Just collected another ETF yesterday! Young lady is getting married and wants to get into a bigger place with her hubby-to-be before winter. I found out about this when she went in to apply at another rental company and they called me for a reference. I mentioned she was in a lease with us that didn't expire for 4 more months. To get her application approved, she paid the fee on the spot through ACH to our bank. Boom, baby!

She's moving out in a week. I'll have all of October to find her replacement since her notice requires 30 days minimum and must be received on or before the 1st of the month which ends the lease. She has a 721 credit score...plenty of motivation to pay, plus we screened her carefully coming in and she has every reason to do the right thing by us.

Ask, and ye shall (often) receive. Don't ask, and ye shall definitely never receive.

Sounds good, how much iis the Early Termination Fee and how does that compare to the actual rent?

Nice going Sid.

Lenny, mine is about 1.5 months of rent, rounded up to the nearest $100. I don't see why an EFT wouldn't work for you. Tell me why you think it wouldn't work. A lease is a lease whether the rent is $500 or $5000: it's an agreement to rent for X-months at $Y per month. Not sure why more expensive ones are any different, especially if it's written into your lease that this is the deal and everyone agrees to it, as attested by their signatures.

6x6, not much would have changed. At some point, the tenant would be letting me know she was moving out and the discussion would have been the same at that point. Again, the KEY to GETTING the ETF is you have to rent to tenants who have a vested interest in doing the right thing by the land lord. Her 721 credit score and excellent references were a track record she has worked hard to build: why mess that up over a fee equal to 1.5 months of rent? The folks here who say "ETFs don't work" also post about all the many problems they have with their tenants of lower caliber. We must always remember that leases aren't magic spells that turn liars into honest people. It's my job to find GOOD tenants, regardless of what market I'm in. I find GOOD Class C tenants: they have good land lord references, solid income, reasonably okay credit (I have no minimum score, but the reports that aren't very cluttered average around 610-620), few if any recent blips on their background, no unpaid evictions and are cooperative with the application process. They're good people, but often they just don't have a lot of money or are renting cheap to save up for something better.

On that note: what about ETFs for people who don't have a lot of money? I have occasionally split up an ETF into payments. All were paid as agreed. There is a charge of course. Example: ETF = $1200. Pay all at once before move out, or pay $450 at move out and 2 more monthly payments of $450. Total of $1350 for the payment plan. Or if they are bi-weekly, I require $225 per bi-weekly.