My lease mimics my state's law that the lease switches to month to month after the 1st year. You can do the same thing with automatic renewal.

My lease says that if they don't respond they automatically renew for another year using the same terms, with an automatic increase in rent of 3.9%.

In reality, I send them a few different notices asking if they plan to renew (or telling them we are not renewing them) and go from there. If I don't get an answer, I call or stop by to check in.

I choose to only do annual leases, but I do include wording for the early lease buy out fee. I don't do M2M due to my location and target audience. My state law says: Some leases contain an automatic renewal clause. These

are automatically renewed unless the tenant notifies the

landlord he will move when the lease ends.

I follow my state and local tenant rules, they decide to go monthly with increase to be determined or go automatic for 12 months at a time with a 3 percent automatic increase - that must be in oversize holder type.

Eddie,

Always best when asking a question to tell first what YOU do.

Mine are typically 1 year, but I do have exceptions. Hard to rent here in December/January, so if someone signs in November I'll advertise it as a 14 month lease to get me past that difficult period.

After the 1 year, mine go M2M. I usually approach them about 6-8 weeks in advance and offer (IF they are a good tenant) to keep their rent fixed for another year AND give one property upgrade OF MY CHOOSING in exchange for them signing on a 1 year extension.

The upgrades are things that benefit them AND me. For example, I just insulated an attic...the house is 1958 and had only 2" of cellolose insulation...now it has 8". This will help me upon resale, and is a benefit to my tenant in terms of their energy bills. I do the work myself, so it costs me about $200 and maybe 3-4 hours of my time.

I also do one year initial lease which converts to month-to-month. I do send renewal notices for any rent increases and have them sign and return it to indicate if they are staying or moving. In some cases I allow them to renew for another term.

When getting a home equity loan once this caused me an issue with lenders which makes no sense but it happened.

They refused to honor or recognize the income from those with month-to-month agreements. It didn't matter most had been with me for years and were the most stable and reliable ones which I had proof of. They only considered those under 1 year leases (the newest and least proven tenants).

I do one year leases only, with a personal lease-signing meeting.

YOU should do what suits your needs. In my case, I like the calendar consistency and the knowledge that I won't have to deal with a vacancy until a specific time. You should review you needs and then write your lease to support your needs, instead of the other way around.

Our leases are minimum 1 year. At 40 days prior to lease expiration a notice is sent. There is a cover letter explaining rent increase.

page 2 and 3 are same. with the options. The first option is renew with 50.00 increase or 100.00. Next is if they want month to month-- they select and sign that at 150.00. This selection must be returned by the 1st of the month-- so that gives them about 7 or 10 days to get it back. If not returned they are advised month to month is automatic. We use the renewal stage to pace our vacancies. We try to have 6 per month with no lease renewals Nov, Dec. June and july. we'll have to first year renewals, 2 second year renewals and 2 third year -- your out renewals. Since outr term is minimum 1 year we can add more months to the new term here to adjust other months of vacany's.

eddie,

My lease is clear: This lease renews each year on the anniversary date shown on page one for another 12 full calendar months with a 2.9% Cost of Living increase. Should either party choose not to renew the attached Non-Renewal form must be recieved 2 full months prior to the anniversary date.

No more running around reminding residents their lease will be up soon -start shopping around - and trying to get their signatures, and stressing over how to raise the rent.

Rent on!

One year leases only.

We semd a text reminding them their mew autodraft amount will be $XXX.

One year that converts to month to month just to protect me, but I rarely (only once) let that happen. If people don't want to renew they need to make plans to move. My lease changes year to year based on lessons learned, and I want everyone on the current lease as much as possible. So 60 days or more out I ask if they are going to renew. If they say yes, great. If they say no, I have time to start to market and show and get it re-rented before they go.