Early lease termination

[Nupur Daruka]

I bought a property last year in November and the property had a tenant that recently moved in. Since the property was recently renovated and had a tenant already set I thought it was a great buy and paid the asking price. After I took over the tenant started to complain about everything and that she is unhappy with the 1 bedroom condo apartment and wants to move out. There is no early termination as part of the lease. She said she wants to move out Jan 31st. 

Should I go ahead and list the house to avoid any vacancies? Also taking her to court will be expensive and since she is a compaliner I figured it is better she moves out. For the next tenant should I put an early termination clause to avoid these kind of issues or just leave it at 12 month lease. What would be the best way to handle this in future because this tenant does not seem to care about breaking the lease.

[Account Closed]

If you have a tenant who wants to move out, my opinion is to let them move out with 30 days notice.  The sooner you part ways with a tenant who doesn't want to be there, the better.

As you purchased this property with this tenant, you can now paint/update the vacated unit and raise the rent, creating some forced appreciation.  If you wind up having to dip into your reserves finding a new tenant, so be it.  If you screen tenant candidates well, you'll find the right match for your property and avoid a future vacancy for the next year.