Offering a tenant an incentive to move out.

[Chris L.]

I have heard of folks offering an incentive to have a tenant to move out. I will be selling my property in a couple months and my tenant is on a month to month lease. A landlord can't ask a tenant to move out just because they are selling but I was wondering if I could offer an incentive that may motivate a tenant to move out. I would prefer to sell the property without a tenant so that my buyer pool is larger. Also, the house is in a tear down area with duplexes going up left and right so I'm assuming a builder will want to buy it. My questions are as follows:

1) Is it legal to offer a tenant an incentive to move out?

2) How does this typically work? Do you simply email the tenant and say Ihave a proposition. If you move out by x date I will offer you x dollars...OR do you say that you will offer them x dollars if they move out by x date but you must let me know 4 weeks prior in writing if you have Decided to move out by x date?

3) For those of you that have done this, how did your tenants respond? Did they try to get more out of you? Once they knew that you would benefit from their moving out did they try to up the incentive?

4) How did you decide how much to offer them as an incentive?

Thank you for your input!