Renter wants 9 month instead or 1yr lease

[Carl Graff]

Greetings,

I ran credit score, background check, and contacted references then contacted a prospect that looked good and asked if they were ready to sign lease along with security deposit and to my surprise they asked if it was OK to do a 9 month lease instead of a year lease.

Since we have other equally good candidates and desire to have a multi-year tenant this doesn't sit well with me. Has anyone else had a similar experience and can you share what you decided to do?

They are moving in from out of town and don't have time to view the property in person prior to signing whereas the other candidates would be able to view in person.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Carl

[Carl Graff]

Thanks Kurt that was quite a thread you supplied. I think the important thing is to always do good screening and try to ensure that you can minimize the turn-around - hopefully without legal action. I decided to let the prospective tenant know that we list our properly lower than comparable units with the express desire to attract multi-year tenants but I think I should re-think this a bit.