No Month to Month to best tenants

[Justin Case]

I know this had been discussed heavily, but here is my situation.

My best tenants are coming up on the end of their lease end of May. They are trying to buy a house. They want to do a month to month or lease until end of September and I am going to tell them no on both of those. I hedge my vacancy risk by not allowing month to month due to a move out in fall or winter. No one moves then from my experience. I been there before.

This property is in the most demanded area of the city. If they move out I could get $200 more in rent a month.

I am thinking of offering them to sign a year lease with no rent increase, and if they find a house the lease will be terminated when I find a new tenant. Or the other option is they will have to move since I do not do month to month.

Would appreciate a few opinions on this decision.

[Jim C.]

I too had a tenant after a year lease want to do month to month since they were looking to buy (They were paying $1000 month). I said sure, but the new rent amount for month to month would be $1800. They complained but finally agreed since it was more of a hassle for them to move twice than to pay extra and move once, and the fact I think that they couldn't find anyone else willing to do month to month..They did finally buy a house and closed, but that was 5 months later (putting and extra $4000 in my pocket).