Covered patio to sit in the fresh air with some grass and flowers and talk.

The ones I have in my multi-family units are always the ones that go above and beyond taking care of the property doing things like picking up trash, raking leaves, pulling weeds, and planting flowers.

They also get other gifts from time to time, such as: house plant, flower basket, flower bowl, bedding plant, door mat, fireplace log, professional carpet cleaning of traffic areas (for long term tenants every 5 years).We do not do rent concessions.

There was courtyard patio in the center of the building, and tenants could request to have planters assigned to them, so they could plant veggies or flowers, etc. 

If you leave them in the ground, consider creating a flower bed around them.

In 6 months they broke 3 light fixtures - I had reports their kids were spraying a garden hose from the outside of the house into the kitchen, broke a large kitchen cabinet door, broke several plastic pieces of a new higher end Fridge, fist sized hole in the wall, carpet stains and the entire house may need another repaint, damaged woodwork, scratched kitchen cabinets, stole the curtain rods, curtains my wife spent a lot of time picking out stolen, destroyed the back yard - let the weeds grow several feet tall in the flower beds etc.  

Similar for the desert flowers in good years (last year was outstanding and this year looks like it could be outstanding). 

Paint and flowers are nice, but they may not cure the issues.Now, if you can pull it off, there are great possibilities and advantages, but it's not usually as easy as fixing houses, but it's a start. :)

What I look for is stuff like garbage bag windows, boarded up windows and doors, over-filled mailboxs, unkept garden/flower bed, tall grass and exterior house paint chipping away.When I've approached some of these houses, many of the home owners were nice people, have no problems with their finances and not looking to sell whatsoever. 

No landlord to tell you when to move out of your house, or if you can paint the walls, or if you can have a dogs, or if you can plant new flowers.