Should I provide landscaping for my rental home?
Here is a list of things to consider if you are thinking about having a landscaper service your rental home. It is very tempting to have landscaping service provided for your future tenants. Remember we perform multiple inspections a year and will work with tenants to improve yard conditions as needed.
Offering landscaping does not increase the amount of rent for the home and it will deter some applicants from applying.
Most applicants do not want a stranger in their backyard if they have kids or pets or simply just don’t want a stranger in the yard.
If an applicant works from home this is a problem as they can't control when the yard tools will be running while they are in meetings or on calls.
- Does the vendor you are using know the home will be a rental?
- How often is the yard maintained? Is it different per season? (We need a full schedule for the year to let tenants know and update every lease renewal). The schedule will be set once per lease and can not be changed. If the landscaper misses an appointment this could mean owing the tenant for the missed service.
- Are they doing snow removal?
- How often will they be out for leaf pick up? Will they be able to go out on demand as well if the tenants feel there are too many leaves? Or the HOA sends a notice between services.
- With putting this in the lease it must be provided on the schedule the tenants are given, if landscaping is missed it could mean you will owe the tenants for missed landscaping appointments.
- The vendor you are using is not one that we work with, that will mean you will be their contact, the person who pays them and makes sure they maintain insurance. You will want to maintain payment records as they will not be on your FCPM tax statement.
- Will this be full landscaping service including weeding, trimming and mowing?
Having a landscaping service means you waive the right to have any yard related HOA fees be tenant fees if there is an issue.
