2026-10-10; again on 2026-10-13 through an automatic summary.
44. Housing Authority of Maricopa County, public notice of shortfall. https://maricopahousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Public-Notice-November-2025-Shortfall.pdf. 2025-10-10. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
45. University of Michigan Poverty Solutions, study of Detroit’s bulk buyers of houses. https://poverty.umich.edu/files/2019/08/Akers-et-al-Eviction-Machine-Revised-August-12.pdf. 2019-08-12. Read at source on 2026-10-10. No longer cited in the text.
46. BridgeDetroit, “Detroit eased rental inspection rules to improve housing safety. It hasn’t worked” (republication of source 32). https://www.bridgedetroit.com/detroit-eased-rental-inspection-rules-to-improve-housing-safety-it-hasnt-worked/. 2026-05-29. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
47. BiggerPockets forum, “Section 8 rental in Detroit”. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/88/topics/1291058-section-8-rental-in-detroit. About June 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
48. Entrepreneur India, article on a Section 8 mentorship. https://india.entrepreneur.com/?p=3260. 2025-03-21. Read at source on 2026-10-10. No longer cited in the text.
49. BiggerPockets forum, “NYC investor lost everything on Section 8”. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/517/topics/1284972-nyc-investor-lost-everything-on-section-8-here-s-why. About May 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10. No longer cited in the text.
50. Goat Academy. https://goatacademy.org/. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai) and 2026-10-13.
51. Whop, Goat Academy listing. https://whop.com/goatacademystocks/goat-academy-07/. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
52. Goat Academy, terms of use. https://goatacademy.org/terms-of-use. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
53. Section 8 Training. https://section8training.com/. Undated, footer 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai) and 2026-10-13.
54. Section 8 Training, disclosures. https://section8training.com/disclosures. Undated, footer 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
55. Boring Rich book page. https://boringrichbook.com/. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
56. Skool, search for “section 8”. https://www.skool.com/discovery?q=section%208. Live listing, 2026-10-10. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
57. Skool, pricing. https://www.skool.com/pricing. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
58. BiggerPockets forum, mentoring advert. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/517/topics/1233731-section-8-millionaire-offering-mentoring-for-4-bucks-a-month. About 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
59. Newswire, “Detroit investment property starting from $37,995”. https://www.newswire.com/news/detroit-investment-property-starting-from-37-995-161939. 2010-02-02. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
60. Outlier Media, report on the restraining order against RealT. https://outliermedia.org/?p=47373. 2025-07-23. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai; secondary for the court order).
61. Michigan Public, “‘The model no longer works’: crypto landlord’s Detroit enterprise is crumbling”. https://www.michiganpublic.org/social-justice/2026-03-20/the-model-no-longer-works-crypto-landlords-detroit-enterprise-is-crumbling. 2026-03-20. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (secondary for the court filings).
62. FTC, press release on the Response Marketing judgment. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/05/ftc-suit-leads-167-million-judgment-against-principals-celebrity-endorsers-real-estate-investment. 2023-05-22. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
63. FTC, press release on the Response Marketing complaint. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2019/11/ftc-acts-shut-down-companies-operating-real-estate-seminar-scheme. 2019-11-05. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
64. FTC, Response Marketing refunds. https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds/response-marketing-refunds. 2024-03-19, since updated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
65. FTC, Zurixx refunds. https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds/zurixx-refunds. 2024-07-30, since updated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
66. HousingWire, report on the SEC complaint against Marquis Properties. https://www.housingwire.com/articles/36080. 2016-01-21. Secondary. No longer cited in the text.
67. US Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts, “Quincy landlord agrees to $15,200 settlement”. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/quincy-landlord-agrees-15200-settlement-false-claims-act-violations. 2024-08-26. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai); on 2026-10-13 from the Wayback Machine copy of 2025-12-11.
68. 24 CFR 35.1215, lead paint in voucher housing. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/section-35.1215. eCFR current to 2026-10-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
69. Fair housing centre (fhcmichigan.org), source of income fact sheet. https://fhcmichigan.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Source-of-Income-Fact-Sheet.pdf. April 2025. Secondary. No longer cited in the text; see source 91.
70. Outlier Media, report on the Detroit Housing Commission. https://outliermedia.org/detroit-housing-commission-failures-sandra-henriquez/. 2023-11-15, updated 2026-05-18. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
71. Federal Register, proposed rule on work requirements and term limits. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/03/02/2026-04095/establishing-flexibility-for-implementation-of-work-requirements-and-term-limits. 2026-03-02. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13 (through the Federal Register’s data service).
