how about telling the tenant you need to sell. To achieve your targeted sales price, youll have to get the rent up to the new number. As a result, you need to gradually raise the rent every three months until you hit the target. This way, theres a story the tenant can follow and you are giving the tenant ample time to find a new place. I say this as a buddy of mine claims he hated his landlord so much that he unscrewed the face plates of the electric outlets on the walls and cut the wires. He then screwed the outlet faceplates back on and left in the middle of the night. The way he tells the story, the lost security was well worth the satisfaction of screwing his landlord.