While routinely checking on a rental property yesterday, I pulled up to be greeted by a large growth that appeared to be a bush. I scratched my head to try and figure out if there had been a bush by the driveway before, and within seconds, as I scanned away from the bush, I realized that this was just a large overgrown weed! I could tell that it was not alone and had the company of others that seem to be trying to keep up with the size and girth of the clear champion of the yard!
One of the unique challenges of owning single family residential investment properties is that there is not a community maintenance plan (assuming we are talking about deeded yards and not condominium arrangements). So, as an owner, there is a real desire to maintain the exterior of the home during growing seasons. In fact, you might also be required to do so by a Homeowners Association. If it is not done you may find the Association taking care of it for you and charging you three times what it would have cost you.
If the home is vacant, arrangements have to be made to keep the yard and landscaping looking comparable to their surroundings. What happens if you have a tenant? I have to admit that very few tenants will ever strive to maintain a landscape as an owner will. I have seen them try but there is just not the same level of motivation.
The options are to force maintenance by the tenant or charge them an additional amount for yard and landscape maintenance. This is how we handle it. From April to October a tenant can pay us a fee (determined by the size of the property and any other unique landscaping maintenance issues) to provide the required level of care. Or the tenant can elect to take the responsibility on themselves. It seems to me that neither way ever works out as well as an owner desires. As we have discussed, either the tenant does not provide the necessary maintenance, or the fee charged ends up not being enough due to unforeseen issues from Mother Nature. With some experience at a property, we can closely identify the seasonal cost and get the billing right. This usually takes two seasons of actually monitoring the landscape and costs.
Our lease addresses what is expected of the tenant (maintenance of the exterior lawn and landscaping and professional lawn service four times a year). The tenants either accept this term, and follow it, or pay the fee. Rarely do they pay the fee. Usually they have trouble meeting the terms, though at least by having standards we have the tool we need to demand correction of issues like the bush I ran into yesterday. It is not perfect, but at least creates expectations and a path to follow for remedies. That is about as good as it gets in property management!
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Tags: Indianapolis Property Management, Indianapolis Property Manager, landscape maintenance, Property Manager, tenant issues, Tenants, Wilmoth