72. Stateline, “Feds encourage public housing authorities to impose work rules, time limits”. https://stateline.org/2026/06/30/feds-encourage-public-housing-authorities-to-impose-work-rules-time-limits/. 2026-06-30. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
73. IRS, Topic 414, rental income and expenses. https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc414. Last reviewed 2026-09-24. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
74. bhhssnyder.com, estate agent’s listing for a two-unit house in ZIP code 48227, Detroit. https://www.bhhssnyder.com/homes/15766-Hartwell-Street/Detroit/MI/48227/171446952/. Sold 2026-03-27. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
75. HUD, landlord myth-busting and benefits fact sheet. https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/PIH-HCV-Landlord-Myth-Busting-and-Benefits-Fact-Sheet.pdf. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
76. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 10(2), abstract. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20150176. May 2018. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (abstract only, through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
77. Detroit Future City, “Understanding the Rental Landscape”. https://detroitfuturecity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Understanding-the-Rental-Landscape-UPDATE_March_2026.pdf. March 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
78. ATTOM, 2026 single-family rental market report. https://www.attomdata.com/news/market-trends/single-family-rental/2026-single-family-rental-market-report/. 2026-03-05. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai). No longer cited in the text.
79. HUD, FY2027 Small Area Fair Market Rents data file. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmr2027/FY27_safmrs.xlsx (linked from https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html). Fiscal year 2027, from 1 October 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13.
80. Zillow Observed Rent Index, ZIP code data file. https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zori/Zip_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv. Data to 2026-08-31. Read at source on 2026-10-10. No longer cited in the text.
81. Outlier Media newsletter, “RealT loses control”. https://outliermedia.org/newsletter/realt-loses-control/. 2026-04-29. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai; secondary for the court proceedings). No longer cited in the text.
82. Outlier Media newsletter, “Is this the end of RealT?”. https://outliermedia.org/newsletter/is-this-the-end-of-real-t/. 2026-07-16. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
83. HUD, Picture of Subsidized Households 2025, data file by housing agency. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/pictures/files/PHA_2025_2020census.xlsx (linked from https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/assthsg.html). Data as of 2025-12-31. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
84. HUD, Picture of Subsidized Households, data dictionary 2025. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/pictures/dictionary_2025.pdf. 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-13 by one agent; the file downloaded empty for another.
85. City of Detroit Assessor, property sales records joined to the city parcel file. https://services2.arcgis.com/qvkbeam7Wirps6zC/arcgis/rest/services/assessor_property_sales_view/FeatureServer/0. Sales to 2026-10-03. Read at source on 2026-10-13; the medians and matches are our estimate from the records.
86. City of Detroit, parcel property tax estimates. https://services2.arcgis.com/qvkbeam7Wirps6zC/arcgis/rest/services/parcel_property_tax_estimates/FeatureServer/0. Queried 2026-10-13. Read at source on 2026-10-13; the medians are our estimate from the records.
87. City of Detroit, active residential certificates of compliance (with the rental registration and parcel files). https://services2.arcgis.com/qvkbeam7Wirps6zC/arcgis/rest/services/bseed_active_residential_compliance_certificates/FeatureServer/0. Latest certificate 2026-10-10. Read at source on 2026-10-13; the counts are our estimate from the records.
88. City of Detroit Office of the Assessor, Assessment Information Packet for Taxpayers. https://detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitmi.localhost/files/2018-10/Assessment%20Information%20Packet%20for%20Taxpayers.pdf. October 2018. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
89. Michigan Compiled Laws 211.27a, taxable value after a transfer. https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-211-27a. Current text. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
90. Wayne County Treasurer, property tax information. https://www.waynecountymi.gov/Government/Elected-Officials/Treasurer/Property-Tax-Information. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through an automatic summary).
91. Michigan Compiled Laws 554.601c, source of income. https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-554-601c. Effective 2025-04-02. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
92. Desmond and Wilmers, “Do the Poor Pay More for Housing?”, American Journal of Sociology, open-access copy. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/135963. January 2019. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (full text file).
93. Desmond and Perkins, City & Community, 2016, abstract. https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1111/cico.12180. June 2016. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (abstract only).
