Whether to attend a Section 8 inspection in person or leave a lockbox

When an annual inspection conflicts with a landlord's schedule, the choice comes down to driving out to meet the inspector at the door versus leaving a key in a lockbox and reading whatever comes back. Being there in person means hearing what gets flagged while the inspector is standing in front of it, and sometimes small items get talked through rather than formally written up. It also puts the landlord in front of the tenant, which can matter for other reasons unrelated to the inspection itself. The lockbox approach saves the travel time and treats the inspection as what it technically is, a pass or a list of items. Anything that fails still arrives in writing either way, and minor items like a torn screen can be fixed without needing to have heard it described in person. For an owner scaling past a handful of doors, the in-person habit tends to stop making sense purely on time, though it's worth being honest about whether attending is genuine diligence or simply habit before dropping it.