signing lease for new tenant while its occupied

[Lenin Belangonda]

Hi

My current tenant (my first) is moving out after the lease ends in two months. They are great tenants and moving out because they bought a house and notified me well in advance.  They are also ok in letting me show the house. 

I am trying to rent out the house immediately after its vacated mainly because I am going out of town in a week after they move out. I wont return until after 5 months so if I don't get to rent it out right away I will at minimum loose out 6 weeks.

The house is kept in a good enough condition to show.  My question is if I get a qualified tenant who is willing to move in after 2 months, how do I make sure they don't change their mind later on.  Can I get a deposit to hold? would I be able to get into a lease agreement when there is already a tenant in there and obviously it has to be cleaned and inspected by the new tenant before they move in.

Appreciate your advice.

Thanks

[Jon Holdman]

IMHO you should sign the lease, collect first month's rent and security deposit (in cash or equivalent) and hand over the keys all at once.  If you sign the lease ahead of time, then, as you identify above, the tenant can still back out.

I think two months out is way to early to find a new tenant.  I don't even start trying in earnest until a couple weeks before the old tenant is scheduled to leave.  While I'm sure there are exceptions, my experience has been most people are seriously looking only a few weeks before they need to move.  And any one who's looking monthly in advance is a waste of time.  They're just window shopping.

And there's always a risk the old tenant won't leave.  The times I've had a new tenant ready to move in before the old tenant leave I've been very clear that I cannot guarantee a move in date until the old tenant is out.  If the old tenant decides to become a problem at the last minute, you may have weeks or longer to do an eviction and a set out.