If i rent out a house to students, do they take care of the yard or do I

We have a lawn service take care of rental yards. We figure it into the rent and "lawn care included" is a big plus for renters in our area.

Our rent is a bit higher because of it but we don't get code violation notices from the city or complaints from neighbors, so it's worth it.

edit to add: watering the yard is a different story - they won't do it because they pay the water bill.

I've done it both was but for about last 4-5 years I do student rentals included and I hire the service but others not in college towns I allow them to do it but suggest a good service. Students have several times over the years done a poor job of keeping up so at turnover we had to have extra work done to get lawn back in good order. Recouped cost through deposit funds withheld as they didn't follow the lease, but still a pain to deal with.

It is negotiable, but usually best to keep it on the landlord side if you hope to keep grass and shrubs in good shape. Just make sure you figure the cost into the lease payment. Also, if you have a sprinkler system, you can have it pre-programmed and indicate in the lease that the tenant is not to change or turn off the sprinkler system. If you don't put something in place regarding watering and we have a summer like last year, you will almost certainly lose the grass and anyshrubs you have at the property.

When I had a house in CS, I took care of the lawn for the tenants. I could only imagine how crappy it would look if I hadn't, because inside the house was always a disaster.

I let the tenants handle it. Only very occasionally has it been an issue.

I don't feel that I can recoup the cost via higher rent.

One less contractor to deal with and one less bill to pay. The less people I personally have to manage, the better.

We include lawn care and pest control in the rental cost of our house. We also maintain control of the sprinkler system.

I'm not a land lord but if I were, or if my kids were renting a house, it seems the best solution would be for the landlord to handle the lawn and yard care as well as the sprinkler settings.

HOWEVER, if the tenant pays the water bill I don't think they should have to cover the added expense of watering a dying lawn through a drought. Not entirely sure how I would handle that. We were watering the heck out of our lawn this summer and it still wanted to die. Our water bills were outrageous.

For my rental...
* tenant mows the yard
* I provide pre-emergent 2x/yr and insecticide 1x/year
* I do an annual weed pull / spruce up.