Keep Current Tenant or Find New One?

[Vanessa S.]

Hello everyone- My current tenant’s lease is up soon and she is wanting to renew for another year. The only advantage of extending the lease is the tenant has paid on time every month. In fact, she pays early. As a precaution, I contacted my neighbors to get feedback since I live out of town. Here are the complaints from neighbors: the tenant’s “guest” lives there full time, the “guest” is extremely loud (plays video games and yells loudly when watching football) and smokes marijuana (violation of the lease). The tenant is very kind, quiet and respectful but it is her “guest” that is not. I wish my neighbors complained to me earlier about this but according to them, this has been ongoing. (Why do neighbors stay mum on stuff like this?!!) I had given the tenant a warning about this “guest” back in March 2020 but to my surprise, it seems she ignored me. My neighbors didn’t complain after that so I assumed all was well. 
Here is my issue: I will have an urgent health issue requiring surgery and treatment. Treatment could last a year. Out of convenience, I was contemplating keeping my tenant since she pays rent on time. She never complains nor contacts me. I wanted to focus on my health without adding another stress in my life by finding a new tenant. 
However, it is obvious it is her “guest” that is the problem, not her. The lease was a year long and transitions to month-to-month after that. I was going to keep it month-to-month until I find a new tenant but then my health issue arose. 

The good news is a friend referred a coworker to me who seems to be a good fit. I have sent her photos of the interior and exterior of the rental and so far, she likes it. The problem is trying to show the property to her while it is occupied by the current tenant. If the “guest” has been smoking, it is likely to stink of smoke. 

At this point, anyone is better than my current tenant who has a “guest” who stays all day and smokes and plays video games loudly.

If it weren’t for my health issue, I’d find a replacement tenant in an instant. I know I’m not guaranteed the perfect replacement tenant either with this referral I have. 

So…what would you do? I’d appreciate any and all feedback. Again, if my health was fine, I’d know exactly what to do. But, I have major surgery soon and then treatments after likely to last a year. Not sure how much I can handle with finding a new tenant from scratch, assuming the referral doesn’t work out.

Thank you in advance! so sorry this post was so lengthy. Wanted to cover the details. Thanks for reading and helping with your input.