Overlapping tenants - how should I do this?

[Dawn P.]

I have an odd situation I haven't run into before - the tenants in one of my SFH is moving out at the end of June. A coworker of theirs wants to move in next week (his current lease is ending), live with them til the end of June, and then take over the rent. I have vetted the coworker and he meets my qualifications. I will get a security deposit before he moves in and he'll sign a 12 month lease starting July 1st.

My main issue is how to do the move out inspection for the original tenants. If I do it now, the house is still full of their things and that's not my ideal situation for inspections. If I wait for them to move their stuff out next month, the new guy's things will be there.  I've been in the house several times, they've taken care of it and I don't expect to find anything broken/torn up, but still.

Any ideas for the best way to handle this?

[Jeff Copeland]

It's a trade-off: You're getting zero vacancy in exchange for taking on some additional risk with regards to/out move-in inspections and damages. Only you can decide if the risk is worth it (I tend to think it is). 

I think the only real answer is "do the best you can" with the inspections. It's somewhat similar to taking over an occupied unit - you usually have no real evidence of the condition of the unit when the existing tenant moved in, so you do the best you can with what you have.

Whenever possible, I'm a big fan of documenting the condition of properties with video and then uploading it to YouTube for future reference.