What state is this in? This approach could be disastrous for you in some.

>My thought is that if we can’t work it out face to face no document will save the relationship and it’s best for everyone to move on.

I’m assuming you haven’t yet run into a situation when you decide it’s time everyone moves on but the tenant disagrees?

So far so good on the tenant front. I try to screen my tenants for negative or positive attitudes.

Down a few posts I posted the document published by Massachusetts attorney general that describes the relationships.

Contracts aren't for things are going smooth. They're for when things go wrong. What if a tenant is constantly late on their payments? What if they're excessively noisy? What if they claim you're not fixing things on time?

For that matter, what if you're the tenant and you think the landlord isn't doing something they should?

In either role, if it's month-to-month... either of you says to the other that it's not working out, give whatever the statutory notice is? And if the landlord didn't collect the last month's rent at the outset, maybe they end up eating a couple months' rent they would have made otherwise? And the tenant needs to scoot to find a new place, but like, it's fine?

If either party wanted the security of a lease for a longer term, they could have entered into one, but they didn't, so... that's the deal, right? Except for really egregious stuff that the law would have something to say about?

Since they pay first and last they can not pay rent for 30 Days. Once that happens I can give them 30 days notice and finally call the sheriff.

This is called at will tenancy in my Commonwealth.

Here is what our relationship is based on.

https://www.mass.gov/doc/the-attorney-generals-guide-to-land...

In a lot of places this is so heavily regulated the rental contracts are more of a record of the tenancy and rent than actually meaning anything for the agreement.

I couldn't find the advantage of using leases and it's pretty straightforward to rent month to month.