Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
11y
I am also not in MA, but also use month to month agreements. I wanted to use one or the other, not toggle between the two. If tenants are hesitant we have added a clause that rent will not be raised for the first year. We verbally tell them that we will only ask them to leave if they aren't paying or following the rental agreement, that we value long tenancies. We also have a clause that the deposit is prorated for the first nine months to avoid those who are truly short term. We like the simplicity and flexibility of M2M.
Property Manager · Big Bear Lake, CA · Member since 2013 · 585 posts · 330 votes
11y
I use year long leases, but am seriously considering switching to month to month leases. Truth is, year long leases really only protect the tenant from being kicked out. If the tenant wants out, they will go, and there is little the landlord can do about it. It is usually more costly to go after them for breach of contract and rent owed, than to just move on and re-rent it.
With a month to month agreement, the landlord can terminate the tenancy at anytime with 30 days notice, or whatever is required in your state. I know many landlords use them.
Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
11y
I am also not in MA, but also use month to month agreements. I wanted to use one or the other, not toggle between the two. If tenants are hesitant we have added a clause that rent will not be raised for the first year. We verbally tell them that we will only ask them to leave if they aren't paying or following the rental agreement, that we value long tenancies. We also have a clause that the deposit is prorated for the first nine months to avoid those who are truly short term. We like the simplicity and flexibility of M2M.
Investor · Narragansett, RI · Member since 2013 · 8k+ posts · 4k+ votes
11y
Not a landlord in MA but live here. For our RI rentals we use 1 year or more lease to turnover from April to August. The winter is a hard time to move/get a tenant in this area. I do leases that are longer to control when we get vacancies. Would you want to be schlepping your furniture in 4 foot of snow with another storm coming. Also for us in RI the market is very seasonal where we have property and then we have the students so we try to protect ourselves to some extent from unseasonable moves. So we do year leases to get people mentally in the mode of planning for a move when we prefer they move. They leave early but it helps get them communicating on what they are going to do well in advance.
Investor · Harvard, MA · Member since 2011 · 25 posts · 9 votes
11y
I am a landlord in Mass.. I prefer year long leases. Most tenants will abide by the year long lease, and you can schedule the lease to end at the right time of year like @Colleen F. says.. Definitely far more tenants looking in Spring/Summer than in the middle of Winter. Then you have better selection, and can typically command higher rents.
Tenant could still leave early on you.. but if you have tenants with good credit, you could technically take them to court if they don't pay the remaining months of the lease.
If the tenants are bad, then typically they are violating some part of your lease, and you could evict on those grounds.
Sometimes also you get tenants looking for short-term rentals, maybe they just moved to the area, or looking to buy a house etc.. and I don't want to be re-renting an apartment after a few months.. just too time consuming. At least with a year long lease, they have to give you a commitment.
Rental Property Investor · Westfield, MA · Member since 2013 · 23 posts · 16 votes
11y
My SFR one year lease is up in May and I have been considering whether to switch to a month to month or to do another year lease. This is my first and only rental so my experience is limited, but the benefits of month to month for the landlored make sense in my case. The tenant has been pretty good so far with a few minors issues. Those minor issues leave a small doubt in my mind and make me want to leave myself an out if I need it.
Rental Property Investor · Omaha, NE · Member since 2014 · 34 posts · 4 votes
11y
In ages past when I was a tenant, one landlord did a year lease that automatically converted to month-to-month after the year ended. They still raised the rent annually.
I suspect the benefit to the landlord with this arrangement is that they didn't have to deal with a ton of turnover from short term (less than 1 year) tenants. As a tenant, I appreciated the flexibility to plan my exit without having to wait for an annual lease to expire.
Some landlords given tenants multiple options with a higher rent attached to shorter term leases.