The joys of having a lawn which is in neat and carefull arrangement can not be understood by the type of person who has never had a lawn before. You do, however, need to make sure that your ultimate goal is not to simply have a lawn that looks good for your own sake. After all, unless this is your home, the lawn may not mean nearly as much as you might think that it does. In the realm of real estate, having a manicured lawn actually means far less than a lot of people who get started into the process (middle class people who believe that owning a few additional houses will advance their wealth) believe that it will. Because of this perception of value, a lot of work and money can easily be poured into the landscaping of the property without there being a very measurable impact on the overall value of the real estate itself.
Real estate is a lot different when it is an investment than it is when the property is your personal home. When the property is your home, you can do whatever you want to it, and the value that you extract from all of your effort and investment comes from your own peace of mind and enjoyment of the property itself. In this case, all of what you put in becomes something good for you, so it can all easily be justified (at least as long as all of the bills get paid, and the rest of your home ownership responsibilities are met).
However, with a piece of real estate where you do not live, you might be surprised about how little the landscaping actually matters. For the local area, so long as the lawn is not too high, there is no issue. But with the tenants, the whole idea is that they may not care in the slightest. For many tenants, even if they are renting a house from you, they will still subconsciously consider it to be like an apartment, where everything is just going to get taken care of.