For those of you living in militantly pro tenant areas in C class areas where the tenant pool is absolutely abysmal; do you do MTM for marginal tenants or 12 month rental agreements?

Marginal defined as:

- pays their rent but on the last day possible

-"Tests the waters" every couple of months aka tries to bend the rules

-On/off relationship with supposedly estranged husband who owns a house one town over but seems to spend a LOT of time with said tenant

-parks in the wrong place/has parking issues

-although noisy herself, complains about noise upstairs-- homeowners next door hear nothing

-is at the limitation of pet-friendly (2 small dogs and a cat)

M2M offers no practical advantage over year lease.

Aaaaghhh.... what are you saying?!?!?!?!

Easy. If the tenant is in serious violation of the lease, I can evict. No different in my area than issuing a 30 day notice of non-renewal for a M2M tenant.

If the tenant is not violating the lease, then I want them to stay and pay. If they don't, then I have my early termination fee that eats up the deposit if they don't pay it prior to leaving, which gives me the full amount of the money judgment to go after in Collections.

M2M may be the "get outta jail free card" for LLs who don't spend as much time or effort in the screening and managing department of their businesses. I get it... sometimes a "good" tenant goes bad, but that is VERY RARE in my experience if screening is done properly. And on those VERY RARE occasions, you just gut it out. After all, they're following the lease and paying. I can handle a lot under those circumstances, especially with my "all calls go to voicemail" policy.

Btw, I do offer the option to go M2M after a year, but the tenant must specifically request it and agree to a 20% rent bump, and I have to approve it prior to going in effect. Just had one take it because she needed 3 more months to solidify her job position before moving. No worries: she's been reasonably good so I approved it, and when she moves out in June it will be perfect timing to find someone new! And the 20% rent bump is nice meanwhile.

Try getting that in a M2M rental! (*grins)

I have mostly class A and B properties, and I quit using lease agreements many years ago. Whatever security you think you're getting from a lease is a myth, especially in the current pro-tenant environment.

My RA goes to month to month automatically after the winter vacancy/try before you buy arrangement I have with new tenants.

Are the tenants trainable?

If they are not trainable - get rid of them. Life is too short. If you are only finding non-trainable tenants, maybe its your place. If it isn't your place, maybe it is the training method.

If something isn't right thought and you are continuing to do it, aren't you a little bit insane if you are expecting a different outcome?