Who Mows Your SFH Lawns?

Question

Just seeing how others handle the mowing at the SFH and what you see are the pros and cons of what you do or what you have done?

Right now we "hire" (my family business) the lawn mowing done but we are trying to decide if we are going to start having our tenants mow to cut costs/keep rent low. I feel like people are surprised when we say that we take care of the lawn and a few have even said that they enjoy mowing.

From a business side I feel that we should save the money we spending on the mowing. But from an owners side I like that I know the people that are taking care of it and doing it right.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!!!

Account Closed · Answer

@Aubrey H.

For me, unless it's a multi family, tenant is responsible and that is outlined in the lease. Now that I think about it, I even have the tenants mow at one of my duplexes.

Dedrick Williams · Answer

You can do this one of two ways. Either you can make it the tenants responsibility to upkeep the lawn or whatever you currently pay to have someone else mow it add that service fee to there monthly rent. That way it will be one less responsibility for you and one less expense. If the tenant decides to take the responsibility of the lawn and the grass dies deduct it from there deposit when they move out.

Account Closed · Answer

As per the lease, the tenant is responsible.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

We make the tenant responsible for ordinary landscaping. Anything that requires skills or special tools (e.g. tree pruning) is handled by the Landlord or a contractor.

Some Landlords are very particular about their lawns so we hire a landscaper and roll that cost in with the rent, spread over the entire year.

Dan Perrott · Answer

@Aubrey H. - for SFHs, per lease the tenant mows.  For multi, we mow the grass.  We also have a lawn service available when needed.  The primary reason we mow is that we are available for issues (multi unit properties always have more issues).

It saves allot of $ but does take time (about an hour per duplex). To our business it helps to build relationships with tenants but also with the neighbors who watch what is going on and let us know issues.

Alex S. · Answer

From a business side you can write it off as an expense.

Who Mows Your SFH Lawns?

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