30+ day deposit to hold?! How would you approach this?

[Jason Butts]

We’ve had an apartment sit vacant since August and have had no luck finding decent enough tenants that don’t smoke or have pets, have no felonies and no prior evictions. Pretty basic stuff. But yesterday we showed it to a woman who has 3 kids and a husband and she messaged me back today saying they were interested but they were wanting to move in March 1st. At first I told them that a 14 day deposit hold is $100 non refundable and put towards there security deposit, and we could make the deposit to hold extended to 30 days for a additional $100 non refundable fee that does NOT go towards anything (accept my pocket). However, a lot can happen in a month and we’ve already had somebody that paid a deposit to hold, back out of the tenancy. So I was thinking about offering them a 13 month lease with 1st months rent and security due on March 1st (2nd month of the lease), and a move in date of March 1st and possible sooner with a prorated rent amount if they chose to move in before March 1st. No matter what I feel like I’m losing money, but the market is cold and I doubt I’d have anybody else for February anyway, plus with a nice family is like to have them as tenants. Any ideas or information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all. -Jason