Tom Cruz Section 8 Course Review 2022

Tom Cruz

I’ve been meaning to start reviews for Courses that I find interesting to help you make a well informed decision of whether or not they are for you.

Tom Cruz is a real estate investor out of Wilmington, North Carolina. After graduating from UNCW, he started his career in wholesaling real estate then graduating off to buying single and small multi family properties. He got his start with the Section 8 Program by accident by purchasing it with a tenant that was Section 8. Since then, he has bought and sold over 500 units and solely owns 390 properties.

What is Section 8?

The Section 8 Program allows private landlords to rent apartments and homes at fair market rates to qualified low income tenants. Section 8 is a common name for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Low-income residents apply to get a rent assistance voucher. Approved tenants can choose a rental property in their county that meets housing quality standards and has a reasonable rent compared with similar units in the market.

Tenants negotiate a lease directly with the property owner. Tenants pay a minimum of 28.5% of their income toward the monthly rent and HUD will pay the remainder directly to the landlord. Cool right?

What attracted me to Section 8?

I spend a lot of time on what I like to call Tiktok University. It truly is amazing how social media platforms are becoming open-source university platforms with creators pumping out real time insights of their business and skills.

Packing those skills into a 30 second short or less is the new way to give us a glimpse of what is going on. If I like a video, then I’ll save it to my bookmark thread, if I feel like I loved the content and I want to re-watch it, then I’ll save the video itself.

When I came across Tom Cruz tiktok page I was impressed. He was calm, confident, showcasing his home and cars which define his success in a nutshell. I kept watching and watching his videos until the light bulb went off. That light bulb convinced me that there is a market for Section 8 and it is not going anywhere.

I figured there are only two ways for me to determine whether I am serious to dive into this new endeavor

1. Trial & Error: this means that I do not need a course, I am willing to put in the time and money until I figure it out. Sometimes we do not fully understand the magnitude of what goes into really figuring things out. Nothing is as ‘easy’ as it may be portrayed and that is a GOOD thing. You don’t want to get into something that is too easy for everyone to get into. I always say that the riches are in the niches.
2. Course: this means that I value an expert in the field, they will hold my hand, provide their insights and formula. I have never been a big course fan since there is a lot of junk out there and fake gurus. But I figured with Tom Cruz North Carolina aka tcruznc it seemed it would be a good starting point.

How Did The Course Sign Up Go?

Well, I had discussed this course with one of my best friends, Sam. He has a project management background in waste management and really loved the idea of becoming a Section 8 investor with me.

We both have skillsets that complement each-other and we thought why not. We signed up to speak to one of Tom’s partners. Got on the phone, asked a bunch of questions and what it entailed.

We were convinced okay there is something here and discussed whether it was time to pull the trigger and buy the course. We had another follow up phone meeting to ask more questions and then we were sold. We decided let’s go section 8 housing.

How Much Was The Course And What Did It Include?

What I noticed with all the premium level courses, price is never shown. If your truly interested you will make that call, even if you decide its out of your budget later on. As a rule of thumb, if no price is shown then your looking at $5,000.

Maybe there is a psychological element to this that it sounds better over the phone vs reading over a text. Anyways, they were nice enough to let Sam & I split the $5k bill and get access to their course.

Now, what is included in the course and what we have received so far:

1. Web portal to all the course videos created by Tom Cruz himself
2. Access to a Discord group with 81 members, beginners and experienced investors with portfolios
3. Access to Tom when you have a property ready and want his input on the deal
4. Access to his partner Jonah who is by far the most active moderator
5. Live zoom calls and if you can’t make them, you can watch them in the web portal

How Good Is The Course Content?

Ok very important part. The course content is really good, very in-depth and thorough. If you think watching Tom Cruz Real Estate videos on Tiktok is enough for you to go out on your own, then think again.

This sort of endeavor comes with a lot of risks, so applying a trial & error can be very costly for you. We learned about the ins & outs, the do’s and don’t, what to look out for and what to ensure you have in place. Tom goes into breaking down the following areas:

1. What is Real estate Section 8 and How To Invest In Section 8 Housing
2. How To Choose A Property
3. Financing
4. Tenant Selection
5. Tenant Onboarding
6. Inspections
7. Management
8. Documents for your LLC
9. Bonus: Wholesaling Course (which is cool to have)

How Is The Community On Discord?

Just like anyone whom joins a discord group, I like to scroll all the way to the top of the page and read all the questions and answers and make notes in word document. I did this because after watching the videos I realized wow there is so much that goes into Section 8 investing and now it is normal to ask questions!

I must say the discord community is very connected and open to helping each other. This is important to me and trust me for you too. People are sharing contacts of realtors, lenders, property managers, insights on markets, joint ventures, you name it. It is a good place to communicate with others in the same journey as you.

Big plus for me. Also, you have Tom that chimes in every now and then and Jonah whose very responsive. There is a really cool section where they list on a weekly basis opportunities by city/state with numbers.

Just to give you an example it will go like this:

1. Address
2. Asking price
3. Monthly estimated payment as per realtor.com
4. Current value Estimate as per realtor.com
5. FMR for that county: which is what the government pays for the property in question
6. Link to the listing

Jonah does about 10-12 listings per week and it is quite helpful and not to mention he will share which listings are over $100k that conform to the “No Doc” Lenders. Lastly, I have checked many of the weekly pdf and most get sold quickly.

What Are The Average Home Size & Price?

So this part is really important and will help determine whether Section 8 Investing is for you in your state. Bear in mind Section 8 investing is a profitable endeavor, however the numbers have to make sense.

The average target home size is about 3 bedroom homes and average target price is $70,000. Yes you heard that right. $70,000. Not to say that homes up to $150,000 are not profitable, they just have a lower ROI. You must be asking can I even find properties of those amounts?

Well yes, and now that inflation is peaking and real estate starting to cool down, you might be in a better position to start investing now and getting bargains. There are definitely homes in the $70k range that I have personally seen that fit this criteria, I will list below an example:

Example:

Address: 24 Walker Street, Augusta, GA, 30901
Home size: 3 bedrooms (target bedroom count for FMR)
Asking Price: $75,000 (previously listed for $105,000 in December 28, 2021)
Current Monthly Estimated Payment as $499 (given you get a private lender on a “no doc” loan charging 7% and not including what points you may be charged)
Down payment: $15,000
FMR: $1,228
Condition: Rent ready, minor cosmetics it appears
Potential Cash Flow: $729 per month

Obviously the above is just an example and there may be other costs incurred to you such as:

1. Lender charging points on the loan
2. Property management company
3. Whether you pay for tenant utilities (this can lower your cashflow)
4. Closing costs
5. Cosmetics

ROI:
Based on this example, if we take it that $729 per month if your cash flow, then think about your CoC return. Get your down payment back within 2 years with a potential upside of equity accumulation? Sweet!

Have I Done A Deal?

The short answer is No. Well at least not yet. Why? Well let me tell you why. I signed up for the course during the peak of the real estate market Q1 2022 and to be frank the deals were out of the price point for me at least in the counties I explored.

According to Tom its best to start with the market your in and manage yourself to get some experience. California obviously is out of the question since prices are super high and its not the type of market you want to do Section 8 in. Here are a couple of states with priority for me:

States of Focus:

1. Florida
2. North Carolina
3. Ohio
4. Tennessee
5. Indiana

I will be updating this section as soon as I have a property under my belt! If you liked this give me a shout or message me if you have any questions I did not cover.