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Yeah, the communal thing doesn't work unless the premium built into the rent is high enough to hire a regular landscaper. My tenants will clean the place up for a garden party, but otherwise not. That's why the rental under discussion will have the garden exclusively, and maintenance will be a condition of the lease. This is common, at least in suburbia.

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The apartment, this is GV not DTJC LOL

I hope to god that our landlord doesn't slip a charge for backyard usage into our rent, the space is a complete POS. I'd say if it's a nice, manicured yard with a few amenities it would make sense. If it's a communal wasteland, probably no.

At my other property with a yard the tenants got their own grill and furniture. I don't think I want to be liable for maintenance of a gas grill. I would also certainly groom the yard before renting.

The NYT article said (thank, I didn't remember that one), at least for sale, outdoor space is 25-50% on the dollar/ft. So, assuming the same can hold for rental, if a 900 ft 2 bedroom unit rents for $1200, the 700 ft yard should rent for at least $233. I was thinking $200-300, so that's seems reasonable.

User1111, surely you mean the apartment and not just the premium for the yard?

A back yard like this would rent for $1,200 to $1,500.00


A typical rental in GV with a back yard like this will rent for $800.00


So it depends on what you do with it. Good Luck!

Agree with previous poster about a grill. A while back when we were renting, our landlord was nice enough to provide a grill and picnic bench to the tenants for the shared back yard. It was a nice perk and we used it frequently. THe backyard itself was attractive to us when we were looking for an apartment and was part ofhte reason why we chose that apartment. It was completely paved over though with concrete- I wouldn't really want to be sitting out in scraggly grass/weeds.

The backyard might be very attactive to a family with a child, though they may prefer a grassy area. In our current backyard, we installed half pavers and half "dreamturf", which is, essentially, fake grass. It looks amazing (better than the real stuff) and is super low maintanance. The only downside is that is was quite expensive (more than you would think) and has to be installed professionally.

The NYTimes grappled with this very question a few years ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/rea ... .html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

You might have a hard time selling a backyard full of weeds in October going in to the winter with no grill or seats or any preexisting things that they can use come Spring.

What's left of the grills tend to be discounted big time right now. Pick one up, throw some chairs and a table back there and it becomes much more attractive to a potential renter. The extra cost would appear to be more justified .. in my opinion.

A parking-space-worth of extra rent sounds about fair, though.

The cleaner the place and the rarer in the neighborhood the more you can get. My tenants have one and they don't have a dog. I estimate it adds close to a parking space in DTJC (~$150) for a 2 bedrooms. But I prefer stability with good tenants so they get a break.

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1 Yes, door from kitchen
2 none (currently)
3 renter. There's currently no landscaping, unless you count weeds.

This is apparently a litmus test, some people will shrug, and some are desperate for outdoor space. It's why almost all condo towers have terraces, people like even that little bit of outside. Unfortunately I won't rent to dog owners, who are among the most likely to want a yard.

1. Direct access? 2. Amenities? (seats, table, grill) 3. Maintenance requirement on you or on renter?

Does anyone have a sense of what a private 700 ft backyard is worth in rent in the Heights? Is it absolute or as a percentage of the rent? I plan to "add" a previously unusable yard to the lease of the ground floor apartment.