Having done both Market and LIHTC, I would agree.... What I will say, is as long as you can demonstrate your attention to detail in the paperwork connected with the compliance aspect; you will do well. Remember, up to my last property; I had NO exposure to Tax Credit.
My last properrty was a BRAND NEW (just finished construction) LIHTC property (80 studio sized units); designed for a very narrow demographic (not only extremely low income, but also disability and chronic homeless; and needed to prove all 3). I did the entire lease up for initial occupancy. Our procedure involved sending all verifications and documents to compliance for review. Compliance finds and identifies errors and sends back for correction (it got to the point that my only errors were typographical errors); once errors were corrected, I would send back to compliance for review and approval. Once compliance approves applicant, we would need to send the file to the owner for final review. The owner would do the same thing, look for errors and send back for correction. Once all errors were resolved, they would approve the applicant for move in. The entire process was lengthy; initially it took almost 8 weeks (which was okay because the inital applications were taken before the property was complete). As we got better and implemented a streamlined process, we got it down to 3, with a record of 14 days.
Tax credit is not what you can be told, it is about what you can PROVE.
My last week there, I submitted the final file to the owner for review that made the property 100% tax credit certified and occupied.
The only headache beyond that is the recertification process; to make sure that the resident is still within income restrictions. This is an area where retention is a challenge, but when a resident no longer qualifies because his income situation improved; you HAVE DONE YOUR JOB!
With Tax Credit properties, you will generally have a waiting list and that will make marketing not as critical as if you were a market property.