There was always a leaky faucet, clogged toilet, broken light fixture, lost keys, overgrown grass, trash in the yard, etc. 

My hopes is that maybe we can salvage the "bones" and gut it to the studs and start over.

One of the very big trees in one of my rental properties in katy texas fell in the front yard.

You would be surprised how just a picture of trees or nature in your yard conveys the feeling of a cabin in the woods. 

You can dig any roots in your yard . 

Looking for 3bd/2Ba with washer/dryer, yard (with the landscaping included in rent), and no ADUs where we are on top of our neighbors and splitting utilities with a stranger. 

If it's anything like the yard before I made him clean it up, it's going to be horrendous.

I designed a 2 bed 1 bath stacked triplex that fits on a 30' wide lot with 3' side yards and we can build it for $174 a sq ft hard cost. we do them where the land is 10% of after repaired asset value which in our market is 50k approx. we study multifamily trends and stay with it.

Renters do not care about the yard.  

If you use the search function, there are a number of threads on this.Pros-you can rent by the room and make more moneyCons-students are often less experienced at living on their own and may do things that result in repairs (eg wrong soap in dishwasher), higher turnover, more calls to deal with things, higher chance of parties.If you do it, you may want to get a cleaner in once a week to clean common areas (students clean their own rooms and keep the place tidy, wash their own dishes) and you will need to get someone in to take care of the yard.