In addition to the good responses you have already received I would suggest you charge a higher monthly rent if you decide to lease for 6 months (plus 1 months deposit as already stated) instead of waiting for a suitable applicant for 12 month lease because you will have cleaning/releasing expenses at a minimum when the 6 month lease is up.

Held onto it for 2 years in which I didn't see a penny due to numerous reasons.

@Rand Linton as you can see there are numerous ways to invest in real estate depending on your goals.

North Richland Hills is a GREAT example of 2 things: 1) Owner-occupants flooding the market (500+ ppl move to Texas per day, along with numerous businesses moving to Texas weekly) and 2) Investors are settling into long term cash-flow investments that produce longer-term returns over a period of time with these bread 'n butter SFR.

You may want to require they complete a new application and submit pay check stubs, as well, to verify they can afford the increase, and so you have this info on file, especially if the old owner didn't.Lastly, I would require they submit a pet deposit, especially if the new lease stipulates it.

I have tried so hard to avoid allowing animals of any kind into my apartments, but in Denver it seems that almost every applicant for my vacancies is a pet owner.

Day 1 of 90 (03/17/14) So far, I'll be honest, I haven't done much of anything other then fill out a bunch of online applications for loans to various big banks and smaller credit unions.

Make sure they fill out an actual application.

Keep to established channels for process, assure management of your intention to deliver quality applicants .Make sure you understand the criteria they are going to use for approval, and recruit applicants accordingly.

There are numerous other variables however I would strongly suggest leaning toward Norfolk.