New tenant update

So after that lovely post about our supposed lovely new tenants...well it wasn't a happy ending after all :(. I am so glad they weren't meant to be because if they weren't, we wouldn't have found who we now have. Basically what happened was we were talking with our friend Ryan (who happens to be a Realtor) and he said that we needed to get first and last months rent, a $300 non-refundable deposit, run their credit/background, verify employment...We e-mailed them the list the following morning and then didn't hear anything. I thought it was really odd since they were so excited and kept calling us to say how they couldn't wait to move in yada yada. Then 6 hrs after that e-mail, they pretty much sent us a John Deere letter in a sense. They started off with "Unfortunately, those extra costs are going to be too much...good luck.." So I immediately called them because I couldn't understand how they could be all excited just hours before and then they were getting cold feet. So Daryl spoke with them and said we would waive the $300 fee and let them do first and half of last but we still needed to check their background. They said they would think about it..but it still didn't make sense. In the meantime, I called back the previous people who were interested and one other whom I pretty much blew off since we thought it was a done deal. Both were very excited to come back and see it (the other ones wanted to buy..but we weren't interested in that at this point). So the previous couple called and asked if we would consider $100 less a month in addition to no deposit, no background check and first and half of last months (which was nuts). We told them we had two appointments and would let them know. The first couple that showed up walked in and immediately fell in love and wrote us a check to go towards their deposit and first and last months. They agreed to maintain our large yard which is awesome. The really want to lease for 2 years and then buy it and we had to have it in the contract that they get first dibs to buy it after two years..maybe three (which obviously we had no problem with since we plan on selling it when we are done renting). Ideally, they would rent it for 3 years and then after I graduate, we'd sell it to them and then buy another house (we still aren't sure if we will stay in Flag, move back here or even move to another state). Ryan wanted us to do a year by year lease in case our taxes go up and we have to adjust the rent. They weren't thrilled with that, but I assured them if they took good care of our house that we would take good care of them and that seemed to ease his mind a bit since they really didn't want the rent to skyrocket. Not only that, he knows we are going to be in Flagstaff for a minimum of 3 years and wouldn't plan on moving back in before that.
They are the most ideal renters. They are in their 50's with college age kids and one older Labrador. Ryan even said we lucked out with these guys. I love that they love our house and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and I know it was worth my time of being anal retentive on keeping it so clean all the time...I guess it really paid off lol. They don't need us to move out until Oct 1st, but we need to be out by the first few days of Aug just because of school and getting set up. So they agreed to meet in the middle and we would pay for Aug and they would start paying in Sept even though they don't need the house then. We are truly blessed we found them.
It's going to be very interesting living as minimalist for a while. I look around Corbin's room with only 3 toys that have not been packed and it's quite nice. He plays with them, doesn't complain or make a mess and well..it's just nice. Plus, we don't plan on really needed that many toys when we go there since the kids will have plenty to do with school, sports, dance, gym, etc..etc..We plan on being a very active family once we move there...and very, very busy.
The quality of life will be so much better for us. We can't wait!!