Autumn carries a lengthy list of exterior property maintenance items with it. To have your Dawson County 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. Although tenants are undeniably a significant factor for keeping a rental property clean and in good shape, when dealing with seasonal yard maintenance, however, some tasks must not be under the tenant’s charge. It doesn’t matter if you want to make sure that the job is done fittingly, 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 rightly and cautiously.
A rental property’s lawn is a necessary element of the overall appeal and value of the home. Routine lawn maintenance should be a priority for both you and your tenant, as should other seasonal lawn maintenance tasks such as aerating and dethatching. Ultimately, the soil underneath a lawn will become 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 trigger the lawn to turn brown and stop growing, quickly ending in a landscaping ugliness.
There are two ways to address this 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 intended to uproot 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 which will remove small plugs of soil.
If you are preparing to prepare 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 also want to observe the directions thoroughly to guarantee that the aerator doesn’t damage your lawn in the process. Some professionals extend these services that you may wish to discuss with.
On the other hand, if your rental property has a larger yard, these tactics will be challenging to implement and not to mention time-consuming to do on your own. You could rent a dethatching or power raking machine to help with that task, but the same with aerating, you’ll have to be wary as to not to damage your irrigation system or other areas of the yard. Lawns that have been aerated or dethatched must also be cared for prudently afterward, or risk additional damage. 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.
Even though your tenant may seem proficient, it is not a good idea to expect them to perform dethatching or aeration on your property’s lawn. If they don’t do a decent job or don’t know what they are doing, 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 something most tenants possess or will have used before, greatly maximizing the chances that something will go wrong and that they could even harm themselves in the process.
Putting your tenant’s safety at risk is on no occasion a good idea, as it could end up with you possibly 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 spend your time on seasonal maintenance tasks, consider the benefits of hiring Real Property Management Stellar to take care of them for you. As a real estate investor, your time is as good as money. Free up your time by having us take care of your rental property for you. Our property maintenance services will ensure that important seasonal tasks are being done regularly and properly, keeping your Dawson County rental property in good shape year-round. To learn more, contact us online or call us at 706-864-5456 today.
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