When one does leave I update the property and get market rents which I am usually a little behind on.In the beginning my downfall was not properly screening tenants and most of those tenants didn't work out to be the 5 year plus occupancy that I have now.

If you want to be safe, keep anything they left for a while in case they come back for it.If all you had was verbal comment that they are leaving, you may need to go to court for possession of the unit so that you can legally throw out the items they left.

That is where my reluctance resides in leaving but I have not closed my mind to it completely at all.

Check out my article for more information and benefits, it may be of use to help you think about some different strategic options:  https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/pass-through-entities-real-estate-investors/If you have more questions please leave a reply or Dm me. 

The reality is if a tenant wants to leave early, there is not much you can do to stop them.

When they do leave can I withhold the back rent from their security deposit?

If I was selling a duplex that I expected to sell in 2-3 months max I would leave one side vacant in hopes of selling to an owner occupied buyer, or at least to make my buyer pool as large as possible, hoping to get more out the sale than selling strictly to an investor, who is the only type of person who would buy a duplex where both units are occupied. 

If you have 11yrs left on your primary residence I say leave it alone and keep working to pay it off.

Keep offering your offer until they say yes or leave us alone.

We recently had a tenant move out in a huff leaving the house trashed.