Lawn Maintenance - Should I just pay to have it done

[Jeff Howard]

Trying to decide weather or not to rent our house that we are about to move out of, we have been living there for 8 years and want to move up. The concern is its high maintenance yard. Right now the yard is green and beautiful and I worry that if I put a tenant in there it will just die and will be more difficult to sell. Right now houses in my neighborhood are selling in 2 weeks or less, it is in one of the best school districts in the region, middle to upper class area, 4 bed 2 bath. I could just sell it now, but if I rent I think I can get $500 in cash flow per month + $200 of the mortgage is going to principal so technically I am getting $700 a month. Here is what the tenant would face.

1. Lawn is all fescue and needs to be watered at least every other day and sometimes daily. There is not currently a sprinkler system which I will have to change I think, its too much work to keep it watered, I have a Mickey Mouse hose system that I use that I would not expect a renter to use

2. Lawn is completely covered in trees and must be thatched and reseeded every September. It typically dies by then and must be reseeded to keep weeds from coming back

3. Lawn requires heavy raking in the fall, with all the trees there are tons of leaves. Usually 4 hours of work every other weekend for 1 person 4 times a fall

4. I would probably not allow pets because there is no fence, and a large dog would destroy the lawn

5. There is a deck that needs to be cleared of leaves like the yard, twice a month in the fall

6. The land slopes to the house so special drains to divert water away need to be cleared twice monthly of debris or I could have some serious foundation problems, already some signs

So this is my first post and I really want to be a landlord... I would probably set rent at $1600

Should I...

1. Charge $150 a month more and tell the tenants that the Yard is very important to my business and that I do not want to put that responsibility on them, all they need to do is water it and I will have gardeners and sometimes myself handle 1-6 above.

2. Let them take care of it but ask for a $2500 deposit (Rent would be $1,600) and outline what must be done. If there is a full lawn of green fescue when they leave they can have their deposit back. I figure it will cost that much to sod. But I want to be sure the drains are clean so that I do not have any problems with my foundation.

3. some other alternative? What do you guys do with a high maintenance yard?