We do believe in tenant goodwill equity so we have forgiven the late payment for long-term tenants that have not been late.  

Very good! @Will

As was mentioned, this would be pure goodwill and I would just change the knobs and eat the cost.

without knowing anything about your landlord/tenant laws, this is what I think...they pay for a whole month. if a tenant decides to move out in the middle of a month, you wouldn't refund half the rent. same should apply here. that being said, typically you are not allowed to earn double rent so if a tenant left halfway through and you re-rented immediately you would then have to refund original tenant.you are now taking rental off the market, so in my opinion the right thing to do would be to refund for any days you occupy, same as if a new tenant were taking over. if you move in on 15th, refund 1/2 if you move in on 20th refund 1/3, etc. that's my moral assumption, and is not based on your local laws and is not intended to be taken as legal advice.now...if you wanna be a nice guy you can refund half the tenants rent for the month in light of the fact that you are forcing them to uproot their lives, and thank your lucky stars you are not in a state that requires you to pay moving expenses when owner occupying...this is purely a good will gesture though and has no business value

Some do it as a goodwill thing to make money off of the lease ups and maybe get an inside track when an owner wants to sell so they can purchase off of them.

The company does it more of a good will thing when they sell off developed product to buy and hold investors and also to get the inside track to possibly buy the property later on.

In my mind, the "goodwill" factor (not by the financial 'goodwill' definition) is an intangible asset that a DA couldn't touch.

As a gesture of goodwill, you can prorate the rent and pay him a nominal amount for the days you have stayed there, if he even takes it.Hope this helps.

@Mike McCarthy The kind card idea is a classy move and would buy you a lot more than $75.00 worth of goodwill.

However, I plan to take care of most of them anyway for the sake of tenant-landlord goodwill, and the fact that they are mostly one time fixes that if I take care of will improve the quality of my unit.