To lawn or not to lawn

G'day all,

I'm doing some T/H in Essendon, Melb which have small yards ... of course.
I thought that "no lawn" would be a plus for tenants since they'd not need to mow, water etc.
If done nicely these can be quite special which would assist getting the better tenant and our target rent ... over 420pw.
... so I'm not talking about simply throwing concrete everywhere, which wouldn't be allowed by council anyway.
My PM says that the busy business person would pay a little extra to not have the hassle of caring for a lawn, though small.
... often the small lawns are more work than big ones ... awkward.
Also the fact that the look would distinguish it from other rentals in the area could help.

What have been your experiences with tenants and lawns ?

Patosan said:

G'day all,

I'm doing some T/H in Essendon, Melb which have small yards ... of course.
I thought that "no lawn" would be a plus for tenants since they'd not need to mow, water etc.
If done nicely these can be quite special which would assist getting the better tenant and our target rent ... over 420pw.
... so I'm not talking about simply throwing concrete everywhere, which wouldn't be allowed by council anyway.
My PM says that the busy business person would pay a little extra to not have the hassle of caring for a lawn, though small.
... often the small lawns are more work than big ones ... awkward.
Also the fact that the look would distinguish it from other rentals in the area could help.

Click to expand...

Perhaps instead of lawn, you could plant some natives. Small, Australian-native bushes, etc. that don't need a lot of watering. And cover the soil with either pebbles/stones, pea straw, or bark chips. If done well, these sorts of gardens can be very nice to look at.

Just chucking out ideas...

Maybe leave a small raised area of dirt at the rear where people can have a Veggie patch or plant flowers/scrubs etc. Will pets be allowed, i'm sure the pets would enjoy some dirt to dig up for u know what..

Maybe it comes down to the rental market age group you could be targeting.

Geoff

Thanks guys, keep the ideas coming.

What are your views on : Is lawn alternative better for tenants of upmarket town houses ?

Patosan said:

Thanks guys, keep the ideas coming.

What are your views on : Is lawn alternative better for tenants of upmarket town houses ?

Click to expand...

if I wanted a lawn I would rent a house.
What sq m are you talking?
I have rented houses and mowing the lawn was never fun.
If I rented a townhouse lawn would not be a +ve factor in renting and more than likely put me off somewhat.
I imagine some may have the opposite view
each to there own.
For my own property I really enjoy my lawn, however it is not so large which was a factor in buying.
How about a Japanese rock garden?

Don't forget that people often put pebbles down so they don't have to mow the lawn, only to realise later that they have to pick the leaves out of the pebbles...

Hi Pat,

Ive always made it a point never to leave the lawns up to tenants. Ive found it much easier to take care of it myself, and either bite the bullet on the small extra cost, or pass it on to the tenants, who would prefer the slightly higher rent to looking after the lawns themselves.

In one multi-unit place I've got at the moment, each tenant knows to tell the PM whenever they feel the grounds are getting a bit unkempt, and the next day the PM sends someone around to take care of it. For around 1000sqm of lawn/gardens, its been costing me about $7/week for the last 6 months, and the tenants love the knowledge that they have someone in charge of the property who will take care of their requests in such a timely manner.

Eventually, great tenants kind of end up self managing (not the property, but their behaviour) - they know that a good landlord will take care of their reasonable requests, but they also realise that they dont want to risk losing a great landlord with constant or ridiculous demands.

As a landlord, taking care of the grounds yourself also means you can control the process of enticing new tenants into the property should a current tenant leave - the last thing you need is to turn up the day one tenant leaves only to find a sh!thole of a yard just when you want new tenants to inspect.
The same applies if you ever need to sell in a hurry.

As previous posters have said, it depends on how much grass youre talking about, and what type of tenants you have - some tenants shudder at the thought of tending to lawns and gardens, other tenants would love to have some part of the property they can make their own.

In my experience, taking care of the lawn(s) yourself costs little but can add to your bottom line in terms of quality tenants and lack of ongoing headaches - this is something you have to decide for yourself

Jamie.

We have a unit in Clifton Hill which we bought off the plan and when we took ownership it had lawn laid which we ripped up and replaced with pavers. We have a garden on three sides of the pavers, the fourth side being the back door. My opinion was that it would have been more trouble than it was worth. The tenants have garden furniture and a BBQ on the pavers.
I say, don't go for lawn!!

Cheers

CK

Yes, I agree with those that say no lawn, but I also say don't plant australian natives as they need pruning & can look unsightly if left.

