Autumn carries a lengthy list of exterior property maintenance items with it. To have your Broken Arrow rental property’s yard and exterior ready for winter, you can study the lawn and examine whether it needs to be dethatched, leaves cleaned up, and trees and plants made ready to weather the cold temperatures.
Tenants are already responsible for a lot of the upkeep of a rental home. They do so much of the cleaning and maybe a few simple repairs. This is mainly because they live in the house and are directly affected by its condition. However, there are some tasks they shouldn’t do. These tasks may require technical expertise or they may be too risky. When it comes to these tasks, you and the tenants are better off letting professionals handle it. So, with regards to seasonal yard maintenance, there are certain duties that should not be a tenant’s burden. It doesn’t matter if you want to make sure that the job is done well, or the task would jeopardize your tenant’s safety. These sorts of maintenance activities are better off left to the experts who have thorough experience in doing it right and cautiously.
A rental property’s lawn is a significant element of the total appeal and value of the home. Frequent lawn maintenance should be a prerogative for both you and your tenant, as should other seasonal lawn maintenance tasks such as aerating and dethatching. As time progresses, 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, instantly resulting in a landscaping eyesore. But once you take away the thatch, you help the grass thicken up and grow stronger— making them less susceptible to disease. Reducing thatch levels also allows more water, air, and nutrients to reach the roots of your plants.
There are two ways to address the thatch problem: dethatching or power raking and aerating. For tiny lawn spaces, it is attainable to take out thatch with a dethatching rake. The tines of the rake are formed to draw out 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, in any case, you are thinking about carrying this out yourself, see to it that you clearly mark all sprinkler heads or utility lines so you don’t run over and damage them. You’ll moreover have to obey the instructions really carefully to be certain that the aerator doesn’t damage your lawn in the process. There are, furthermore, professionals who offer these services that you may want to talk with.
Obviously, if your rental property has a larger yard, these practices will be terribly stressful and require time-consuming to work on yourself. You could rent a dethatching or power raking machine to provide assistance with that work, notwithstanding, the same with aerating, you’ll be mindful not to damage your irrigation system or different sections of the yard. Lawns that have been aerated or dethatched must furthermore be looked after safely later, or risk further ruin. 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.
Although your tenant may be skilled, it is not a good idea to expect them to perform dethatching or aeration on your property’s lawn. Just in case they don’t execute a very good job or don’t know anything of what they are actually doing, they could perhaps 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 what most tenants have or will have engaged with in previous homes, largely raising the probability that something will go bad and that they could even hurt themselves in the process.
Placing your tenant’s safety at risk is never an excellent idea, as it could lead to your being held liable for their pain and suffering. You could fulfill lawn maintenance on your property yourself, but depending on the size of your rental home’s lawn, you might consider hiring a professional company to come in and perform these important lawn maintenance tasks for you.
Rather than spending your time on seasonal maintenance tasks, think about the benefits of hiring Real Property Management Tulsa to handle them for you. As the saying goes: time is money. It’s true for real estate investors as well. Clear your time by picking us to look after your rental property for you. Our property maintenance services will be sure that important seasonal tasks are being performed generally on schedule and appropriately, keeping your Broken Arrow rental property in good shape year-round. To learn more, contact us online or call us at 918-532-7020 today.
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