Landscaping: Should tenants handle or do myself?

[Paul C.]

In terms of landscaping, I see three options at my rental properties: 1) Let tenant handle 2) I do all landscaping and bake costs into rent 3)I do all landscaping and charge additional fee like you see a lot of times with apartment complexes. There are downsides to each. In the first case, tenants either don't do it or do a poor job. In the second, increasing rent price will automatically exclude some tenants from even seeing your property. In the third, it seems a little more like you are hiding part of the rent associated with property.

I like for my properties to look good as I believe it is a big reason I am able to rent out quickly. One SFH is in a B/B+ neighborhood and my duplex is in a C+ neighborhood. What have you all found as the best strategy to ensure the yard does not go to crap?

[Patricia Steiner]

We never leave lawn care to the tenant...it never has worked. Either it's a commitment to re-sod or a struggle to agree on what "lawn/landscaping" care looks like - so we hire it out to someone who does work in the neighborhood already.  It's a low cost solution to what has proven in the past to be simply not worth doing any other way.  Just one opinion...