51 hours!! I signed a lease Saturday at a SFH around 4pm. Tenant just texted me and said she knows she just signed a lease and wants to know if she can get out of it. Family emergency several hours away. Uh huh. More like buyers remorse.

Sure, all you have to do is pay the EARLY LEASE TERMINATION FEE AND YOURE FREE TO GO!!! She said she'll have to let me know in a few days. Thank you to this site for several years of compounded reading being needed all at once!!!

I had the needed answers and stayed in control. I've got her, no matter what decision she makes. Blamed the ELT being required due to utilities being switched and advertising cancelled, etc. We shall see. What was your shortest tenancy?

My runner-up fastest:

He was a 50-something divorced guy. She was a 40-something divorced woman. They had been dating for awhile, and were ready to move in together. We signed the lease at 4:00 pm, and they were all lovey-dovey. She calls me before 8 am the next morning to tell me he had gotten drunk, they had gotten into a fight, they had broken up, and could they back out?

My fastest:

She was a 20-something from New Jersey. She came from a 3,500+ sf new build house that rented well into the four-digits. Her husband made excellent money as a contractor in Afghanistan. They had an autistic daughter, and I was okay with their little ESA. She was moving to our town to be close to his family while they built their dream house in the country-- and to be close to his mom to help with their kid while he was in Afghanistan. MIL, who had been a client of my husband's, and confided in me that she reeeeeally didn't want dear DIL underfoot, sent her videos of the whole walkthrough, and the prospect loved it. She drove three days to get to TX and cried all the way through the walkthrough of my then-second-best house, an 1100-sf 1940's 3/1.5 with cha, original hardwoods, w/d hookups, carport, freestanding shed, and double-yard.

She said it was the stress of not having her husband here. I knew it was the difference between a 3,500+ sf new build and a cute, serviceable house full of "vintage character" but was less than a third the size. I knew it was the difference between not having the newest, shiniest, and most expensive washer/dryer set (which her husband had just bought her and were totally were too humongous for the small utility room), and having to put them into storage in favor of "ordinary" appliances. I had heard her fiercely complaining about why she had to "settle", and I knew she hated our little town the the fire of a thousand suns at that moment, especially since my place was hands-down the best place she could have gotten, for sale or for rent, at that moment in time. :) But she rationalized that it was only until they had built something that was worthy of her, so she would just suck it up and suffer for a few months... I just hung around in the next room and politely pretended to be deaf and waited to see if she would go through with the signing or not. Which she did. And she cried all the way through it.

About three hours later, she called, in a hysterical panic. She just couldn't do it. I had had my yard guy tidy up a bunch of bushes earlier that morning, and we had gathered up all the branches at the side of the road for pickup by the city's brush collector. Somehow, she (or the ESA) had encountered a baby copperhead in the less-than-12-hour-old brush pile. It was enough to push her over the edge. I gave her her money back, and she gave me the keys back. I wondered vaguely, if they were building a "dream house in the country", how long it would take her before she had her first rattlesnake encounter...

My shortest was one week. She had already moved out when she emailed me after she decided she couldn't afford the rent (our smallest, cheapest house) plus the payment on her new car so there was no discussing this.

She did forfeit her security deposit since she left no forwarding address, etc. (we did not yet have an ELT clause which likely would not have mattered).

She was "kind" enough to have cleaned down the entire house with bleach and water during that week so it was sparkling clean!

I try to get them to pay the ELT upfront, because I want them to think that they're getting something back so they can at least leave a good move out. If they pay the ELT, I do return the security deposit as normal. I know it seems redundant, but I like that it maintain some control and keeps bookwork straight without getting into gray areas.

If they don't pay the ELT, I will take it out of their security and send them a bill for the balance. I've only had to do that once.

Mine was one week and before ELT.

Single mom with one child. She gave me the HOLDING FEE, I removed the sign and then she called to say she had found a sex offender that lived 2 miles away.

NE,

During The Great Recession:

It was not uncommon for us to sign a lease on Monday and the new res calls Tuesday morning because he showed up for work and the factory doors were chained shut.

Not moved in yet, now no job. I don't want someone without a job. Just refunded deposit and re-rented.

BRAD

Closest I've come was completely vetted the new T, told her she was accepted. We were to sign the lease 3 days later.The morning of lease signing she backed out. (Had broken up with the hubby and they reconciled.)