1 year vs month-to-month lease for "not great" tenants

[Todd M.]

Hi,
This is my first post and I'm looking for opinions/suggestions on going with 1 year lease vs. month-to-month leases for my tenants.

background:
I have two properties in "not great" neighborhoods. In other words, 98% of prospective tenants have some kind of story on how their convictions or UDs were not their fault. Maybe you know what I mean?

Anyhow, I've never had to evict anyone yet, but I'm sure it will happen some day as I'm a buy-and-hold and do the PM myself
.
Until recently I had always assumed 1 year leases were good until my screening company recently suggested a borderline application could be signed up for month-to-month lease. Going with a month-to-month would decrease my risk of having a bad tenant. This way, I can give them 30 days notice to move out rather than go the eviction route if there is trouble.

Sounded good to me. Thoughts?

Todd