Month-to-Month Leases
I have a potential client who is in the military and will be heading out soon. He said he will be gone a year but there is a possibility he will be coming home within a few months and would want to move back into his home if he does come home early. I'm wondering if I should take this property on or not. Is it harder to find tenants for a home if the lease is month-to-month rather than a year lease? Also, if I do take this property on, would it be better to leave it furnished? It's in more of a rural area about a 30 min drive to Pittsburgh, PA.
Month to month means you get can a tenant out quicker if you want. The tenant can also choose to mover sooner.
You'll have more turnover. Month to month tenants usually are short-term, otherwise they would have signed an annual lease.
This situation you have doesn't really sound like month to month--- its a short term temporary tenancy only while the "real" tenant is overseas. I can't imagine many tenants wanting to move in somewhere not knowing how long they can really stay. They might move in and be there a few months, then the "real" tenant comes back from overseas... then your tenant has to move yet again even though they've only lived at your house a few months. You could advertise it as a short-term only stay, in which case furnished would be better if you're seeking short-term/temporary only visiting professionals in your area.
It's harder to find short-term only people. People don't like moving often, especially not when they have no control over how long they can live at your property. The "real" tenant should try to figure out the maximum time he wants to get a subletter in the place and then you can rent it out for "6 months only" -- then rent again if the "real" tenant ends up having to stay overseas.
More vacancy. Fewer tenants willing to move somewhere short-term only.
I read your post to mean the military "client" is the owner of the home and he wants you to manage it for him. With that in mind, here goes.
A month-to-month lease means that you can give a 30-day notice an the tenants are supposed to move. The 30-days actually start on the first of the next month (for example, a notice given on the 10th of March means the tenant has until the end of April to get out). If they do not move then you have the time and expense of an eviction. If your military client has the ability to give you that much notice they are coming back and want to re-occupy their home, great. If not they would have to stay with family or friends or check into an extended stay hotel for a time until the home was ready for them. Not the end of the world but something to keep in mind.
As for finding short term tenants, Jon K is right that most people do not want to move that often and there are the turnover expenses but if you are managing, those expenses are passed on to the owner (military person in this case). I would still charge my normal fees for finding a tenant (1/2 month rent in my area) even if the tenant is only there 3-4 months. You are helping the owner cover their mortgage while they are deployed.
There is a good source of short term tenants to go after, however, depending on the size, condition and location of the rental. You have Corporate (local companies that fly in execs from other locations or countries for short term projects etc), Vacation (there are whole websites dedicated to vacation rentals and all of them are short term and usually at a higher daily or weekly rate than if you rented by the year), Insurance claims (a family needs a place to stay while their home is being repaired due to storm damage or some other disaster). In most of these cases you would have to provide a fully furnished (and in some cases include all utilities) unit including dishes, towels, TV and so on.
Where there is a will, there is a way. Good luck and hope this helps.
@Account Closed The way you present the problem is a bit confusing to me. I think you are a property manager and the military member is the home owner, is that correct? If it is I think you are asking if it makes sense to have the property be a temp residence on a short term lease rather than actually be managed as a full up rental property. If that is the case, I can't imagine it being a bad idea if you know the area supports short term leases and the owner is comfortable with a short term tenant. Ultimately I think its more up to the owner than you trying to force a client into renting but if your end question is "does it make sense" and your job is a property manager, well, you get paid if you place a tenant (if that's how you arrange your contract) so do you want to get paid and is the amount of work worth the few months potentially you will be collecting a percentage of rent.
If all those things are accurate, in order to protect yourself, you might want to stipulate that if you are able to place a tenant, and the military member comes home earlier than 1 year, you get a set amount in fees payable by the owner in order to cover the placing of the tenant. But typically most PM services charge for both placement and servicing anyway, so it sounds like you need to reevaluate your position.