How to have "The Talk" with inherited tenants
I purchased a fixer duplex with tenants who pay $695/mo ea. Market is $1300/mo. in that Portland neighborhood. Their rent hasn't been raised since they moved in in 2012, and the units are in varying states of disrepair.
They're on month to month agreements.
The rental agreement I drew up is also month to month, but it raises their rent to $1208 in 100 days. I'm also offering them $700 if they choose to leave within 40 days, and $300 if they choose to leave within 70 days. Ideally, they would choose to leave sooner rather than later so I can fix the units and rent them at market. But it's their choice.
I have an appointment to sit down with the tenants (each separately) this weekend to go over the new 7 page lease and answer any questions they might have. I realize there's no way to do this without being the bad guy, and I can't worry about them liking me. AND, I'd like to do it as painlessly for everyone as possible.
Have any of you had to have this discussion before, and if so, what worked/what didn't, and what did you learn from the process? If you can recommend specific things I could say, or scripts even, to place the "blame" on the previous owner who decided to sell and/or the market, so it's not a "me vs tenant" interaction, I would really appreciate it.
I bought the property with a partner, but I agreed to be the one to manage it. We can play good cop bad cop if need be (I'm probably bad cop), but since I agreed to manage, I want to keep my agreement to him and leave him out of this if I can.