This is the ultimate lawn and landscaping guide for making smart and intelligent property management choices in Austin, Texas.We have helped a lot of property managers in Austin, Texas make the right choices for their property needs. With our years of industry experience, this guide will help you shine! You will not find this anywhere else. We compiled the very best ways to save you money without cutting corners. "Work smarter, not harder," a wiseman once said. This will be updated every time we find a smart and intelligent way to guide the discerning property manager in the Austin area. Roof and Siding Clearance
Afterall, who else would the property owner and tenant blame? It is you, the property manager. This problem can be significantly lessen by making sure to remind the owner of the need for yearly pruning. Prune back trees, shrubs, and hedges away from the house's siding, windows, and roof line, no matter how low or high. Pruning will create clearance for natural movements during inclement weather and lessen preventable repairs. It also makes maintenance around the property easier as crews are able to move around more freely. For taller trees, make sure to have the crossed branches, dead branches, and foliage trimmed to lessen the chances of the trunk breaking or debris from falling. This tip will save you a lot of headache sometime down the road and is a smart and intelligent property management choice on any property you may have in and around the Austin area. Do Not Fight Nature
If rain water flows a certain direction, do not obstruct it, but rather work around it and go with the flow. While larger rocks and boulders can help with erosion, they can be very difficult to walk on. You can lay flagstones to create pathways when you need the slope to be functional. On areas where literally nothing grows, you can typically skip on laying weed fabric before laying the stones to save you money on installation. Since nothing grows there even with bare soil, you do not have to worry about weeding in the future. For areas with patches, lay some fabric or cardboard boxes to keep unwanted vegetation in check. In our experience, we have seen tenants bring in trampolines, children's playgrounds complete with slides and swings, and at times picnic tables upon moving in. A clean backyard with a large functional space, therefore, can add a lot of value and is a smart and intelligent property management choice. Know Your Lawn
It is already self-sufficient. But should your prospective tenants change their minds and decide to care for having the best irrigation-free green lawn, then go ahead with adding fertilization and actively aerated compost tea treatment as part of the yearly maintenance. Otherwise, if getting the best irrigation-free green lawn is not the priority, then the smart and intelligent choice is to simply leave the lawn as it is and just get it mowed more frequently. Sometimes, just having a professionally mowed lawn is enough to make prospective tenants happy. This is us speaking from the heart and what property managers have told us through the years, not some marketing quackery. Got Leaves?
Yes, you may be able to get away with not cleaning up immediately. But with time, leaves will eventually accumulate beyond manageable levels. Tenants will then complain of bugs, spiders, cockroaches, and even snakes, then move out, and then you are now stuck with a vacant property and a huge mess. Maybe this may not happen to you, and the property simply goes on sale. Still, cleanup is highly recommended if not required for a successful turnaround. The smarter and intelligent approach to properties with deciduous trees is to leave the plant bed with either bare soil or use finer, smaller rocks or gravel as ground cover. Both approach will make it so much easier to rake, blow clean, and vacuum; thereby significantly lowering the cost of cleanup. Finer and smaller rock and gravel gets compacted over time and do not get suctioned or blown away very easily. Leaves, on the contrary, do get blown away easily and vacuumed quickly. And any service provider that has been in the industry for quite sometime will be quick to identify the price difference between the two. If you do not see a significant price decrease, text, call, chat, or email us. We can help you. Wild Vegetation is Your Friend
Isn't making wild vegetation a friend, rather than an enemy, the smarter and intelligent solution to the common problem? When the time comes that the property becomes vacant, all you need to tell your service provider is to cut it back with a lawn mower or a weed eater. The vegetation will simply grow back the following year. This lessens the cost of maintenance and upkeep while retaining a comparable curb appeal. The BEST of both worlds. What we have not mentioned yet is what wild vegetation does to the local ecosystem. Wild vegetation adds food and shelter to butterflies, honeybees, earthworms, microbes, insects, and birds. You will also notice wild vegetation is being used at the Austin parks around downtown Austin. And if wild vegetation is good enough for our city parks, why would it not be good for the property you manage? Native and Adapted Plants Give DiversityIf wild vegetation is too wild for your taste, then stick with plants that are native and have adapted locally. The city of Austin has a booklet as a resource guide for a quick refresher. For a more intensive list, the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower center is very hard to beat. The local industry typically conducts conventions and local training at their Southwest Austin location. Native and adapted plants are chosen because they are hardy to our local climate, are not invasive, and fits in the local flora and fauna. Using native and adapted plants gives you more control in adding plant variety to the plant beds. Similar to wild vegetation, these plants do not need a lot of human intervention. While all native and adapted plants do need to be fertilized when being planted and again 3 months later, very little fertilization is needed once they are established. Some may need to be pruned back once a year, and others may not need pruning at all. It just depends on the native and adapted plants you pick. If you need guidance, chat with us 24/7. We can help. We hope to have helped you become a wiser and more verse property manager. Make sure to bookmark this page as this compilation will be updated for the years to come. Visit us often for more tips and tricks around your lawn and landscaping. Should you ever need our help, just let us know. We are here for you.
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