Autumn brings with it a comprehensive list of exterior property maintenance items. To have your Moody rental property’s yard and exterior ready for winter, you may have to check the lawn to make sure whether it has to be dethatched, leaves cleaned up, and trees and plants made ready to weather the cold temperatures.
It’s true that tenants play a big part in the upkeep of a rental property. Being the people actually living in the home, so much of the cleaning and light fixes are done by the tenants themselves. However, there are some things that shouldn’t be done by them. Things that may require greater technical know-how or things that come with relatively high risk. For these tasks, the convenience of having the tenants do the work is not worth it. So, with respect to seasonal yard maintenance, there are many tasks that should not be a tenant’s responsibility. These sorts of maintenance endeavors are better operated by those who know how to carry them out properly and correctly.
A rental property’s lawn is a necessary element of the overall appeal and value of the home. Consistent lawn maintenance should be a prime concern for both you and your tenant, as should other seasonal lawn maintenance tasks such as aerating and dethatching. Through time, the soil underneath a lawn will turn out to be compacted with dead grass and other debris. This collected material is called thatch. While a healthy lawn will benefit from a little bit of organic material, when thatch builds up too much it can prevent water and essential nutrients from penetrating the ground and reaching the roots of your grass. This can cause the lawn to turn brown and stop growing, promptly leading to a landscaping eyesore. But when you reduce the amount of thatch, you’re allowing the roots of the grass plants to receive more water, air, and nutrients. This would encourage them to thicken up, be stronger, making them less susceptible to disease.
There are two ways to address the thatch problem: dethatching or power raking and aerating. For modest lawn spaces, it is doable to eliminate thatch with a dethatching rake. The tines of the rake are devised to draw the thatch upward, loosening it and separating it from the soil. To dethatch a lawn by hand, the lawn should be mowed to half of its normal height and then raked thoroughly. The loosened thatch can then be removed with your next mowing. To aerate a small lawn, you can rent an aerator machine that will remove small plugs of soil.
If you are preparing to accomplish this on your own, make sure that you clearly mark all sprinkler heads or utility lines, this way you don’t run over and damage them. You’ll even need to follow all of the directions as stated to be sure that the aerator doesn’t damage your lawn in the process. There are, likewise, professionals who give these services that you may wish to check with.
Needless to say, if your rental property has a larger yard, these methods will be awfully burdensome and time-wasting to bring about yourself. You could rent a dethatching or power raking machine to aid with that responsibility, nevertheless, like aerating, you’ll need to be cautious in order to not damage your irrigation system or some other part of the yard. Lawns that have been aerated or dethatched must, as such, be managed with utmost care henceforth, or you risk more destruction. Proper watering and fertilizing are steps that should be taken after a dethatching or aeration, to both protect your lawn and encourage the roots to grow.
Though your tenant may appear able, it is not a good idea to expect them to perform dethatching or aeration on your property’s lawn. If, in any case, they don’t carry out a great job or have no idea what they are fulfilling, they could possibly cause extensive damage to your rental home’s yard, irrigation system, even septic or other utility lines. The equipment required to perform these maintenance tasks is not anything most tenants possess or will have used previously, substantially growing the probabilities that something will go awry and that they could even harm themselves in the process.
Putting your tenant’s safety at risk is never a wonderful idea, as it could cause you to be held liable for their pain and suffering. You could bring about lawn maintenance on your property yourself, however, dependent on the extent of your rental home’s lawn, you might like hiring a professional company to get in and execute these important lawn maintenance tasks for you.
Instead of passing your time on seasonal maintenance tasks, ponder on the payoffs of contracting Real Property Management Victory to attend to them for you. As a real estate investor, your time is practically money. Free up your time by selecting us to tend to your rental property for you. Our property maintenance services will make certain that important seasonal tasks are being conducted habitually and suitably, keeping your Moody rental property in good shape year-round. To discover more, contact us online or call us at 205-793-0700 today.
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