My effort to pull a WMH and rent before it was vacant did not go as expected. I advertised, took applications, found a good application, told her she could see it when it was empty, I was all excited, score 1 for me but in the end she came and looked and decided to stay where she was. What the heck? she was paying the same amount for a 1 bed and this was a 2 bed. She led me on a merry chase.

Should have gotten a holding fee in case of her wigging out. I should be taken to the wood shed and WMH and SID can give me 20 lashes.

In about a third of my tenants are responsible enough to keep the place clean and get out after giving me my required 30 day notice, without a hold over. However those tenants have to rely on their new landlords ability to control their departing tenant and the speed in which their handyman can ready the rental for a new tenant.

So a departing tenant moving from a single no bedroom apartment gave me my required 30 day notice, then extended it by 10 days. So I agreed she could live off of the deposit for the 10 days. Then she wanted to extend it to the end of the month so she sent me a full months rent. Why did this happen?

Simple her new landlord couldn't get the their tenant out in time and their handyman was sick and still had other more pressing things to deal with.

Had I re-rented the place to a new tenant and promised a move-in date and couldn't deliver, I would be in trouble and would have to cover some of the new tenants losses for storing and temporary housing. Because I didn't race to find a replacement tenant until the place was vacant, I had no grief or problems.

Since the only way to operate as we do is with SUPER-cooperative tenants, the move-OUT starts before you ever let them move IN. The number one desirable attribute of a tenant is cooperativeness - Jeffrey taught us that.

Big discussions take place about expectations at end of tenancy, cleaning checklists in lease, legal notice increased to 60 days BEFORE I ever rent to them in the first place. The idea of what happens at move-out happens before they ever move in, no surprises.

So usually my departing tenants are pushing ME to set up showing appointments - they want their SD back! So they get it all ready and then we coordinate days and times to show it.

However, I've said before that my tiny renting area is rather unique, I totally admit that. There are very few LTR here. VERY few. So we have our choice of the good tenants as there is usually little competition. And our places are generally so small as to severely limit who even wants them.

WMH,

How do you screen an applicant to determine how 'cooperative' they will or will not be? What I do is make them jump through a 'series of hoops' to determine how well they can follow my instructions. I feel sure you have better method though,..what is it?

WMH, that sounds like a very good process. Rentals are tight here but I can't imagine that sort of turnover. There'd be too much pressure in the event something was out of order. I actually prefer downtime between tenants as I don't like to work on stuff while they're in place.

You have me rethinking things though as if you have enough notice (i.e. 60 days) and the tenant isn't a slob, you can virtually eliminate vacancy loss. It usually takes me about 60 days to find a decent tenant.

WMH and Gkarl,