Tenant wants to go month to month

[Patti L.]

My tenant's lease is up on Nov 1. He just told me he's looking to buy his own house and asked to go month to month. Are there good alternatives that is fair to both parties? I was thinking of proposing month to month with 60 day notice. We're in Portland OR a fairly competitive market although slowing down. I doubt he is going to find something overnight, but I guess you never know. TIA

[Mike Dymski]

This reminds me of a term I occasionally hear called mindshare and it has to do with our mind's capacity to only focus on so much.  When your mind is focused on one thing, other items fall by the wayside.  I'd recommend keeping things simple and systematized and have a month-to-month renewal at $x premium and $y rent for your regular one year lease (or just do long-term leases).  It keeps down the mental drain from constant decision making, keeps you out of situations where you accept terms where you end up second guessing yourself, it keeps lease renewals occurring at opportune seasonal time periods and it properly manages turnover.  The relationship with you and the tenant becomes unbalanced when they delegate their personal planning to you and you end up losing six months of profit with a vacant unit during the holidays.  The lease can accommodate them and that is a month-to-month arrangement at a premium rent (or simply do only long-term leases).  This is customary and a win win for everyone.  Short-term rentals are a different business model.  Hope this helps.  Good luck with your decision.