For those of you who own duplexes… Do you hire someone to take care of the lawn? Make each tenant mow half? Or some other arrangement?
What if the tenant is injured while mowing the lawn? Pay someone to do it and pass that on to the tenants. Many places do both lawn care and snow removal. Just be sure they have their own insurance. That’s my opinion.
I figured it would be best to have someone else do it. I’d like to hire a responsible kid to do it. I know that goes against having someone insured to do it, but that’s how I got my start when I was young. I would’ve never thought of suing anyone, but that was 20 yrs ago and I’m sure things are different now.
Boy how times have changed huh? I used to do that to when I was a kid. If I had a kid doing it, I’d use one of those old fashioned push mowers WITHOUT a motor! :shocked. If the kid gets hurt on your property, your insurance will go up; negating any savings you might incur. When you’re talking about a business, if you use an insured professional, you can use him for multiple properties for a long term business relationship.
I would've never thought of suing anyone, but that was 20 yrs ago and I'm sure things are different now.
Yes, things are VERY DIFFERENT now!
Don’t you have a mower? I mow all my apartment buildings myself.
Mike
I mow my own, it’s called sweat equity!
If I lived close enough to do it, I would mow it myself. I’m in the military and move around every few years. Right now I’m investing in the area I grew up (where my parents still live). I’m fortunate that my dad is retired and can handle small issues. I hire any big stuff out. I fly back and do the rehab myself. It’s not the ideal situation, but it works for me. When Dad gets to where he can’t help out, it will be time to either hire outside management or sell. If I get settled somewhere one of these days, I would LOVE to do this myself.
I maintain a few high end rentals and I would say that when you leave it to the tenant you take a gamble on if they care.I’ve watched st/augustine lawns go from perfect to dead in 30 days.When your looking at 75 cents a square foot to replace that it adds up.If you just cut st.augustine at the wrong hight or forget to sharpen the blades you might be promoting fungus,bugs,and drought stress.We have’nt even talked about tree or shrubs touching the building which is a latter for bugs to enter the house.The most important part might just be the fact that your curb apeal might just suck.If you have one house then it wont matter till it;s time to find a new renter.If you own apartments or what not and you keep them looking like the ghetto then thats your tenant base.How many people will drive down the street because their first impression of your property is’nt as nice as the one next door.
Thats not to say that your not able to keep it up,but if you cant do the job right hire a pro
I just bought, rehabbed, and rented both sides of a duplex. I have a single mom on one side and a single woman on the other. I am getting someone to mow it very low every few weeks at my expense. If I had a guy take one side I would have considered having him mow it for a rent discount but it did not work out that way.
dweintra,
Just curious, did you even consider asking the women if they wanted to mow the lawn? I didn’t realize that was a gender-specific job. You might have been surprised.
Frunishedowner
One of my best clients is an 89 year old woman who works with me the whole hour I’m on site.I only do her gardening she mows, edges, and blows it all by her self.But then I’ll have a 20 year old man thats afraid to get his hands dirty
on a upper lower duplex, the lower takes care of it, on a side x side it goes right down the middle, half and half
i own a landscape business and 7 quad apartments.
I always have our business mow and maintain our apartments.
our units look the best in the entire 80 plus quad area.
i would NEVER allow a tenant to mow and maintain our apartments as it is a liability - and they will never do a professional job.
you always want to Stand Out from your competition - and landscaping is an easy cheap way to achieve that.
my competition has 1 foot tall grass, weeds, overgrown shrubs and overturned trash cans.
my apt yards look like my own home intown.
i eat my competitions lunch every day of every week with higher rents and lower vacancy rates.