A vacancy hold is the choice to keep a unit empty while you wait on the next assisted household. A cash tenant is an unassisted renter who pays the full rent you set. Your PHA will not make that call. You will.
On a tenant-based voucher, the housing assistance payment is the portion your PHA sends while an assisted family is under a HAP contract in that unit. When that family moves, the contract ends. Do not budget a vacancy payment. Those payments show up in some project-based contracts, and only if that PHA wrote them into the admin plan and the contract. On a regular Housing Choice Voucher, assume the check stops. Ask the caseworker for the last day they will pay. Get it in writing.
The number that matters is days with no rent, not the story the last tenant told you. Your contractor is already on the make-ready. Your realtor is already set to show the door and walk the lease. From the laptop, decide the path before the keys come back.
Hold only if three things are true in your market.
First, the payment standard for that bedroom size still clears your number after the utility allowance. The payment standard is the cap your PHA uses to size the subsidy. The utility allowance is the estimate they subtract for tenant-paid utilities. If cash comps sit under what a voucher can support, holding can be the only way to hit rent. If unassisted asking rent is at or above what the PHA will approve, holding is optional. Price it that way.
Second, you have a named applicant with a voucher in hand, not a waitlist rumor. A Request for Tenancy Approval is the packet you submit so the PHA can review that household for your unit. No RFTA in motion means you do not have a hold. You have a hope.
Third, the turn fits inside days you can fund. Keep cash in the deal under $10k per door. A quiet month on a cheap house can eat the cushion for the next offer. If the punch list is about two weeks and the applicant can be inspected inside that window, hold. If the caseworker has no inspection date, stop holding.
The cash path is often the right call on an early door. Lease at a number a working household in your city can pay. Collect the deposit before move-in. Tell the PHA the assisted tenancy ended so you are not waiting on a payment they already closed. You can take a voucher on the next turnover. Occupancy is the asset. An empty house with a perfect tenant type is not.
Write the rule before notice hits. One line in the file: hold only with a named voucher applicant and an RFTA date; otherwise list for cash within 48 hours of keys. The realtor runs the listing or the showing. The contractor finishes the make-ready to the photo standard you already set. You do not fly in to feel the decision.
Actionable Takeaway: Email your PHA today and ask two questions in one thread: the last date HAP is paid after a household moves out on a tenant-based voucher, and whether the admin plan allows any vacancy payment on Housing Choice Voucher contracts. Save the reply in the deal folder before you promise a seller you can hold for Section 8.