Approached by realtor to sell investment property - help!

[Tyler Beeson]

Hi there - my wife and I bought a home in South Philly in July 2019 where we lived until we moved to the suburbs September 2021. We decided at that point to become first-time landlords and rent our South Philly home. Much to our delight, we ended up with a bidding war, and we accepted a rent offer $300 over ask and locked in a 24-month lease (expires September 2023). Prior to signing, we created an addendum allowing us to sell the property as long as we give 60 days notice to the tenants. 

Fast forward to this week, we received a letter in the mail from a Philly realtor asking if we would be interested in selling our home to his clients. They had looked for a home in our neighborhood that met our specs last year but shut down their search due to crazy market conditions and are now trying to find off-market properties - even if it means paying a premium. The realtor said there is a possibility they would look to purchase our home for more than what we believe is market rate, which would be ideal for us, but not necessarily for our tenants.

Our tenants have been great. We have had a fantastic experience thus far with few issues and decent monthly cash flow. However, we were planning on selling the property after the lease is up in September 2023 anyway to avoid capital gains (having lived in the property for 2 years and selling within 5). Bottom line is my wife and I want to do right by our tenants, but we also made a decision to treat this like a business as we set out towards creating financial freedom.

I would love to hear what anyone else would do in this situation (should an attractive offer actually pan out). Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Our thoughts are, in no particular order: 1) explore the option of the buyers taking over the lease; 2) longer close until the Fall of this year, or; 3) closing sooner and notifying our tenants that they must find a new place. 

A longer close makes us nervous in case the deal falls through over the next 6-9 months and our tenants find a new place to live, leaving us with a vacant property, but curious if that is a valid concern. Any thoughts/advice/insight on the situation as a whole are appreciated! Thank you!!