What about very hardy things like agapanthus, argaves; I can't think of more just off the top of my head. Why don't you go to the local nursery & ask. I'm sure they will be only too happy to help you.
cheers
blossomoz

a friend has 4 townhouses in a block, each with a small patch of lawn - they are going to rip it up and pave. i've got a couple of small yards and the only lawn in the council strip - which i am considering gardening with ground covers.

often people in townhouses don't own lawnmowers, and there isn't always room to store one.

go for pavers and put in a nice garden around on three sides (if you have room, maybe a garden also across the middle to make two "rooms"). agapanthas always look good, i've found native violets unkillable and make great ground cover, miniture/giant mondo always looks tidy and can give that grass look - perhaps lay a section of pavers in a chequerboard pattern with mondo inbetween - go to your local nursery and ask as they often give free planning advice as long as you buy the plants from them. a couple of big pots with succulents in them make a good feature without being expensive.

go woodchips rather than pebbles - pebbles seem to always end up looking messy unless vac'd of leaves regularly.

lizzie

Hi Patosan.

I've seen some courtyards where the small lawn has been replaced with pavers or even another one which had stepping squares surrounded with pebbles of different colours (which you could make pattern out of, if you chose) which looked quite nice.

As already mentioned, you could replace the whole lawn or just leave a small portion.

Regards
Marty

I was in Melb last week for family reasons and spoke to the builder contact again re my desire not to lawn.

They thought lawn was still the best way to go, especially with polished floor boards inside ... gravel or small stones would be walked in and damage them. They also suggested me organising regular mowing / gardening which would be the "plus" for tenants.
Does anyone else do this ?

My first thoughts were it may be difficult for the gardener to gain access to everyone's rear yards.
Any ideas ?

My landscape designer friend countered the stone on floorboards suggestion with ... using larger pebble type stones, that wouldn't get stuck in shoes. Then I thought they could be a throwing temptation for little ones ...

g'day Patosan

I'd go for pavers, large (strawberry sized) stones, or maybe good mulch, but the mulch will need replacing every year and the stones will look after themselves for a lot longer.

The gravel or dolomite is sized bits are not nice on the wood floors but if you get decent sized pebbles or stones they don't get stuck in shoes.

cheers
quoll

Here's an alternative

http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/dig-this/2005/07/27/1122143875847.html

Just planted mine earlier this week!

Cheers,

Hi all,

Along the lines of a similar topic, a house that I have has no backyard, AT ALL. It's only a 2 year old house, so it's front landscaping was included in the first owner's package, but neither them nor me (im the 2nd owner) has altered the original "back yard". Still looks a little bit like planet mars.

At the last tenant run that I had, quite a few single parent families viewed the property, but didnt end up applying as there was no where for the children to play.

Any suggestions on a low maintenance, low cost solution here?

I had a small area which was a disaster- I used peach pebbles and red gum mulch

Before


After

Simon said:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/dig-this/2005/07/27/1122143875847.html

Just planted mine earlier this week!

Cheers,

Click to expand...

Ta Simon, though I think I'll pass on spud patches, if that's exactly what the link was about.

I guess one point which needs to be stressed is that these T/H are for the upper, not top, but upper end of the market ... hoping for around $430 pw each. Plus the area to be lawned or not is only tiny. It would be crazy to buy a mower for 8 m2 only ... then there's storage.

My other IP is a house with a typical good sized yard so a mower is a given. Then people who like yards and mowing rent them. People who don't rent apartments or T/H.

Geoffw, your work looks quite good. I supspect the stones are too small for me due to the chance of walking them into the house, but the idea is great.
How long ago did you do it ?

We rent a modest 3 BR villa unit with a patch of lawn out the back. Too small for a motor mower, bit undulating for the manual mower, so we end up blasting it occasionally with the whipper snipper.

With the water restrictions, we don't (can't) water it, so it doesn't really get looked after

Interestingly, of late, some seeds from a nearby silverbeet we were growing in a box nearby has taken root - it is now starting to convert itself into a vegetable patch..... I believe the landlord took a sneak peek sometime ago and freaked out - we got a letter from our agents with an ultimatum to "tidy" the yard ...they were however very evasive about how the landlord saw the state of the yard without us knowing....

Cheers,

The Y-man

Patosan said:

I guess one point which needs to be stressed is that these T/H are for the upper, not top, but upper end of the market ... hoping for around $430 pw each. Plus the area to be lawned or not is only tiny. It would be crazy to buy a mower for 8 m2 only ... then there's storage.

Click to expand...

We rented a place once that came with a new push mower - it was actually easy and fun to use and worked very efficiently. I think it would knock over 8sqm in less time than it takes to fuel and start a mower plus they are really quite small.

Cheers,

Simon said:

We rented a place once that came with a new push mower - it was actually easy and fun to use and worked very efficiently. I think it would knock over 8sqm in less time than it takes to fuel and start a mower plus they are really quite small.

Cheers,

Click to expand...

Ha Ha ... a push mower !
I'd never thought of that ... it's not a bad idea ... I quite like it.
I may just go down that road.

Ta Simon