Tenant requesting 6 month lease.

[Simon Lopez]

<------Newbie here.

Yearly lease is up next month.  PM tells me the renter is asking for a 6 month lease that would end September, instead of a yearly lease.  Is it hard to find renters before the holidays?  6 months is a lot better than Month to Month right?   She's never late and is a good renter.   I was thinking I can keep rent same or raise the rent a few bucks for the 6 months.   I also thought of lowering it significantly for a 1 year lease.   Then again if she takes the last deal she can possibly leave in 6 months anyway.

Im leaning towards agreeing to the 6 months and offering a 1 year lease with a big discount in rent.  And let her decide.  But i wanted to know if there are any other options i'm missing?

Thanks in Advanced. 

[John Underwood]

@Simon Lopez I would take the 6 month lease for the good tenant already in your property. I don't think September would be a difficult time to find a new renter. Make sure your lease says you can start showing the property 30 days before the end of her lease and that she will be OK with it. I would just schedule a couple of open houses to minimize inconveniencing her.

You should be able to get a new tenant lined up before she moves.

I wouldn't offer a large discount to get her to sign a year lease, she is planning on moving in 6 months and this wouldn't help either of you.

I don't think I would even bump up the lease much if any for the 6 month lease in lieu of 12 month lease.

If it were a new person/lease then I would definitely charge more for a shorter lease because turnovers can cost you money and vacancies.