Poison ivy removal advice

[Greg Mayer]

Hi BP community!

My wife and I purchased a duplex in Atlanta, GA. It's my first property. I'm learning a lot about everything. 

One side of our duplex has tenants, we moved into the other side. Our tenants signed a lease that we basically downloaded from bigger pockets, the tenants are responsible for keeping their side of the yard up, their yard looks well maintained. Both units have a fenced back yard, and the two yards are separated by a chain link fence. There are huge pine trees everywhere on the property. We manage the property ourselves. The entire property is a bit under 1 acre. 

My wife and I are hoping to fix up the side we're living in over the next year or two, and then either rent out a bedroom or move out and rent out the entire duplex for cash flow.

The previous owner let the back yards go wild, and I found out the hard way that there's a lot of poison ivy in the back yard on our side. Lots of it. I was surprised the home inspector didn't notice it. 

Some of the poison ivy vines are growing up those huge pine trees. I don't see any poison ivy on the side of our property that has tenants, but I'm not a professional landscaper. We've made an appointment to have a landscaper come and give us an estimate to have the poison ivy removed. I really don't want the situation to get any worse than it already is, and don't want anyone to get sick, including me trying to remove it myself. And we don't want it coming back again in a few months. 

Any recommendations on what we might do or consider would be helpful! Thank you in advance for the advice.