Should You Provide Lawn Care Maintenance for Your Rental Property?

One of the more common questions I receive from home owners looking to rent out their properties is if they should provide periodical lawn maintenance or just have the tenants maintain the lawn. There is no catch all answer as each home owner’s situation is different. I will list some basic pros for providing periodical maintenance and let you decide if it makes sense for your particular situation.

 

Your Idea Of A Clean And Well-Maintained Lawn May Not Be The Same As The Tenant’s

A slightly shaggy lawn and scruffy hedges may be perfectly acceptable to the tenant that works 50 hours a week, but if you just dropped down a ton of money to have new grass, hedges, and a nice well lit stone walk way installed you may want more time and care put into maintaining your new curb appeal. If you have invested in your lawn to upgrade the curb appeal, you may want to provide your own lawn maintenance as well to protect your investment. A quality lawn care professional could meet you out at your property and go over the maintenance with you directly and make sure it is being cared for to your standards.

Seasonal Changes

A lawn care professional will be more experienced than the average tenant at changing the maintenance of your grounds as the seasons change. How to fertilize the lawn, what amount of water to use, and what flowers will bloom will change through out the year. Having a professional care for your lawn can give you the peace of mind to know your yard is being serviced right for the season.

Tools Of The Trade

We never recommend that an owner leave any tools for the tenants to use at their property. Leaving a lawnmower, hedge clippers, or any other gardening tools could leave you open to greater liability. If someone gets hurt using one of these tools, they could come after the owner. Not all tenants have their own tools to use or have any experience in maintaining their own lawn. So even though the tenants may be great people and truly intend to maintain the lawn well, they just may not be able too upkeep it at the same level that a lawn care professional could.

It Will Not Be Free, But It Could Save You Money

Although you can factor in the lawn maintenance into your rent, you should not expect to be able to add the full cost to the monthly rent and find a quick tenant. Lawn maintenance usually runs between $60-$100 per month depending on the size of the lawn and the frequency of the visits. You may have problems if you list your home $100 over the market rent just because you offer lawn care. Most tenants will go for the more affordable rental and figure out the lawn maintenance on their own. So if maintaining the lawn is important to you, you may need to cover some of the amount yourself.

If your listing price is still within the average market rent for your area, the added benefit of covered lawn care could get you a tenant quicker and diminish the amount of time your home stays vacant. Every day your home sits vacant is costing you money. So if the added benefit of periodical lawn care gets your house off the market 2 to 3 weeks earlier than a home with out maintenance included, the price for your lawn care would be covered by the extra income gained from the quicker turn around. This quicker turn around really comes into play when one tenant leaves your property and you can quickly move on to a new tenant with out having to spend a week to re-sod the lawn, fix the sprinklers, and remove all the weeds.

If you have a well maintained lawn and you are looking to rent out your home. I would recommend protecting that investment with a professional lawn care service. There are many, many private contractors that offer lawn service. Using a Property Management Company will alleviate you from the task of checking through licenses and insurance coverage’s. Let the property managers do that work for you. You could also find a better rate for lawn care from a property manager as they will more than likely use one company for all their local rentals, letting you partake in the multi unit discounts that are offered.