advice for my first investment

[Nicolas Sanhueza]

Hi everybody, This is my first post here in the community so I am kind of excited about it hehe.
I am closing on my first property tomorrow, a single family home (3b/1bth) in Lansdowne PA, the property is tenant occupied and I will be taking over their lease which is month to month basis. I have my contractor ready to go and rehab the property as soon as I close, and he says he doesn't mind working with people living in the house. I don't want to be a dick and kick the tenant out just because I want to work in the property but at the same time I plan on raising the rent from 900 to 1250 (market value) once the work is finished. the lease stipulates that I can give a 60 day notice at anytime for them to leave the property, but at the same time I wouldn't like to hold the project for 60 days and pray that it won't take longer for the tenant to vacant the place.
I was trying to get some advice on how can I manage the situation so I don't end up being the bad guy but at the same time not being too good so they can take advantage of me in the future.

Thanks everybody!

[Greg Scott]

Are you a bigger jerk if you give them 30 or 60 days notice to move out or have them live through 60 days of rehab only for them to learn they cannot afford the higher rent?  If I were them, I would be more upset about the latter.  It is probably better to give them notice their lease will end. As a side benefit, you should get the rehab done much more quickly in a vacant house.  

I've only once kept a resident through a rehab.  In that case, they really wanted to stay, knew the rent was going to go up, and were OK with it.  They moved in with family for 3 weeks and I rented a storage container so they could move all their stuff out of the house while it was rehabbed.