Orlando, FL · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 282 votes
How do you handle the watering issue when you include lawn care? Are the tenants still responsible for the watering, or do you install a sprinkler system? Thanks.
The less you can leave up to the tenant, the better off you'll be. If it makes sense, I would put in an automatic system and put the timer in a lockbox so the tenant can't alter it. Combine that with a good gardening service and yard should be taken care of. I've seen tenants kill yards because they say "the water bill costs too much."
Your other option is to install drought resistant plants along with some type of ground cover that is similar in nature. Those require a minimal amount of watering and can look nice if done well.
The less you can leave up to the tenant, the better off you'll be. If it makes sense, I would put in an automatic system and put the timer in a lockbox so the tenant can't alter it. Combine that with a good gardening service and yard should be taken care of. I've seen tenants kill yards because they say "the water bill costs too much."
Your other option is to install drought resistant plants along with some type of ground cover that is similar in nature. Those require a minimal amount of watering and can look nice if done well.
Our house in Murrieta, CA is practically in the desert, so we decided not to install a large lawn that would either cost the tenant a small fortune to irrigate (especially in the summer) or die because they couldn't afford the water bill.
We went with a very small patch of grass in the front yard (covered by only 4 sprinkler heads on a timer) and surrounded the lawn with gravel and southwestern succulent plants fed by a drip system (also on the sprinkler timer). We provide a gardener to mow the lawn, maintain the yard, and adjust the watering.
So far, the tenants are very happy. The front yard looks nice (kind of like a putting green in Palm Springs) and water use is super low. All things being equal, our house is cheaper to rent than something similar with 1,000's of square feet of grass to keep wet. It's a "selling" point.
BTW, the lease clearly states keeping the lawn watered is the tenant's responsibility (basically pay the water bill and let us know if the automatic system fails), otherwise replacing the sod is coming out of their security deposit.
Fortunately, landscaping is ONE thing I don't have to worry about with our rental condo. :wink:
Not sure. Is your rental completely without an sprinkler system? Turning a manual system into an automatic system isn't too bad. You pretty much replace the manual sprinkler valves with solenoid valves and wire them to a controller ($20-60 depending on the number of stations, bells and whistles, etc.).
I installed a completely new automatic sprinkler system in our home's backyard several years ago. The parts aren't very expensive, but the labor is backbreaking and miserable. The worse part is digging all the trenches for the pipes. Hiring someone to do that for you is probably going to cost ya. Putting the system together after that is relatively a snap.
Our Murrieta house already had an automatic sprinkler system installed, but I had to fix a few leaks, replace several missing heads, and track down a couple of shorts (bad solenoids). Fortunately, since I put in a very small lawn and converted a few stations over to a drip system, I was able to deactivate most of the existing system.
Install some of this in the yard and let it take over and choke out the regular grass. It is a hybrid grass grows very slowly, is very durable and very resistant to drought/low water. It also grows very thick and will literally choke out many weeds.
Spread the plugs out and just let it spread naturally.