My tenant asked if he could possibly move out before lease is up

[Mark Berge]

Hi all, my model tenant who pays on time and takes care of the house asked if he could possibly move out before the lease is up. He said he may buy a house or move in with his girlfriend. He's been there for a few years with his father who just passed away so he said now the house is too big for him.

The lease started on 8/1/2022 and ends on 7/31/2023. It is a good 3 bd/ 2 bath with new roof and new gas boiler and new electric water heater. He said he might want to move out 6/1/2023 to buy a house or move in with his girlfriend. I said ok, just make sure you don't move out in the winter when it will be hard for me to rent the house out. He said ok. The way the housing market is here in New Jersey, I know that I could probably raise the rent maybe 3-4% and easily get a good tenant in there. Any advice on this? This is my first and only rental property although I do rent out a extra bedroom in my house to room mates.

[Jevon Shaw]

Real estate is a people business, and there's really negligible harm in letting him move out a month early after being there for years. As the previous post stated, the key will be getting something solid and certain agreed upon by both of you, maybe even in writing.