94. Eisfeldt and Demers, NBER working paper 21804 on rental yields. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w21804/w21804.pdf. December 2015, revised May 2021. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
95. HUD Office of Policy Development and Research, Landlord Participation Study, final report. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/Landlord-Participation-Study-Final-Report.pdf. 2018-10-17. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
96. National Low Income Housing Coalition, summary of source 36. https://reports.nlihc.org/node/10930. 2018. Secondary.
97. Garboden, Rosen, DeLuca and Edin, Housing Policy Debate 28(6), abstract. https://collaborate.princeton.edu/en/publications/taking-stock-what-drives-landlord-participation-in-the-housing-ch/. 2018. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (abstract only, through r.jina.ai).
98. Outlier Media, report on Detroit Section 8 landlords. https://outliermedia.org/detroit-section-8-housing-vouchers-struggles/ (also https://outliermedia.org/?p=14701). 2023-06-14. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
99. Not used (number kept so later numbers do not change).
100. Newswise, press release on the Cleveland study of post-foreclosure sales. https://www.newswise.com/articles/study-says-out-of-state-buyers-worsened-cleveland-home-vacancy-crisis. 2014-02-04. Secondary (through r.jina.ai).
101. Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council and ACORN, report on one investor’s Cleveland houses. https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/ac/be/bba14b0240728fb1173d6cd70949/riparian-report-october-2026-1-1.pdf. October 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
102. News 5 Cleveland, “An out-of-state investor group owns more than 150 homes in Cleveland. They’re mostly vacant”. https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/an-out-of-state-investor-group-owns-more-than-150-homes-in-cleveland-theyre-mostly-vacant. 2026-10-07. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
103. Not used (number kept so later numbers do not change).
104. BiggerPockets blog, a landlord’s account of Section 8 properties. https://biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-investing-avoid-section-8-properties. 2019-09-15. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
105. BiggerPockets forum, “Section 8 bible”. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/50/topics/83224-section-8-bible. About 2014. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
106. BiggerPockets, post on the cost of tenant turnover. https://www.biggerpockets.com/posts/7253005. About December 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
107. HUD Office of Policy Development and Research, “Length of Stay in Assisted Housing”. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/LengthofStay.pdf. October 2017. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
108. BiggerPockets forum, “Section 8 investing in Cleveland”. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/1189889-section-8-investing-in-cleveland?page=1. About 2024, replies to September 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai); the count is our estimate.
109. National Low Income Housing Coalition, Memo to Members. https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Memo_Oct_5_26_4.pdf. 2026-10-05. Secondary.
110. Federal Register, notice extending the compliance date for the new inspection standard. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/09/30/2025-19070/economic-growth-regulatory-relief-and-consumer-protection-act-implementation-of-national-standards. 2025-09-30. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (abstract only).
111. IRS, Publication 925, passive activity rules. https://www.irs.gov/publications/p925. 2025 edition. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through an automatic summary).
112. City of Detroit, rental ordinance, Chapter 8. https://detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitmi.localhost/files/2025-02/Ordinance%20Chapter%208%20Rental%20Registration%20signed_0.pdf. Passed October 2024. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
113. BridgeDetroit, report on the tenants’ lawsuit against the eviction court. https://www.bridgedetroit.com/?p=234283. 2026-07-08. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
114. Winston Daily, pricing. https://winstondaily.com/pricing. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
115. Section 8 Karim, full disclosure. https://section8karim.com/full-disclosure. Undated, footer 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
116. Section 8 Pro, webinar registration page. https://section8pro.com/register-page. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
117. Tom Cruz, personal site. https://tomcruz.com/. Undated, footer 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
118. ippei.com, review of Section 8 Secrets. https://ippei.com/section-8-secrets/. 2022-11-25. Secondary (a review by a site selling another course).
119. Section 8 Secrets membership site. https://www.section8secrets.com/. Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
120. SEC, litigation release 25540. https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr-25540. 2022-09-30. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
121. Oversight.gov, “Newark landlords agree to pay $430,000 to settle allegations of collecting excess rent”. https://www.oversight.gov/newark-landlords-agree-pay-430000-settle-allegations-collecting-excess-rent-sparrow-run. Date not shown; lawsuit filed December 2020. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).
122. City of Detroit, Detroit Duplex Repair Program announcement. https://detroitmi.gov/node/73401. 2023-11-01. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
123. Zillow Home Value Index, city data file, bottom tier. https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/City_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.0_0.33_sm_sa_month.csv. Data to 2026-08-31. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
124. BridgeDetroit, “Why Michigan’s largest federal housing voucher program is frozen”. https://www.bridgedetroit.com/?p=209906. 2024-10-04. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (through r.jina.ai).

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