Buy a beat up landscape trailer (craigslist).

The property is not kept up (very lacking in landscaping), and the house is extremely outdated.

Its easier for me to build a team there because I have high school friends that are: contractors, landscapers, and plumbers etc...I have been to one local investor group meeting and it wasn't great.

I own a small landscape company, we are in our second year in business.

I plan on starting small with a condo or small home that just needs some paint, landscaping etc.

I mean new shingles,plumbing,electric landscaping, drywall.

I am trying to decide whether or not I should hire my owm landscaping service to take care of the lawn and try to cover some of the cost in the rent.

There is no backyard fence, there is no landscaping whatsoever (it IS really ugly but, the ugliest house on a nice block.), there is a water leak in the yard, the ceiling in the bathroom collapsed from a storm (the insurance company half-assed the repair), now the roof is still leaking and there is water damage on most of the ceilings.

Also landscaping fee's in the summer and repairs that would crop up here and there.

The following article is featured in my November, 2006 newsletter to my property owner/clients...OWNERS.....Put your hands on your head and back away from the propertyWhen our area “sales market” started to “go away” in mid July, many rental property owners got anxious about the re-leasing of their rental property.....sometimes to their financial detriment:$ * Owners of a high-end rental home upon hearing that the landscaping needed some weeding and mulching visited the property over a weekend - the same weekend that the property was being shown by a local Realtor to rental clients who were anxious to see the property after viewing it online.