Help us decide what to do.

[Axiom]

Originally Posted by Hobokenkitchen

We met with our tenants on Saturday. We told them that February is not an ideal end date for the lease... especially with the showing restrictions they have in place (showings on 3 days a week only).
I think the meeting went well and we should find out in the next few days whether we can work out the lease extension to 2013 or whether they will leave at the end of their current lease (August '12) and we will try and find new tenants at that time.

So that's the story - keep your fingers crossed for us that this has all been worth it and it keeps on the more positive path that we seem to have turned onto these past couple of weeks.

Let me get this straight... you "make a lot of money on the rent" and have tenants who "pay early, are self sufficient and keep the place immaculate"

Those dream tenants want to stay another 7 months, but you're risking losing them because you don't think the end of February is a good time to end a lease?

If you're trying to capitalize on summer moves wouldn't it be better to have the lease end BEFORE the summer than AFTER the summer? Their current lease ends in August, correct?

Personally I'm not understanding the reasoning on that one.

Good luck with all your real estate transactions though.

[Hobokenkitchen]

Originally Posted by Axiom

Let me get this straight... you "make a lot of money on the rent" and have tenants who "pay early, are self sufficient and keep the place immaculate"

Those dream tenants want to stay another 7 months, but you're risking losing them because you don't think the end of February is a good time to end a lease?

If you're trying to capitalize on summer moves wouldn't it be better to have the lease end BEFORE the summer than AFTER the summer? Their current lease ends in August, correct?

Personally I'm not understanding the reasoning on that one.

Good luck with all your real estate transactions though.

You have to look at renting out a home as a business proposition.
Summer is also not the best time to rent out a house - Spring and fall are.

If our lease with these tenants ends on July 31st we can show it through June and July and August for those looking for August/ September move in.

When we marketed the house last time we had 3 offers in this time frame.

If the tenants move out in February we will have to market the house over Christmas and the New Year which are without a doubt the quietest times in real estate.

I'm not trying to be rude, but I've been renting places out for years so I do have an idea of what I am talking about. I understand a lot of people don't get it, but these are the same people who get into difficulties renting out their homes.

We try to cover all our bases in advance so issues don't arise.

Also the flip side is that the lease was meant to be for one year only (while we were traveling). They asked us to let them stay for a second year, which we did - moving 3 times ourselves over that time period because they were great tenant's and the money was excellent.

Now they want an additional 7 months on top of the additional year which is great, but with a baby on the way we are looking for ease of process. A vacant house in mid winter and a dead real estate market is not the way to achieve peace of mind and it also makes no business sense. We're not going to carry a vacant house for months on end as a favor. We are trying to work it out reasonably with them and have given them various options (which is a lot more than most landlords would do).
It's up to them to decide how they would like to proceed. They have far more money than most people we know - they'll be just fine either way.