Question to LL who rent out their home... (tenant, paying, contract)

[sueprnova]

We moved to Chicago a few months ago and the family who is renting our home...we know well.. they are related to our awesome nextdoor neighbor...anyhow..
the backyard was basically dirt... we had an existing mickey moused sprinkler system....overspray/underspray...anyhow
The long and short of it is our tenant wants to redo the sprinkler system and plant new grass....which is fine...we will be moving back there in 1.5 yrs....should I split the cost with him? He's paying for the rototiller...we would be splitting the 3 sprinkler valves need to be changed so they can go on the existing timer..and new heads for the yard/new pvc....grass seed...
They have taken very good care of my home and it's basically what we would have done anyhow...and no labor costs...
I told him to price it out and get back to me...I have a pretty good idea of the costs as we did the front yard last yr....
Sounds reasonable?

[KonaKat]

If you trust them, sounds very reasonable! Who manages the home for you there that could sort of supervise things and take a few photos? Sounds like you have a great tenant. The yard surely would not be any worse than before even if they mess up a couple of things!

[sueprnova]

I manage it...my next door neighbor is my backup. We already had plans with him to do this project when DH got his job xfr... his brother and wife are my tenants...I know what it looked like when we left and yeah it couldn't get any more messed up

[Donn2390]

If it were my rental, I would gladly pay all material if tenant supplied the labor. What a great deal..!
Now, that being said, I would want to make very sure the guy doing the work was doing quality work. Mke sure to get it in writing, and make sure the contract calls for everything being done to code.
There are bad people out there who talk good, but do suck work... Don't take chances, nail him to the wall..