.... and manager would take at least a month to find new tenants
This reminded me of one of the major issues I have when a PM takes on the finding of a tenant. Our house is one of maybe 20 that agency might have empty at any one time. They don't have a reason to push our house (less of a reason actually, as they will not be getting the ongoing management of it).
When we have one house empty, we concentrate on what needs to be done to get a tenant ASAP. We have the photos and advert ready and open house the day the tenant is gone, not the next Saturday, which can lose a week. Agents just put my house in the "to do" basket with the other 20. I understand that and I'm not knocking the agents but when it is the "only" house I have to push, I'm on top of it early and don't have 73 other things to do that day, so I can focus on "my" property.
Until we got PMs to find tenants a few years ago, we used to try not to have a house empty for more than one week, rarely for two, once an agency comes on board, it is not unusual for it to be empty for three weeks or more. Quite often, we would have one tenant leave on Saturday, new tenant go in Sunday or Monday.
With an agent, if a tenant leaves on a Saturday, they tend to allow several days for inspection and time to remedy any problems. It can take a week from tenants leaving to the first open house, or available inspection time, and that is a week we lose.
We used to gently suggest that tenants take it earlier than might ideally suit them or risk losing it to another prospective tenant who can move quickly, or doesn't have to give two week's notice. We found that often tenants were happy to pay an overlapping week and move their household possessions during that overlap week. We never risked losing a good tenant by pushing this, but depending on the market, tenants often paid an overlap week rather than lose our house.